Question on the importance of selfhood

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If in the future, doctors offered a lobotomy-style procedure which was proven to make people more successful, by permanently altering their personalities into more focused, driven, and attractive ones, would you go for it? Assume that there is the usual slight likelihood of botched operation, but that in the vast, vast majority of cases, patients report that their lives are moderately or vastly improved, albeit with a different personality which permanently replaces their old one. All of one's memories would remain intact; you'd just... "feel different" -- happier, and more confident.

Last edited by Ragtime on 02 Jan 2009, 1:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'd do it. I don't care for the money part, but if it meant I could be happy, in a good relationship, etc, it'd be worth.. what? Not being you old-self, and being a new, better self?

Would I like to be somebody else, somebody more successful etc?

I used to want to be different/someone else, quite often. It is a desire connected with low self-esteem. Now I think that I am the way the universe/god wants me to be.

Which means that I haven't voted, because "being me" is not a preference. It's a fact.
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One of my concerns would be the difference in personality between my current self and myself post-operation. The larger the difference in personality, the less likely I would be to do this. If the difference in self-identification related personality traits is small enough, and the differences in economic outcome is large enough, then yes, I might get the surgery, but in a case such as this, I would imagine that I would not choose this.

sure, why not

I hope I'm always improving. My personality changed over the years and hopefully this current one will die off as well and be replaced with a better one. I'd probably go so far as to have a lobotomy to improve my mental state. It would be nice if it were that easy.

I yam what I yam, and that's all that I yam.

I doubt my insurance would cover the procedure... I'm stuck with me...

I will have to second part of oiunon's comments.

For better or worse, I am the person I am, and there is nothing I can do about it. Why wish to change things that will remain constant? It is unproductive. I make peace with my shortcomings, and try to find ways to capitalize on what positive attributes I do possess. In the end, that's all any of us can do.

This is very tricky issue for me.

I couldn't exactly say no outright, because I bare a conundrum that bares a remarkable similarity to this, and I am actively seeking more insight (not on lobotomies yet ).

However this is not in order to be someone else, I would do precisely in order be myself. My personality, who I am, is directly at odds with my executive dysfunction and another cognitive problem I don't want get into here.

The actual 'success' is pretty subjective and personal, but for me it boils down to being able to be myself.

Also I would be interested in knowing about any intervention that might work, it doesn’t have to be a lobotomy style operation. In a way a frontal lobotomy is pretty poignant, because in the frontal lobe a tiny change makes a huge difference, and it is fairly unpredictable what is going to happen, as they found when they used to try this. It is this area that is consered with so many conditions.

Just to be clear this is not at all an attempt to cure my ASD, I don't want to do that becuase that is part of me. That is part of who I am. I am talking about something quite specific. I don't even need for it to be cured, just a viable solution.

Hell yes I would!! !

*Reading the fine print*

I might add I have done plenty to better myself in the past, and i don't regret it at all. I enabled me to be more like me.

Selfhood.

I am as God made me.

It depends on so many factors: the cost, the risk, the expected changes... maybe as well whether it'd feel like giving up and surrendering to the NTs.

No one touches my brains. They can alter my brains -after- I am dead.

ruveyn

If anyone is interested, The Speed of Dark is a fictional near-future novel by Elizabeth Moon with a similar question posed. It examines the possible implications of a cure for autism, including the issue of individual rights. An excellent read, I highly recommend it.