Step Meditation

Sufferers from psychiatric symptoms decline to say what’s wrong

Sufferers from psychiatric symptoms decline to say what’s wrong, simply because they don’t want to know. And the reason they don’t want to know is equally simple – it’s because it’s too frightening. They wax voluble on the painful symptoms, while remaining resolutely mute (even violently combative) on where these really come from. The root of this paradox is childishly simple. It comes directly from the standard response of any infant to trauma or abuse – i.e. denial – “this isn’t happening to me”. They grow into adult life, and cannot say “this has stopped happening to me”. Often of course they can, and the problems evaporate – but for those that cannot, the symptoms they suffer – phobias, panics, hysteria, psychoses, bipolar, personality disorders of all types, anorexia, self harm, suicidality – all arise, and can be evaporated, by tracing their origin back to a ‘frozen terror’, an infantile seizure when the infant decided that the end had come, and they did not want to know reality anymore. Persuade them to ‘grow up emotionally’ and the cure is 100% guaranteed, provided they finish the course.

Sufferers from psychiatric symptoms decline to say what’s wrong

Sufferers from psychiatric symptoms decline to say what’s wrong, simply because they don’t want to know. And the reason they don’t want to...

Martians were arriving at Los Angeles airport at 4 a.m.

One young man with psychosis told the friendly but untrained support staff that Martians were arriving at Los Angeles airport at 4 a.m. the ...

Life moves about under its own steam

– quite what that ‘steam’ might be, we can never know – and in one sense, it doesn’t really matter, provided we don’t let our ignorance of...

Why did that wasp fly in through your window

Pay closer attention to the next insect which flies into your personal space. Why did that wasp fly in through your window? Is it going to t...

THE TEN NON-SCIENTIFIC COMMANDMENTS

<p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; border-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"> <p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; border-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The fading of ‘science’ allows creativity to soar.<p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; border-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">1. <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The Ancient <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Greeks were wrong – the bewildering variety all around us can no longer comfortably be explained by unseen micro-billiard balls.  The ‘a-tom’, the ‘un-cuttable’, has been split – taking this naïve view with it, never to return.<p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; border-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">2. <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">In 1739, <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">David Hume undermined our notion of cause and effect.  We ‘know’ a matchstick burns ‘because’ of  (by-the-cause-of) the solar energy in the wood.  The sun has energy, by-the-cause-of its thermonuclear reactions.  But all these links are (1) unreliable, as Hume observed, but also (2) there are too many such chains (multi-threads) and (3) none has a First Cause – absolute knowledge withers.<strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"> <p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; border-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">3. <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">In 1887, <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">the speed of light ambushed us.  Unlike everything else, it doesn’t matter how fast its source, light always travels at the same speed –unpredictable, inexplicable, illogical, and therefore utterly beyond our ken.<p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; border-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">4<strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">. In 1900 Planck concluded that energy travelled in packages, not waves. Thus like the Royal Mail, you can never predict when the next parcel will arrive.  Even calling these entities wave/particles leaves them indelibly Uncertain.<p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; border-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">5. <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Each <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">radioactive atom has its own half life, but which atom is going to radiate next, is utterly and forever indeterminate – i.e. we have no way of knowing.<p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; border-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">6. <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Dark Matter and Dark Energy constitute the vast majority of our cosmos.  We could be full of them, with no conceivable  way of telling if we were.<p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; border-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">7 <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Hawking Radiation is unworldly. There’s no such thing as a vacuum – particles and anti-particles appear and disappear all the time – why or when or how is unknowable.  If this happens near a Black Hole, one is sucked in, while the other ‘escapes’, causing the Hole itself to shrink over time.<p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; border-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">8 <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Wittgenstein failed. He trusted words to be infallible, but none are even reliably definable.  This is the <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Wittgenstein <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Fallacy. Pain, fear and intent are the most important of all words – maximum meaning – zero definition.  Quakerism’s aversion to written creeds is a godsend.<p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; border-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">9<strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"> Random Control Trials distort reality away from intent by squeezing our multi-causal, multi-threaded world through the eye of a mono threaded needle.  It’s so our mono-focussed reasoning can begin to cope – but the cost is too high – we lose out on the significance of intent.<p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; border-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">10 ‘<strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Nentropy’ – all non-living systems decay, their entropy (disorganisation) inexorably and always increases.  Negative entropy – nentropy – reverses this, but only in living things, until they die, when they too disintegrate.  While alive, we can deploy our intent – whatever that is.<p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; border-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">NOTE – these points were all valid before I was born, and will remain so long after.  It’s quite a wrench to concede just how ignorant we are, and always will be – but as any good engineer will tell you – do the best you can with what you’ve got.  And in this case we have the miracle of life which, if we act responsibly, we can fill with delight and joy – rare enough in today’s conventional wisdom.

