Side Effects, Synapses, or Silent Savage

I grew up as an only child in a family with my two parents who were both very passive and reserved. From a young age I have always been quiet and non-emotional. There was never any arguing or impulsive behavior in my house, so until I was in about seventh grade I figured that that was how all family's acted. All kids start to gain their own strong personalities around age 13, including me.

During these early years of adolescence I had acne that was so bad I couldn't stand it. I went to the doctor and got prescribed to a drug called Accutane. The doctor warned of the side effects of the drug were very uncommon with warnings of birth defects, hair thinning, severe depression, and subsiding of emotional reaction. I didn't care what the side effects were I just wanted my acne to go away. Months later I was noticing that I was indifferent to almost all things and the decisions I made were based purely on logic. At the time I didn't think that it could be a side effect of accutane, I thought that I was just getting more mature.

Coexisting with other people, be it at school, work, or any gathering requires a lot of passivity. Personal opinions must be withheld until you know the people that you're around well enough to be open and trusting. Society puts an emphasis on peaceful interactions based on being politically correct and not acting self centered. Emotions make people act towards their own self interests, so to have more proper interactions with others it is necessary to be able to suppress emotions.

With three possible causes (or mixes of causes) to my quiet behavior it begs the question, which one is the most prominent reason. Steven Pinker would say that the reason for my reserved behavior is all in my genes. My parents act in a very humble way, so in turn I will act the same way as they do because it is just a fact of genetic determinism. He would say that if I was to act in an outward opinionated fashion I wouldn't be acting as myself. Lewontin would say that being given drugs with the preconception that they will mute my personality would influence me to act as so. Hobbes would attribute my behavior to the necessity of interaction that doesn't lead to a "solitary,poor, nasty, brutish, and short' life. The other reason that those who understand chemical effects on the brain would claim as most important would be the effect of the drugs on my brain after 9 months of use. But thinking in the way of the "blank slate" theory, I act reserved because I was raised in a house hold where I was expected to act as so.

I believe that it is a combination of all because all the theories have very convincing points, but even though some claim to be able to rule out the other ideas, it would be ludicrous to say that any of these ideas carry no merit. None of these can be changed at this point, I've already grown up, taken the drugs, continue to live in society, and still remember that Accutane comes with side effects.

I hope that in the future our class learns about theories of radical behavior change, to strengthen or weaken the ideas that we have already covered.