Software Problems

When your text processor displays the wrong font size, you don't typically reach for a screwdriver to look for a problem in the hardware of your computer. The software is not directly caused by the hardware, although there is certainly a relationship between them. This relationship, however, is of a remote, abstract, and dynamic nature.

Psychiatrists deal with even less clear objects than computer scientists do. Yet they usually disregard the abstractness of the connection between the brain and the mind, and treat it in a straightforward fashion.

Take the neurotransmitters idea as an example. Saying that a mental disease is caused by too much neurotransmitter is like saying that your incorrect font size is caused by too much electricity. While true in some sense, it has little practical significance. Neurotransmitters are too simple molecules to be anything more than local electrochemical signals. And it is not the amount of signals that is the problem, but their dynamic distribution patterns. Simply modifying the level of a neurotransmitter in the brain makes as much sense as plugging a computer to 220 volts outlet instead of 110 and hoping for the best.