THE TEN NON-SCIENTIFIC COMMANDMENTS

The fading of ‘science’ allows creativity to soar. 1. The Ancient Greeks were wrong – the bewildering variety all around us can no longe...

minds manifesto

I prescribe the reinstatement of consciousness, the full rehabilitation of the concept of mind – the most important organ we humans posses...

Child terrors persist because the sufferer is too terrified to see they're now OVER

Child terrors persist because the sufferer is too terrified to see they're now OVER

The cause and cure of psychoses is simple

The cause and cure of psychoses is simple, and would be obvious to all, were it not for the mountain of prejudice which so obscures our view. What is needed is to look with a clear unbiased eye at what actually happens in a psychosis. This is not possible in cold print, but on the clear assumption that what follows is well below 50% accurate, try this. Suppose you meet a person suffering a psychotic break, the conversation might perhaps go somewhat as follows. You say “hello”, they don’t. You say “it’s a nice day” – they say nothing. They hear and see things you don’t. They describe fears and terrors you cannot see and do not believe in. They talk in ways that make no sense to you, and about things you cannot possibly understand or follow. The dialogue is not really a dialogue, more two monologues. There is no meeting of minds – there is no consensus as to what you are talking about, or indeed about the reality you are both sharing at that moment. What usually happens in a conversation between two people – indeed the underlying purpose of any and every conversation – is the overlapping and mutual confirmation of what reality is like just then. But this simply doesn’t happen when one participant is labouring under a psychosis. That’s what a psychosis is, and that is all that a psychosis is. The rest is embroidery. So the cure, obviously, would be to re-synchronise these two realities, yours and theirs. This requires establishing a common point, an agreed foundation or basis from which to start. Without this, you are running on parallel lines, your two versions of reality diverge. You are talking, not so much at cross-purposes, more at cross-realities. Psychotic thinking is unreal. And the origin of this unreality is fear, serious fear, best labelled terror. Psychosis does not occur unless the sufferer has been deflected from today’s reality – and the only thing powerful enough to deflect the human mind from finding out what is currently going on, is terror. The remedy for all and every psychosis therefore, is abating the terror. This is why ‘the healing hand of kindness’ has proved so effective in the past, and will do so increasingly in the future. It forms the basis of the Therapeutic Community approach in which I was trained in 1963, as also of the Soteria movement today. And it obviously makes sense. There is a prodigious reason why the person you are talking to does not converse, does not share your interest in what’s currently happening, in what is real. Remove that prodigious reason, and a commonality is again introduced, from which, since both are sociable human beings, both can benefit enormously. And the sovereign remedy for fear, is trust – whence the axiom: Truth, Trust and Consent, as discussed more fully elsewhere. Thus the cause of psychosis is terror which when removed leads invariably to cure. overpowering prejudices It is important here to uncover the overpowering prejudices, both medical and mythical, that so curdle our current view of psychosis. The first point to emphasise is that the orthodox medical approach is hamstrung by mental disease. No medical progress is possible without an understanding of what has gone wrong. The problem with all mental diseases however, is that the sufferer cannot tell you where the pain is coming from – and this is a particularly severe problem with the psychoses. The simple reason for this is that where the source of the agony is obvious, then the afflicted individual will already have taken all available steps to limit or expunge it. Where the origin of the pain is obscure – as here – then the sufferer can see no way through and therefore cannot help themselves. What they need most, is a clear, believable, and reliable pathway to stability – as do all those around them. While it may be understandable that the intrinsic nature of mental disease hobbles standard medical practice, nothing can justify the nihilism that prevails in psychiatry today, nor the neglect of common human courtesy