Comments on: The Dark Side Of The Love Hormone Oxytocin

By: ProfKeith

ProfKeith — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:36:02 +0000

In reply to Becky.

A strange comment Becky. You are talking to the doctor who helped more autistic kids/families in over 3 decades than probably anyone alive.
(you would know if you had read my books). Telling somebody something is a bad idea is not criticism: we call it science in our house 🙂

By: Mirella

Mirella — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 05:44:12 +0000

Prof. Keith – I know, I know!! Eugenics is an abhorrent thought but what are we to do with these undesirables that are a law to themselves? To date no-one has come up with a suitable solution. Do you think electromedicine might offer some hope, now that I can give up on oxytocin?

By: Becky

Becky — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:14:42 +0000

In reply to Carol. Carol, Parents of autistic children are neither foolish nor naive. They are desperate. They know that their children are not neurologically typical and they see that their children will never have orgasms or experience breastfeeding if they continue to be unable to relate to other people. You must be blessed with typical family members, but please do not criticise people whose pain you do not understand.

By: Chandra

Chandra — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 18:27:24 +0000

Does it have any impact on aging seniors? For instance will it revive your abilities you had during youth?

Again it might be a simplistic and singular misguided application of thinking to a complex issue of aging!

There is no reference to the issue of aging in these studies.

By: ProfKeith

ProfKeith — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 15:56:10 +0000

In reply to Mirella. Eugenics Mirella? Dangerous ground!

By: Mirella

Mirella — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 10:28:51 +0000

Damn – I was so excited about the oxytocin research hoping it might be an answer for psychopaths/sociopaths living amongst us. The justice system and the police can’t protect us from them. Perhaps we could cull them at birth – those that carry the A SNP for the gene. Sorry but one psychopath is enough to destroy families, innocent people, communities and the planet. We are stuck with them as they simply cannot be imprisoned or institutionalised. Does anyone have any other ideas on how to deal with these types? Perhaps if we identify those with the A SNP at birth we could make it compulsory that they undergo intensive programming to be caring and empathetic towards others.

By: Shri

Shri — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 03:27:09 +0000

Yet another example of how reductionist thinking in our society is always going to produce a limited snapshot of the world (or of the activity of a particular hormone). Modern research with one eye on pharmaceutical profits strives to find simplistic singular solutions to complex problems, and the modern human has been trained to expect such answers. The research you’re presenting on the obverse face of oxytocin is very interesting – every hormone will have its ‘shadow’ effect that has also played a defining role in the complex system that is the human being. I’m with you Carol, lets focus on ways that make us manufacture oxytocin for ourselves, as bodies are designed to do…

By: Carol

Carol — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 02:48:38 +0000

How foolish and naive of some to think you can just spray this stuff around and get warm and fuzzy feelings. Such thinking betrays a terrible ignorance of the power of hormones and the complexity of biological responses. I think we’ll do well to let this hormone enter our worlds naturally: breast feeding, orgasmic sex, etc. You couldn’t get me to artificially use it for anything.