Summary Of The Article 'Brain Gain'

In the article “Brain Gain: The Underground World of “Neuroenhancing” Drugs” (Yorker 2009) Margaret Talbot discusses the misuse of prescription drugs that enhance academic performance at the college level. First Talbot introduces readers to a young college history major at Harvard University named Alex who receives a description of a demanding, busy life which seems impossible to control without the safety unapproved adopted use of a drug named Adderall. After that Alex’s dependency on the prescription drugs cognitive enhancers is described when he asks his doctor to increase the amount of intake and the listing of his daily routine on using Adderall during a week that required him to write four term papers. Next Talbot describes a personal

However, unlike Alex who uses the prescription drug privately Nicholas Seltzer uses the prescription drugs as an outlook for a bigger goal in life that can efficiently improve the world. Seltzer describes his personal belief in using the cognitive enhancer drug named piracetam as a means to keep his aging mind healthy and because as a “trans humanist” his ideals derive from the want of living a long time and using the positives that come from cognitive enhancers. Afterwards Talbot meets Seltzer and finds out that he was not only in favor of the cognitive enhancer, but also the feeling of manipulating the mind and that he feels every right do so as it was done before in history by people like Sir Francis Bacon. In addition to his argument Seltzer continued to explain that the smart drugs were in the legal acceptance as it does not harm any other person beyond the user and that the suppression on intellectual advancement would hinder America’s international