nor of Human Rights, which currently risks comparison with Soviet psychiatry. The desperate flailing of the medical mind in seeking underlying causative factors leads to bizarre and indeed inconsistent and irrational notions, some of which are downright toxic. To counter this – no psychiatric disorder is caused by genetic defects, chemical aberrations, enzyme shenanigans nor permanent damage of any kind. All available evidence supports this – there has never been any evidence to refute it, there is none now, and there are powerful philosophical reasons to suppose there never will be, however much some might wish for it. Blaming parents is equally futile – deliberate parental damage does occur, but the heart-rending suffering so often seen in parents of the severely mentally ill eliminates this factor from our enquiries. The problem is that the underlying terror is deliberately well hidden, and therefore challengingly hard to winkle out – but it’s there all right, and winkling it out is undoubtedly a realistic objective. Simple, but by no means easy. The next point to emphasise is that every one of us can suffer psychotic breaks – we are none of us superman, or superwoman. Place any one of us under enough toxically-focussed stress, and we will all experience some or all of the following:– paranoia, inability to think straight, hallucinations, delusions, and invariably a loss of contact with today’s reality in which the rest of us live. A simpler illustration is the tantrum. Who among us can deny having at least one tantrum – the red mist descends, all other considerations are thrown to the wind, and contact with what is real is lost, temporarily for most, but longer for the psychotic sufferer. “I just went mad” is poignantly precise. The actual symptoms themselves as described by the psychotic sufferer are of no practical value whatsoever – their variability and fluidity being limited only by the imagination and creativity of that individual – another point which befuddles the standard medical mind. Their only clinical relevance is their severity, and less frequently their dangerousness. What they actually represent is the whirring of malperceptions – misperceptions of a malign hue. Once contact with reality – the common touchstone for all humanity – is lost, then there is simply no restraint on what can spout from a troubled mind. The psychotic sufferer labours under a belief system which is no longer based on today’s reality and is therefore alien to what the rest of us believe. Most of us hold on to reality as best we can, sometimes with difficulty – so to have one of us stoutly declare that the world is full of unseen terrors, that there are voices and visions which the rest of us cannot hear or see – this shakes us to our core. In particular it challenges our own personal belief systems – and when we are threatened, we tend to react aggressively, even destructively, which explains (though it does not excuse) the appalling history of maltreatment meted out to victims of psychosis over the millennia through, inexcusably, to the present day. the impact of terror Since September 1986, I have been exploring the impact terror has on the human mind. In a word it induces something akin to a prolonged panic, and sometimes a prolonged tantrum. Its chief pathological defect is that it leads to a paralysis of thought – a major handicap in a thinking species like homo sapiens. If it occurs early enough in human development, it can leave an impact for the rest of that individual’s life – until resolved 100% through Emotional Education. Again, this is not easy to convey in cold print – video is better, but neither is a substitute for the real thing. In psychosis, the terror prevents access to today’s reality, which alone can demonstrate that the source of the trouble is past. And here we come to an intriguing notion. We all start remarkably small, and impotent. We need sound parental attachment to survive. We need help not only in learning language but also in determining what is real, and what is a fairy tale. And it is here that we have to look for the cure for psychosis. For whatever reason (and the events can be legion) the sufferer from psychosis today has mislearnt the nature of human beings, of human reality. Instead of learning that human beings are born Lovable, Sociable and Non-Violent – the sufferer has picked up the message that reality is dangerous, that powerful human beings, including everyone else, are consistently malign. Such others may appear benign, they may say they are