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This past weeks discussion brought up the argument that perhaps mental health research efforts should transfer some more focus onto diagnosing and treating "differences" with a more observational approach as opposed to the more conventional physical- "look at changes in neurons and brain activity" approach. I believe discussion and observation of individual's mental differences are valuable approaches to understanding how the brain works. However, I also believe that what goes on in our brain is a result of physical actions. People don't develop depression or anxiety or schizophrenia or experience anything without something physical happening in their brain. Since the technology exists (and is constantly getting better) to monitor and see these physical changes in the brain I think that as many resources as possible should be used to try and figure out what is going and why. By understanding the physical basis behind emotion and behavior we can ultimately come up with better treatments (which don't necessarily have to be pharmaceutical) for illnesses. It's very possible that I did not understand the argument in class and that I am off topic- but I believe we can philosophize and discuss and observe human behavior and differences all we want, but unless we have a solid understanding of the physical basis of whats going on in the brain we can never really be sure of whats going on in our head...