Even though the book “ A Brave New World,” was written 87 years ago, it’s values still apply to the world today. For example, in the book there is a drug that is used widely to help people constantly be happy. In today’s day and age, there are multiple drugs used to keep people constantly happy. One thing that each of these drugs have in common is they are both made to make the person happy for the time being while coming with unfortunate prices for the users. Taking these drugs does not help the user gain the necessary strength to cure their depression, it only gives them a false sense of hope. There are other ways that work just as effectively as taking these drugs but without the side effects.
Antidepressants do what they are supposed to, they help to ease depression as well as make the person feel happy for the time being, but that comes with a price due to the large amount of side effects that come with the drugs. Some of the side effects include loss of sexual desire and other sexual problems, such as erectile dysfunction and decreased orgasm, fatigue and drowsiness, sleep disturbance, increased appetite and weight gain. Is curing your depression worth that price, some people feel forced to make that choice as the government pushes antidepressants as the only way to help people with depression. Which they rightfully can do because of how antidepressants do help people feel better and ultimately cure their depression. But antidepressants do not help the user gain strength and the long term happiness that other alternatives do, and it is for that reason that antidepressants should not be the first choice for curing depression. Antidepressants balance chemicals in the users brain, called neurotransmitters and they affect your moods and emotions. By using antidepressants you are letting chemicals manipulate you into feeling a false sense of happiness which can help improve your mood, help you sleep, and increase your appetite. “More than 60 percent of Americans on antidepressants have taken them for 2 years or longer,” which means it takes 60 percent of users 2 years or longer to feel better. So are taking antidepressants worth it? They come with a lot of side effects, and for some people they take a long time to fully cure them, is it worth using chemicals to help you feel happiness when there are other ways to feel happiness?
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Antidepressants are not the only way to help someone overcome their depression, there are others steps you can take to help someone without using drugs. As shown in the book “A Brave New World,” giving someone drugs to help them feel better does not have a positive impact on them, or society. Some alternative ways to help someone overcome their depression rather than taking drugs are helping them get more sleep, encouraging them to engage in more physical activity, and lastly helping them to cut out any unnecessary drugs, tobacco products, or alcohol that are in that person’s life. Exercise is one of the most powerful ways to combat/cure depression as it helps to create new positive changes in the brain such as neural growth, reduced inflammation, and new activity patterns that help you feel feelings of calm and well-being. Not only that but exercising also releases endorphins, which are very powerful chemicals in your brain that help to make you feel good.
Exercise is also a great way to distract yourself both mentally and physically due to it making you constantly think and move around which is good to help you escape the negative thoughts that feed depression. “ Studies show that exercise can treat mild to moderate depression as effectively as antidepressant medication—but without the side-effects.” Why do people play sports, workout, dance, do yoga, ride bikes, go for walks, because it gives them an enormous sense of well-being. Antidepressants can’t make you forget your problems or get over them, unlike keeping yourself active which can help you forget and move on from your problems that are creating this depression. Antidepressants do make it easier for you to deal with your problems. When someone is depressed, it can distort your perception of your problems and take away the necessary energy that is used to address these difficult issues.
Taking antidepressants are effective but, there are equally if not better ways to help cure your depression which come without the side effects. Creating good exercise, sleeping, and eating habits are all important steps to cure your depression that are commonly overlooked by doctors and therapists who look straight to drugs to help their patients. As said by Nick Stafford of Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, ‘There’s a lack of public understanding of the positive impact of good physical exercise.” When they should be informing their patients of the dangers of using antidepressants and informing them of the alternative ways that work just as well if not better than taking antidepressants. Antidepressant drugs are prescribed for many reasons but they are not prescribed to help someone gain strength and overcome their depression, they are prescribed more to make people feel a false sense of happiness that goes away as the drug wears off. Our society should use the book “ A Brave New World,” as an example of what not to do when it comes to tampering with people’s emotions/well-being as both shown in the book and in our world using drugs to help you feel better does not have a positive effect and essentially creates emotionless zombies.
Huxley’s Purpose: Psychoanalytic And Feministic Perspective For Writing A Brave New World
The book Brave New World was written as a futuristic tale by English author Aldous Huxley in the early 1930’s. This story of a utopian society struggling with the nuances of existence shares significant parallels with the common issues experienced in Europe and America in the 1920’s. This period of modernism in the world broke the traditional mold of the way society was for the past several hundred years. A stronger emphasis on socialism, consumerism, technology, drugs, and sex filled the era. Huxley, who experienced this change firsthand, could have written Brave New World as a form of social commentary to provide his own rendition of the way things were and the way things could eventually become. Americas ‘cultural civil war.’ (1) could have been viewed by Huxley as the beginning of moral decay in a soon-to-be undesirable society. To support this hypothesis and provide a better understanding of Huxley’s purpose, the comparing and contrasting of both the psychoanalytical theory and Feminist theory will take place.