friendly – but the basic trust has been broken, and they are not to be believed. This disbelief is what needs countermanding – which explains not only what needs doing, but also that it is eminently doable, though only via inexhaustible supplies of the ‘healing hand of kindness’. Those trying to assist sufferers from psychotic disease are at a fundamental disadvantage – the sufferer will not, indeed cannot, disclose precisely what the problem is, who it was that misinformed them as to the nature of reality, and who therefore must be contradicted in that person’s mind. Attempts to second guess the lesion, the trauma, the true source of the terror are doomed. Attempts to persuade that individual too strongly, or prematurely, will result only in re-traumatisation, and a gross aggravation of the psychotic condition. In my clinical experience, death of a mother, a ferocious outburst on the part of a father, a tantrum from either parent may hit a vulnerable individual, at the wrong moment, in the wrong way, and cause something to ‘break’ in that person’s developing mind, such that the world is thereafter viewed as just too dangerous to tolerate – “if that’s reality, I don’t want to know”. This may well sound like gobbledy-gook to those not familiar with psychotic thinking, and perhaps even more so to those that are. Bear in mind that the individual sufferer will insist that the incident in question was trivial, jocular, of no consequence. And this insistence is intense – as if on pain of death. Bear in mind further that such individuals cannot “live with the fact that my parent tried to kill me”. Since they cannot live with this “fact”, they hide it away as fiercely and as deeply as they can. Which is anomalous, since this “fact” has not been born out by the event – namely your death – a point in logic, reason and today’s reality which can assist (though invariably only with the sufferer’s explicit consent) as a verbal spanner in unpacking this deep-seated terror. The quantity of calumny that has been heaped on my head because of this ‘denial’ is legion, and not only from my bemused psychiatric colleagues. It is a matter of record that psychiatric drugs have proved no better than sedatives – indeed for 50 years the evidence is that they prolong psychoses, and should therefore be relabelled ‘pro-psychotics’, not anti-psychotics. The reason for this is simple – they add, and are misguidedly intended to add, a chemical barrier to reality, to supplement the existing mental one. Mandatory administration of such medical ‘treatment’ without consent, calls for urgent legal and indeed political review. The root of psychosis Here is the true root of psychosis. The afflicted individual builds a ‘safer’ world, and conjures up in their imagination a more benign ‘pretend’ reality which, en passant, does not include the abuser, or at least the abusive event. The tragedy is that when they grow up, they cannot then readily re-connect with the reality in which the rest of us live, or try to live. To do that entails confronting the remnant of the misguided parent or carer who inadvertently or otherwise broke that infantile trust. All abused children carry among their mental furniture a parental figment or image of their abuser, which it is the aim of treatment to expel. In psychoses the figment is even more potent, and comes to act as a lethal gatekeeper for reality – do not question or disbelieve what your carer taught you, or you will come to a sticky end. The human mind is quite up to this sort of challenge, and builds barriers against it, which are as thick and robust as the mental resources available to that individual allow. The point being that these barriers are built as life-savers – hence they remain insuperable, and ferociously well defended, until melted by benign external forces. The sole aim of Cognitive Emotional Therapy is to dispel them, with the sufferer’s explicit consent – a handy challenge at the best of times. Simple yes, but not necessarily easy. There is thus a simple pattern to the cause and cure of psychosis. There is a simple logic to the picture just described. There are also vast fears and prejudices, medical and mythical, which belie this simplicity, and which strive to prevent it seeing the light of day. But there are also powerful and realistic forces pushing for a more humane approach to mental suffering. There is now even legal backing behind Human Rights, which are therapeutic. The foregoing is written in the hope and expectation that the more benign view will prevail.

