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cover of episode 33.07 - MU Podcast - The Memetic Virus

33.07 - MU Podcast - The Memetic Virus

2025/2/21
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Mysterious Universe

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A
Aaron Wright
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Benjamin Grundy
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Benjamin Grundy: 我研究了西方精神疾病概念在全球范围内的传播,特别是厌食症和抑郁症在香港和日本的案例。通过对大量文献和案例的分析,我发现西方对这些疾病的定义和理解,通过媒体、文化和制药公司的营销策略,在全球范围内传播,改变了人们对这些疾病的认知和体验。这并非简单的疾病传播,而是文化和观念的传播,如同一种‘模因病毒’。在香港,厌食症的西方概念的引入,导致了该疾病病例数量的急剧增加,而这些病例的症状和成因与之前的病例存在显著差异。在日本,葛兰素史克公司通过营销策略,成功地将西方的抑郁症概念引入日本社会,创造了巨大的市场需求。然而,这种做法并没有改善日本社会的整体精神健康状况,反而可能加剧了问题。 我的研究表明,医学专家对疾病的分类和命名会影响疾病在社会中的表现形式,并形成一个反馈循环。通过媒体的宣传和社会舆论的引导,‘模因病毒’会不断传播和强化,最终改变人们对疾病的认知和体验。 此外,我还研究了19世纪欧洲的歇斯底里症,发现其症状与现代厌食症存在相似之处,这进一步支持了我的观点,即精神疾病的症状会随着文化和医学观念的变化而变化。 Aaron Wright: 我同意Benjamin Grundy的观点,西方精神疾病概念的传播确实像病毒一样,在全球范围内影响着人们对精神疾病的理解。社会媒体和文化交流加速了这种传播,但这种传播并非简单的疾病传播,而是观念和认知的传播。 在讨论中,我们还探讨了不同文化对精神疾病的理解和描述存在差异,这表明精神疾病的症状和成因并非完全由生物因素决定,文化和社会因素也起着重要的作用。 此外,我们还讨论了制药公司在精神疾病概念传播中的作用,以及其营销策略对市场需求的影响。这引发了我们对制药公司商业利益与公共健康之间的关系的思考。

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Shownotes Transcript

American culture is everywhere, shaping everything from entertainment to fast food—but could its most profound influence be something far more unsettling? Across the globe, from Hong Kong to Japan, Western mental health concepts are spreading, often replacing traditional ways of understanding distress. Depression, PTSD, and eating disorders are appearing in regions where they were once rare, raising the question: is this organic, or is something more deliberate at play?

In this episode, we dive into the unsettling case from Japan, where pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline saw an untapped market for antidepressants and set out to change the nation’s perception of sadness itself. Through marketing, media manipulation, and cultural rebranding, they turned “feeling down” into a medical condition overnight—selling billions in pills along the way. Could this be an example of a memetic virus, an idea so powerful that it rewires an entire society’s approach to mental illness?

Then, for our Plus+ members, we uncover reports of bizarre shape-shifting UFOs, eerie green mist that seems to transport people between dimensions, and chilling encounters with dark entities that should have never been summoned.

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