Psychoanalytic literary theory is the brainchild of psychologist Sigmund Freud and can be used to uncover critical connections between the author and their work. Freudian analysis states that “our mental lives derive largely from biological drives” (2), that “all compulsions can be traced back to animalistic impulses and instincts which originate within us from different points in development including childhood and puberty”. It’s not coincidental that these compulsions can be seen clearly in Brave New World. Feminism literary theory, when looked at simplistically, examines the roles of women in literature from an equality standpoint. Are women treated differently than men? If so, how are they different and how can that relate to the author? Specifically, looking into the role of mothers within the story could prove to be extremely important to uncovering Huxley’s true purpose.
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The excerpt from Brave New World that offers extreme insight to the psychoanalytic perspective is the infant nursery where babies undergo classical conditioning on a severely inhumane level. Readers are introduced to the thought process of being motherless through the existence of the children’s less than conventional rearing. The notion that children can be conditioned for the benefit of all is where we see the parallels with Freuds notion of “animalistic impulses and instincts” (2) stated above. The idea of the unconscious taking over when forced out to produce conditioned behavior is straight out of the Freudian handbook. These “primal compulsions”, brought about through the stated conditioning and oxygen restriction, are the main factors for control within Huxley’s created society. A passage from the story reviews just how underplayed these actions are in this crafted world. ‘The surrogate goes round slower; therefore passes through the lung at longer intervals; therefore gives the embryo less oxygen. Nothing like oxygen-shortage for keeping an embryo below par” (Huxley). Freudian tendencies in ample supply with this scene.
Peering at the very same scene through a feminist lens offers a significantly different outlook for the conditioning rooms and the nurseries. The roll of the mother is effectively swapped out with nurses, often sterilized and of undisclosed genders, to carry out the conditioning. The nurses are played out as cold individuals who wear covering attire and carry out the horrific tasks without a single shutter in their step. This behavior is undoubtedly the result of going through anti-nurturing conditioning of their very own during their developmental stages. A perfect example of this conditioning taking place, along with the nurse’s actions, can be viewed in the passage from the novel below:
“The Head Nurse, who was standing by a switchboard at the other end of the room, pressed down a little lever. There was a violent explosion. Shriller and ever shriller, a siren shrieked. Alarm bells maddeningly sounded. The children started, screamed; their faces were distorted with terror. “And now,” they Director shouted (for the noise was deafening), “now we pro proceed to rub in the lesson with a mild electric shock.” (Huxley)
As this chapter continues it becomes more and more evident that this lack of mothering behavior is a necessity to carry out this conditioning. Any mothering tendencies displayed by the nurses would result in less than effective results. The production of these conditioned “perfect” citizens was directly impacted by this process. Even uttering the M-word (mother) was considered remarkably taboo in this new world of Huxley’s.
Peering through these two lenses at A Brave New World brings to light significant differences in what they reveal about the story when relating it to Huxley’s real modern world in the 1920’s. Each theory focuses on what the other cant. Psychoanalysis tends to focus on what the people are receiving while feminism offers what they are not. When only viewing Huxley’s vision through one perspective you are undoubtedly missing out on the other half of the story. When applied together, readers are given the entire picture to consider. Sadly, neither the real world nor his fictitious society seem to have a bright future. Huxley is looking at the real world as if he’s viewing them in his book. Real life people appear to be becoming conditioned through the “cultural civil war” (1) brought about by the changes of the 1920’s. Huxley’s apparent dislike for Americanism only could have intensified as more and more problems seemed to arise. The 1920’s in American brought about prohibition, the Ku Klux Clan, women’s roles, and race issues. If everything were to have stayed the same, if these Americanized changes would have never happened, then perhaps society would have been more conforming.
Digging deeper into Huxley’s own upbringing, we are reintroduced to the role of the mother. Huxley lost his mother when he was very young. He wasn’t able to have that mothering upbringing to supply him with a well-rounded rearing during his developmental stages. Perhaps this is why the act of mothering is taboo in his written world. He witnessed firsthand what it feels like to not have a mother. Therefore, he must oppose this Americanized challenge to the roles of women. They need to be home to properly raise the children. If not, then just read in his book to find out what can happen.
Aldus Huxley was a man viewing the world he knew change before him. One can only hypothesize how much of Brave New World came about from fear or pure observation. The themes of change brought about in the 1920’s draws obvious parallels to his crafted world. The Roaring 20’s were a time where “the younger generation rebelled against traditional taboos while their elders engaged in an orgy of speculation” (4). Huxley’s social commentary on this changing time, when assisted with psychoanalysis and feminism lenses, offers a unique view into his own outlook on the world of tomorrow.