The cause and cure of psychoses is simple

The cause and cure of psychoses is simple, and would be obvious to all, were it not for the mountain of prejudice which so obscures our vi...

The human mind is peculiarly vulnerable to trauma

The human mind is peculiarly vulnerable to trauma, especially when young – a blind-terror is induced which turns cognition off. Cognition ceases. The mind is ‘ill’. It pays the child not to know what is happening, or who is doing what, to him or her. This is variously described as ‘denial’, dissociation, projection, repression – what have you – the upshot is that the child daren’t look, so cannot see. Repeat, DAREN’T LOOK, SO CANNOT SEE. The child works on the malperception that “full cognition or visualisation of this event is TERMINAL”. And once the child stops seeing, and this can happen quite suddenly especially pre-verbally, then they are thereafter incapable of telling whether or not the trauma has stopped. “This isn’t happening to me” leads inexorably to the inability to say or think or believe that “this has stopped happening to me” – or even very clearly what “this” is. Two things follow. (1) The medical profession is hamstrung by it. (2) The 100% remedy for it is assured – you and I know it has stopped, and our (simple but not easy) task therefore is to persuade the sufferer that today’s reality prevails, that yesterday’s trauma is now over. But we must accomplish this without ever being either parental, or re-traumatising, both of which are relentlessly easy to do. Take (1). “Listen to the patient, s/he’s telling you the diagnosis”, said William Osler, arguably the finest clinician of the last century. But those who have been traumatised are determinedly not even telling themselves. They will swear black and blue that ‘nothing happened’, that their childhood was ‘magical’, that parents could never have been better, and how wrong it would be to breathe a word of criticism of them, and so forth. To admit otherwise is to re-traumatise themselves instantly, as easily as can any ham-fisted professional breezing insensitively in. Their only remedy against the pain of abuse, is to ‘have it NOT happen’ – so woe betide those who wish, prematurely, to prove that it did. Sadly this ‘remedy’ of ‘daren’t look, so cannot see’ which was the only one available to any small infant, is now precisely what gums things up in adulthood. So the orthodox medical approach is scuppered. It’s like a man with a broken leg, vociferously denying it’s painful, or that he has a limp – the customer is king, even when they’re obviously in deep trouble. And doctors have no licence to treat ‘complaints’ that are not complained about. But they do have a licence to link the items complained about, to earlier ‘unseen’ problems – but only, and forever, with the sufferer’s consent. This is uphill work, since it is invariably coupled with prodigious resistance from the sufferer against doing any such thing – and there you have today’s doctor’s dilemma. So a different clinical approach is required – not an easy thing to ask of a profession steeped in tradition since Hippocrates. Instead of taking what the patient says at face value, the clinician needs to ‘listen’ exceptionally carefully, to ‘hear’ the bits that are being left out, or stumbled over, and to bring these, with invariable courtesy, and scrupulous consent, to the sufferer’s attention. Never in a parental or authoritarian way, but always as an informal offering, on a take it or leave it basis. To do otherwise, is to cast yourself unequivocally into the role of the adult abuser in the sufferer’s distorted perception, and thereby reliably invite anger and rage commensurate with the abuse, here visited (irrationally) on your own ham-fisted self. The abuse did occur, despite the ‘denial’ that it did not – but more importantly, it has actually stopped, which the sufferer also actively denies. Pressing this prematurely can be disastrous if not fatal. The dilemma is especially sharp when questions arise as to whether the abuse did in reality occur, or not –the ‘false memory syndrome’ quagmire. However, in practice only the severity or otherwise of the current symptoms are relevant clinically – it’s the remnants today that matter, not precise detail of how they arose – and in all cases they need eliminating, 100%. The more severe the symptoms and the more life-threatening (which is the doctor’s prime concern) – then the more solid is the evidence for past trauma. It’s not what actually occurred, which is less important clinically, it’s what remains today from what occurred then. Here again, the absolute pre-requisite for resolving any such dilemma is a sound, respectful, but above all trustworthy clinical rapport.

The human mind is peculiarly vulnerable to trauma

The human mind is peculiarly vulnerable to trauma, especially when young – a blind-terror is induced which turns cognition off. Cognition...

