Graphing-Related Mission: Impossible
Go here --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoactive_drug
and scroll down a little to the graph.
You can just see how this graph happened. Someone said "there are three basic drug effects and three color modalities. I will make a Venn diagram." And I'm going to chart all kinds of drug effects on all kinds of axes that are not X-or-Y axes and I can do that because it's my graph. And then he realized oh drat the graph is not nearly big enough to accomodate all the drug names where I want them but that's okay we'll squeeze them in somehow. And then he decided I'm going to put some smaller circles in, just all over the place, for minor drug subcategories. And then he noticed that there was definitely not space for all the names and really nothing could go just where he wanted it. But at least he had the three colors and the three drug types it was so perfect man, such eternal threeness.
Then someone made two mistakes. He said "why doesn't this graph have an entry for antipsychotic drugs? They are important drugs. I am just going to add a category nobody will mind." So not only does he transform this three-circle Venn diagram to a four circle monster (Kids: Never make a four circle Venn diagram) but he then notices all the primary colors have been taken. No worry, he says, I'll use pink. It looks god awful but of course the original author knew that in the first place. A new and controversial addition to this chart. You can see them fighting about it on the Talk page if you care to look. If internet cooperative psychoactive drug graphs were tragedies, this one would be Hamlet.
and scroll down a little to the graph.
You can just see how this graph happened. Someone said "there are three basic drug effects and three color modalities. I will make a Venn diagram." And I'm going to chart all kinds of drug effects on all kinds of axes that are not X-or-Y axes and I can do that because it's my graph. And then he realized oh drat the graph is not nearly big enough to accomodate all the drug names where I want them but that's okay we'll squeeze them in somehow. And then he decided I'm going to put some smaller circles in, just all over the place, for minor drug subcategories. And then he noticed that there was definitely not space for all the names and really nothing could go just where he wanted it. But at least he had the three colors and the three drug types it was so perfect man, such eternal threeness.
Then someone made two mistakes. He said "why doesn't this graph have an entry for antipsychotic drugs? They are important drugs. I am just going to add a category nobody will mind." So not only does he transform this three-circle Venn diagram to a four circle monster (Kids: Never make a four circle Venn diagram) but he then notices all the primary colors have been taken. No worry, he says, I'll use pink. It looks god awful but of course the original author knew that in the first place. A new and controversial addition to this chart. You can see them fighting about it on the Talk page if you care to look. If internet cooperative psychoactive drug graphs were tragedies, this one would be Hamlet.
posted by apk01004 at 2:02 AM
9 Comments:
Not to be used for Wagering!
http://www.december.com/html/spec/swatchcontrol.html
Well my friend, take another gander at the chart. Now there are four full circles fully intersecting to provide a Y-axis continuum from stimulant to depressant, and an X-axis continuum from hallucinogen to antipsychotic. Looks rather pretty now, no? ;)
No it doesn't look pretty. Red, green, blue and pink? What am I, tetrachromatic?
And axes don't mix with Venn diagrams. Obviously someone made a mistake.
Do you have a better suggestion for a fourth color? Think of it like a "rose colored lens" ;)
The only mistake is the use of the term "Venn diagram". Do you have a more appropriate term?
Well I guess "Euler Diagram" is a more appropriate term. But "big mess" is better still.
As much as I am a fan of that Napoleon's-invasion-of-Russia graph that tries to measure 6 different things in two dimensions, I have to draw the line here.
It's not even a simple X-Y axis thing. If you read the legend, stimulant properties increase as one goes up and to the right, while sedative properties increase down and to the left.
The hallucinogens are measured on a couple of idiosyncratic scales of their own, while there's no Y axis at all for the antipsychotics. Mess.
Personally, if I absolutely had to choose a fourth color for a diagram like this I would choose gray. But before I did that I would chop it up into smaller diagrams. You would not lose much if you divided this graph into four.
In a way, it's too bad. I would really like to see a chart that measured things like this. If only it were possible without A) more than 2 axes, B) very subjective and shaky classifications (nicotine and cannabis as antipsychotic? News to me) and C) either 2-point font or 3 foot wide computer screens. Better to just break it into pieces.
The point is that there is some overlap between the primary classifications.
Essentially there are only really two real axis on the chart -- a Y-axis from stimulant to depressant (at a slight skew from upper left of stimulants to lower right of depressants), and an X-axis from hallucinogen to anti-psychotic.
As stimulants are to the left, and depressants to the right, naturally items to the left of center push you more into wakefulness, and items to the right of center push you more into the dream state. Therefore the left side of hallucinogens exhibit a more "psychedelic" mind-expanding effect, whereas the right side is more "dissociative", and dream-like.
Similarly the antipsychotics on the right side are a little more stupifying.
As for the "shaky classifications", scientific studies have shown nicotine to have a synergistic effect with antipsychotics, and to even have a mild antipsychotic effect of its own, as well as having an antidepressant effect. Double-blind studies have also shown Cannabidiol (CBD, the second major constituent of cannabis) to be on par with other major antipsychotic drugs.
Well see I think that inasmuch as you measure the effects of these drugs on an axis scale, the Venn diagram schema becomes useless and confusing.
Conceptually, it just doesn't make sense for anything to be both in the antipsychotic and hallucinogenic categories. They are diametrically opposed effects, no (unlike stimulant and depressant properties which can sometimes happen concurrently)?
Maybe you could just do away with the Venn diagram system altogether and have a system of axes? I really don't see what the colorful circles are getting you, if you're determined to use a Cartesian map. As a bonus you would no longer need to choose four colors.
I am going to have to take your word on nicotine and CBD, since The Free Encyclopedia doesn't seem to say anything about any antipsychosis.
But seriously, MDMA too? Did it just find it's way into the antipsychotic circle because there was no room to move it out of the way, or what?
Now that I come to look at it, the "antipsychotic" circle tracks much more closely with theraputic drugs than with proper antipsychotic ones.
Also: How did you find out about me? I'm just a lonely crank.
Only items within a non-overlapping part of a circle are purely in that category. Where the antipsychotics circle overlaps with other areas, it becomes more of a mood elevator... i.e the antidepressants and anxiolytics.
So MDMA for example is much less of a psychedelic than LSD -- it's an entactogen, and most definitely elevates mood, and lowers anxiety.
As for finding you, I was searching blogs for references to the wikipedia psychoactive drug article ;)
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