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06532_Field_TCUM T97.txt
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1996-04-10
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937b
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16 lines
Therapy, whether physical or social, is a counter-irritant
that aids in that equilibrium of the physical organs which
protect the central nervous system. Whereas pleasure is a
counter-irritant (e.g., sports, entertainment, and alcohol),
comfort is the removal of irritants. Both pleasure and comfort
are strategies of equilibrium for the central nervous system.
With the arrival of electric technology, man extended, or
set outside himself, a live model of the central nervous system
itself. To the degree that this is so, it is a development that
suggests a desperate and suicidal autoamputation, as if the
central nervous system could no longer depend on the physical
organs to be protective buffers against the slings and arrows
of outrageous mechanism. It could well be that the successive
mechanizations of the various physical organs since the
invention of printing have made too violent and