The human infant is peculiarly susceptible to trauma

The human infant is peculiarly susceptible to trauma and their invariable response is to pretend it’s not happening to them – consequently...

consciousness

Perhaps a graphic picture might help. Imagine a ping pong ball suspended atop a water fountain. The ball jiggles about, the water is constantly changing, while forever pushing upwards – but there is a clear element of stability, of certainty, despite all the splashings to the contrary. And this is what consciousness is really about, this is the aspiration towards which all humanity is moved. We all crave security, stability and peace of mind – and here, by delving into what living processes can do, and deflecting attention from their origins and what they ‘really’ are, we can see that it does come about, that it is real, rational, and what’s more, healthier. The more streams of ‘intent’ and consent, the greater the stability, which is the essence of any real democracy. Capturing this dynamic security through the static printed word is challenging even for the most poetic. Even videos fumble. However, the stability of the docosahexaenoic acid molecule should challenge us to greater efforts to find the same certainty in other parts of our living selves. Consciousness is indescribable, for reasons discussed – but it is currently open for exploration and on-going experience. What could be a better purpose in life than to keep exploring this utterly fascinating and endlessly creative entity, which comes free to every one of us who is awake. Let’s explore, create, dream, but above all, enjoy.

consciousness

Perhaps a graphic picture might help. Imagine a ping pong ball suspended atop a water fountain. The ball jiggles about, the water is const...

Emotions are the most important thing in any human life

– and none of them are remotely definable. You cannot define what an emotion is. So my resolution of that was to put them all on a spectr...

Our aim still is to establish ‘fear free zones’ where emotional distress melts away.

Our aim still is to establish ‘fear free zones’ where emotional distress melts away.

Spiritual beliefs can have psychological pros, cons

<a href="http://www.bgnews.com/in_focus/spiritual-beliefs-can-have-psychological-pros-cons/article_1a833d5a-5218-11e1-a042-001871e3ce6c.html"> </a>When Kenneth Pargament decided to start researching psychology and religion, he did not receive the most support from the psychological community. "The field tended to take a negative view toward religiousness," Pargament said. "[Sigmund] Freud, for instance, talked about religion as a defense against anxiety. Religion was often linked in the minds of many people in mental health to psychopathology, but that picture has changed in the last 25 years. The research has shown some pretty consistent links between religious involvement and health and well-being." Pargament, a professor in the Department of Psychology, researches the aspects of religion and spirituality that can be helpful as well as harmful to people. "We think of religion and spirituality as a double-edged sword," he said. Carney Strange, a professor of student affairs in the College of Education and Human Development, teaches a course about the "spiritual dimensions of student development." This involves looking at questions of purpose students have during college and whether their viewpoints change over time regarding these questions. These can include wondering about job prospects, whether people depend on the student and whether the student is a worthy human being. "I teach in a graduate program where people are working on master's [degrees] to become student administrators," Strange said. "My goal is to help them understand this dimension of students as they go through the college experience." The idea of an afterlife can often help answer questions like these, Pargament said. "I think beliefs in the afterlife also respond to the basic need for transcendence and continuity in life, the need to feel that our lives matter," he said. Studies, particularly some the Department of Psychology has coordinated, show people often turn to faith during times of stress, such as illnesses, mortality and frailty, Pargament said. "Generally, I think religion is especially well-designed to help people come to terms with their finitude, their limitations [and] the fact we can't control everything," he said. Sammy Hitchcock, a junior in the SEARCH Community that Strange advises, said her Christian faith helps her through all aspects of her life, such as school. "I have to have faith that I am doing as much as I can to pass my classes or pass a test," Hitchcock said. "If I don't [pass], then I have faith that it is going to work out regardless." Hitchcock said she prays not only when she is stressed, but also when she is happy. "I don't really pick and choose which parts I apply faith to," she said. Nonetheless, Hitchcock said she understands religion is not going to solve all of her day-to-day problems. "People expect that God or spirituality and whatever they believe in is going to be given to them because they ask for it," she said. "That goes back to the grand scheme of things where if one door closes, another one opens." When it comes to scientifically proving the existence of a deity, Pargament said it is wise to take an agnostic point of view. "We can know [God exists] as individuals, we can have our own personal belief systems and affiliations, but as scientists we have no device to measure God's existence ... [or] nonexistence," he said. "There is no ‘God-ma-tron' out there." When it comes to atheists and agnostics, Pargament said there are different kinds, with some people not caring about the existence of a deity and others expressing passion toward their disbelief. He pointed out that all people put faith into some kind of personal belief and into things that cannot be measured by sight. "I don't think so much the issue is faith versus the lack of faith," he said. "I think the critical thing is, ‘what do we put our faith in?'"

