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Soma Disorders In Brave New World

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Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel, Brave New World, shows us a world of people who rely on a drug called Soma to make them free of all negative emotions and who are controlled by technology. His development of Soma based on psychosomatic illnesses is an interesting escape of reality that is compared to our own various types of Soma today. His characters completely rely on technology, which can be compared to today’s youth and the Internet. When Huxley wrote his novel, the world was booming with changes in science and technology. Particularly, the discovery of psychosomatic disorders in the late 1920’s seemed to have played a significant role in Huxley’s writing. “Psychosomatic illness” is a term that was regularly used by psychoanalysts to refer …show more content…

This got me thinking, what is my version of Soma? What are typical types of “Soma” used today? I use talking to my friends and family and running to escape my negative emotions. Others may use drugs, music, or athletics to help them. But does today’s society completely rely on these escape routes in the way the characters of Brave New World did? I don’t believe so. I think most members of our society could find an alternate route to be happy if they needed to, unlike the members of the society in Brave New …show more content…

For example, a group of Delta toddlers are playing in an area with books and flowers, but when they get close to these things an alarm will sound and the children will be shocked. (Huxley p. 26) After this conditioning, the toddlers will instinctively learn not to like books and nature. This compares to today’s society in an interesting way. I believe that our society in the United States is completely controlled by technology, in both positive and negative ways. The Internet can be a really good thing when it’s used correctly. It opens so many doors for things like research and staying in touch with distant friends and family members, and learning about national news in seconds. However, it can also create a communication barrier and self-esteem issues for today’s

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