"Get back on board, damn it!

INTERVIEW REALESED ON JULY 7, 23 TO THE ITALIAN NEWSPAPER "LA VERITA'"

"I would just ask you not to raise the issue of the use of psychotropic drugs by young people as an indicator of the malaise of modern times, because it is nonsense." The psychoanalyst Emilio Mordini, a former university professor in bioethics and ethics, is sharp. "The use of psychotropic drugs does not depend on the fact that young people suffer from a lack of prospects"  

On what, then? "Conversely, it is not true that those who do not use psychiatric drugs are healthier. Those who believe that the use of psychotropic drugs is an indicator of the mental health of the youth population are grossly mistaken from a scientific point of view". 

Why do young people use psychiatric drugs? "Very often for recreational purposes. On TikTok, young girls discuss Xanax or Serenase with the same spirit with which they would discuss a Château d'Yquem (fine French wine, ed.)". 

Don't families intervene? "Today, families take care of their children mainly from a medical point of view." 

No sentimental education? "The only thing that mobilizes families is a medical emergency. The family and the school turn their inability to educate into a medical problem to be discharged on the health structures". 

Why? "We live in a society of stray dogs. Even if they officially have a family and a home, young people today are abandoned puppies, no one cares for them emotionally". 

How does this uneasiness materialize? "It comes from the wide availability of these drugs. Some doctors prescribe them in an irresponsible way."

Does use depend only on availability? "No, availability is only the predisposing condition."

So what does it depend on? "On the fact that in recent years the idea of mental well-being as fitness, an ideal state of 'well-functioning' body and mind, has become widespread." 

Isn't that so? "Yes, but it is nonsense to think that 'health' equals 'well-functioning'. The human being is not a machine which is in need of maintenance."

Since 1948, the WHO has defined health as 'a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. "It is a definition so broad as to mean nothing, which also gives medicine the responsibility of determining what is good for a human being. This is insanity. Much better is the previous, more modest and concrete definition: 'Health is the absence of disease'". 

Why does a girl take psychotropic drugs before going to a club? "The model of health proposed to young people is 'good functioning'. Today, 'functioning well' means being an efficient consumer rather than - as it has been for centuries - a productive worker. A healthy citizen is a good consumer citizen. Teenage girls use psychotropic drugs to perform better and to improve their ability to consume 'pleasures': dancing, having fun, flirting."

Why does he speak in the feminine? "This use of psychotropic drugs stems from the wellness culture created for feminine consumers. 

And boys? "They are feminizing their tastes. Consumption today is based above all on the pleasure of women". 

The solution? "You can reduce the availability of psychotropic drugs by getting general practitioners to prescribe e.g., fewer useless antidepressants. But this is not a real solution." 

No way out? "On a systemic level, no. For individual families, I give three pieces of advice. First, teach by example. If you live like machines that have to be in perfect working order at all times, how can you hope to have children who do not use psychotropic drugs to be 'at their best'? Second, do not accept your children's tastes and aesthetic values just because "you have to understand young people". There is good and bad music, good and disgusting food, pleasant and vulgar ways of dressing. Adults have the duty to educate young people aesthetically and sentimentally. Third and most important, I ask you as a psychoanalyst: stop reading psychology books, stop asking psychiatrists for advice, stop turning your children's problems into medical problems. You are the parents. In the words of Captain De Falco to Commander Schettino during the Costa Concordia disaster a few years ago (during which the commander had saved himself in a lifeboat): "Get back on board, damn it!".