Spiritual beliefs can have psychological pros, cons

When Kenneth Pargament decided to start researching psychology and religion, he did not receive the most support from the psychological co...

Things to Consider with Music Therapy

If people hope to benefit from music therapy there are a number of things worth considering: 
 
In order to get the most from this type of therapy it is best to stick to a credentialed professional who has gone through an approved program. 
It is not necessary for people to have any type of musical ability in order to benefit from this treatment. They may not even like music very much to begin with. 
Music therapy can be of benefit to people of all ages. 
It is possible for the individual to create their own playlist of therapeutic music by adding those tracks that they found soothing. This may be less beneficial than a proper assessment by a music therapist, but it certainly can be helpful. 
There is no right music for relaxation. Some people will feel relaxed while listening to classical music but for other people it could be punk rock. 
It is a good idea to keep a journal in order to record how different types of music impact mood and feelings of relaxation. This way the individual will discover the music that works best for them. 
If people are having difficulties concentrating they may wish to try music with a fast beat to see if this helps. 
Music can be a wonderful tool to help people exercise. These tracks can motivate and encourage the individual to pick up the tempo of their activity. 
Meditation music can help the individual experience meditative states. It is not a good idea to use music long-term for meditation because it becomes too much as a crutch and can prevent the individual from advancing along this path. 
Simple drumming is a relatively easy thing for people to learn. This type of music creativity can be good for escaping pain and emotional turmoil. 
Learning to play a musical instrument can be a great choice for people in recovery. As well as this being entertaining it will also be a great stress buster.

Things to Consider with Music Therapy

If people hope to benefit from music therapy there are a number of things worth considering: In order to get the most from this type of th...

Music Therapy Defined

Music therapy can be defined as the clinical and evidence-based use of music to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relatio...

The Power of Music

Music is something that most people will take for granted, but it can have a huge impact on their life. It can have a powerful influence on ...

The Benefits of Believing in a Higher Power in Recovery

When people believe in a power greater than themselves it can make life easier. Some of the benefits include: 
 
People who are attempting to escape a life of addiction can feel overwhelmed by that task. They may not believe that they have the ability to defeat their problem alone. In the AA program they can rely on a power greater than themselves to give them the strength they need. 
When people believe in a higher power they will usually find it easier to forgive other people who have wronged them. It also becomes much easier to let go of resentments. 
The individual will need to face many challenges in recovery. It can be a great source of comfort to believe in a higher power that is providing them with help. 
If the addiction becomes too much to handle, the person can hand it over to their higher power. This can be like lifting a great weight off their shoulders. 
In AA, they encourage members to learn how to let go. This means adopting a completely new approach to life. The individual has faith in their higher power. They come to believe that if they do the right things, then the right things will keep on happening to them. When people develop the ability to let go it brings them peace of mind and contentment. 
Belief in a higher power can give people a sense of purpose in their life. This new approach to life can strengthen their recovery and reduce the risk of relapse. Those who follow a spiritual path claim that it brings a great deal of happiness to their life. Alcohol or drugs is the focus of the addict’s life. When they become sober they need a new focus or their life will lack meaning. A spiritual path can provide them with this focus. 
All spiritual paths encourage the individual to develop as humans. This will usually mean that they become more loving and mentally healthy. Addicts tend to be self-absorbed, but belief in a higher power can help to combat this tendency.

The Benefits of Believing in a Higher Power in Recovery

When people believe in a power greater than themselves it can make life easier. Some of the benefits include: People who are attempting to...

Higher Power Defined

The main benefit of using the words higher power is that it cannot be easily defined. This means that members of 12 Step groups can interpre...

Higher Power in the 12 Steps

God or higher power is mentioned in 6 of the 12 steps. These terms are used interchangeably. The idea of a higher power is the key element of the program, as seen in the following steps: 
 
Step 2 – We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 
Step 3- We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 
Step 5- We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 
Step 6-We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 
Step 7- We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 
Step 11 – We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 
The 12 Steps are a recommended program of recovery from alcoholism. There is no obligation for people who attend the meetings to follow these steps – many members only seem to pay lip service to the program. The traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous make clear that the only requirement for memberships is the desire to stop drinking.

Higher Power in the 12 Steps

God or higher power is mentioned in 6 of the 12 steps. These terms are used interchangeably. The idea of a higher power is the key element o...

Hoarding is idolatry

“Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected. In the wilderness God gave Israel the manna every day, and they had no need to wor...

.We must not.....assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.....We must not.....assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow i...

Socially it means the renunciation of all place-hunting, a break with the cult of the “star,”

“Unless we have the courage to fight for a revival of wholesome reserve between man and man, we shall perish in an anarchy of human values… ...

New Outlook in Recovery from Addiction

Addicts are known to be self-absorbed and selfish. They often show a complete disregard for other people’s needs and happiness. When these i...

Things to Consider When Practicing Loving-Kindness Meditation

Here are a few things that are worth considering when practicing loving kindness meditation: 
 
It is important not to rush the different stages of metta meditation. People should spend at least a few minutes on each of the steps. 
Sometimes you have to fake it to make it. Those people who are dealing with a great deal of anger inside can struggle with loving-kindness meditation. This means that they themselves unable to summon much love for others. This is not a problem. Practicing loving-kindness regularly softens the heart. They will one day realize that that they really do feel full of love for everyone. 
It is recommended that those practicing any form of meditation spend time with a teacher. Meditative practice can take the individual in all sorts of fascinating directions. If they travel without a teacher, there will be a tendency to get lost. 
Sometimes, sitting through metta meditation can be a huge challenge. This is particularly true when the person is feeling distracted or bored. These days come to every meditator, and the best way to deal with them is to just sit through them. Even when loving-kindness meditation feels like a waste of time, it can be still be effective.

Things to Consider When Practicing Loving-Kindness Meditation

Here are a few things that are worth considering when practicing loving kindness meditation: It is important not to rush the different sta...

loving-kindness meditation

There are many techniques for loving-kindness meditation, but most follow a similar structure. It is sufficient to sit for 20 minutes, but even five minutes a day will bring some benefit. The key to getting effective results is regularity. Ideally, meditators would practice every day. Here are a few suggestions for practicing metta meditation: 
 
Find a comfortable position. There is no need to sit cross-legged. Meditators can sit in a chair so long as they keep their back straight. It is possible to practice lying down, but this introduces the risk of falling asleep. Wearing comfortable, unrestrictive clothing is recommended. 
Setting an alarm for a predetermined duration is wise. That way, the meditator is less tempted to keep an eye on the clock. 
Begin by focusing on the breath. Do not try to control the breath in any way. Instead, simply observe how it moves through the body. The individual should continue to concentrate on the breath for a few minutes until they feel relaxation sets in. 
The next step involves remembering a time of particular happiness. The meditator must feel the joy of this instance in their whole body and keep hold of that feeling. The proceeds to silently chant, may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I be free from suffering. It is not necessary to use these exact words, but the words that are used should express a similar sentiment. 
Next, the meditator thinks of a good friend. It is best to avoid using a sexual partner for this. While mentally picturing this friend, the individual sends good wishes their way using the words may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be free from suffering. The meditator also directs their feelings of joy towards this friend. 
The next step is to mentally picture a neutral person. This is an individual who the meditator does not know very well so they have no strong feelings about them. The process here is the same as before, again using the words may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be free from suffering. 
The next stage of loving-kindness is the one that most people struggle with. It involves picturing an enemy and sending them the same positive thoughts. The meditator may find that feelings of positivity towards the other person do not come easily, but it is important to try. This is something that becomes easier over time. 
The final step of loving-kindness meditation involves sending positive thoughts to every sentient being (any life form that has consciousness) in the universe. The words to use here are, may all sentient beings be happy, may all sentient beings be healthy, may all sentient beings be free of suffering.

loving-kindness meditation

There are many techniques for loving-kindness meditation, but most follow a similar structure. It is sufficient to sit for 20 minutes, but e...

A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol

“A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer