state / trait

The state-trait anger test, the STAXI-2, provides a description of state and trait in real terms that we can apply (Borteyrou, et al. 2008).  I chose anger because it is often a component of personality disorder (Varghese, et al. 2010), especially Borderline PD.

Trait anger is measured as temperament and reaction (Varghese, et al. 2010).  State anger is measured as angry feelings, verbal expression, and physical expression--or violence.  Trait here can be described as a personality construct that consists of cognitive and motivational factors that describe how a client thinks and what he believes; his thinking (state) may be distorted because of problems in the underlying constructs (traits) (Owen, 2011).  As construct implies permanence, a therapist would want to find ways to alter or replace those permanent constructs (traits), that, in turn, would improve behaviors (state).  Reconstruction of traits to provide better states (behaviors) is a way to describe the cognitive strategy of CBT.

Pharmacology seeks to manage traits as vulnerabilities and states as symptoms (Bellino, 2008).  This implies that a defective trait needs to be fixed by making it less vulnerable with medicine. Topiramate is an anticonvulsant that can be used to manage anger in Borderline PD clients, and especially shows improvement for trait anger using the STAXI-2 (Varghese, et al. 2010), implying that it makes the clients less "vulnerable" to angry outbursts.

References

Bellino, S., Paradiso, E., & Bogetto, F. (2008). Efficacy and Tolerability of Pharmacotherapies for Borderline Personality Disorder. CNS Drugs, 22(8), 671-692. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Borteyrou, X., Bruchon-Schweitzer, M., & Spielberger, C. D. (2008).  The French adaptation of the STAXI-2, C.D. Spielberger's State-trait anger expression inventory. Encephale. 34(3) (pp 249-255).

Owen, J. M. (2011). Transdiagnostic cognitive processes in high trait anger. Clinical Psychology Review.31(2) (pp 193-202). 

Varghese, B. S., Rajeev, A., Norrish, M., & Bin Mohammed Al Khusaiby, S. (2010). Topiramate for anger control: A systematic review. Indian Journal of Pharmacology. 42(3) (pp. 135–141).

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Part II

The 7 studies I looked at (on PubMed) focused on state-trait anger, and Borderline PD was a secondary focus.  They were all positive for use, though all recommended more study.

The most critical study was an overall view of pharmacology for Borderline PD (Lieb, et al., 2010).  It stated that medications should target Borderline PD symptoms, and the disorder as a whole.  This suggests an interesting (though hypothetical) state-trait question.  If a drug is effectively treating a symptom, such as angry outbursts, but is shown by testing to be treating a trait (vulnerability) as much as state (symptom), then is the trait is only a single component of the disorder?

(I say "hypothetical" because only the study I cited, Varghese, et al. (2010), specifically offered trait data, though 6 of the 7 did trait-state anger testing.)

Returning to the conceptual idea of a trait as a distorted construct (Owen, 2011) that causes irrational talk and actions, my significant thoughts while writing this were about using Dialectal Behavioral Therapy (DBT), with pharmacology only as a support.  DBT focuses on a near-mechanical cognitive restructuring of the client's destructive psychological constructs (trait) that dominate his actions (state) (Oldham, Skodol, & Bender, 2009).  Assertiveness is taught as a skill to challenge the ill-logic of the defective constructs so as to remain "on track" to recovery (p. 242).  Interestingly, this thought process is categorized in terms of "interpersonal effectiveness" (p. 242).  Intrapersonal might be more descriptive of the client's self-approach to trait change.

References

Lieb, K., Völlm, B., Rücker, G., Timmer, A., & Stoffers, J. M. (2010). Pharmacotherapy for borderline personality disorder: Cochrane systematic review of randomised trials.British Journal of Psychiatry. 196(1) (pp. 4-12).

Oldham, J., Skodol, A., & Bender, D. (2009). Essentials of Personality Disorders. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.

Varghese, B. S., Rajeev, A., Norrish, M., & Bin Mohammed Al Khusaiby, S. (2010). Topiramate for anger control: A systematic review. Indian Journal of Pharmacology. 42(3) (pp. 135–141).

Jung's bent universe

Jungian personality types
Personality traits are described in Jung's personality code as letters are biopolar in that they represent opposing traits along a linear measure.  They measure the distance along a pole an individual tends to that trait, and away from the opposing trait.  Jung described introversion and extraversion as the key polar traits and refered to them as attitudes; they comprise the first letter of the code.  The next two letters in the code measure sensing versus intuition, and feeling versus thinking; Jung referred to them as functions.  The final pole, perceiving versus judging, comes from the Myers-Briggs typographic model, and is also a function.

Poles
For Jung, an attitude "plays the principal role in an individual's adaptation or orientation to life" (1921, para. 1).  The two factors for this pole, extraversion and introversion, describe how a person draws mental energy.  The extravert draws mental energy from the surrounding environment, or from a crowd..  The introvert draws mental energy internally from the ideas that develop within his mind.  The mental energy, or "psychic energy," is called libido in Jung's model.  An individual's approach to life, or attitude, is determined by his prefered way to obtain libido; either externally from the surrounding environment, or interally from personal thoughts (Jung, 1976).



Libido: Pyschic nutrition
Jung describes the need for libido as a driving force, or what BF Skinner might think of as a hunger; libido is effectively nutrition for the mind.  Jung describes the extravert as absorbing llibido from the surrounding environment by attaching to it as an "object."  To Jung, the extravert is, hence, objective, as the psychic energy is based on surrounding reality.  The introvert, conversely, develops this nutrition within his mind from the "subject" of his thoughts; the introvert is subjective to Jung, and his psychic metabolism (to extend the nutrition analogy) is synthesis.

Bi-poles as a "bent universe"
Jung is emphatic that mental health hinges on a person's adaptability along the poles of his bipolar model.  Thinking problems may result for extraverts when they are overwhelmed by the information that they pull in, whereas introverts may attempt to "coerce facts" to resemble a preconceived image that they have created (Jung, 1921, para. 87).  When individuals tend to extremes along either pole, and neglect the qualities of the other end of the pole, they will very likely compensate for the trait of the pole they have neglected (Jung, 1976, p. 3) and move towards the counter-pole (p. 291).  His three pole model can be thought of as a "bent universe" because those at polar extremes will ultimately compensate in some way.  In his "bent universe," the extreme extrovert cannot help but return to the subject of his thoughts, or his "soul" (p. 293).  In the opposite polar direction, the introvert cannot help but crash into reality, or the "object" that defines surrounding reality.  If the extravert is intent on his attachment to the object (as the participant self-reported that he has experienced at times), then he creates a mythology that serves as a substitute for introverted thought, or the subject.  However, if he is not careful, the compensating restoration of the "soul" may ultimately destroy the material benefits that extroversion may have provided (p. 340).  In a similar sense, the extreme introvert creates a facsimile of reality that Jung describes as a "dream" (p. 169).

Jung's two other bipolar measures describe how an individual functions with respect to his role. They are "function-types" (1976, p. 330), and describe how an individual collects information and makes decisions based on how he "attends.".  Information can be collected through the normal senses, which is sensing, or through a "sixth sense" (J. Dyce, personal communication, n.d.) of intuition.  Intuition is how the unconscious perceives.  Decisions can be made logically and in a detached way, or in a personal value-oriented way, creating the thinking/feeling bipole.

The fourth pole from the Myers-Briggs model adds a third functional dimension that describes prefered lifestyle in terms of either judgement, which is rigidly well-ordered and highly-organized, or perception, which is flexible as it allows for spontaneity, providing an ability to shift between tasks.

Plato and Aristotle: Jung's approach to subjective- and objectiveness
To help illustrate the fundamental importance of the introvert/extravert pole, and to show that Jung's theory was not entirely his own invention, but was based on others' supporting ideas, including the classics, Jung inserted a passage by Heine at the very beginning of the book describing Plato in introverted terms, and Aristotle in extraverted terms.  Plato, in Heine's passage, is mystical, and hence subjective in Jung's model; and Aristotle is orderly and practical (presumably with respect to information organization).  Aristotle is openly attached to the "object" of his surrounding environment, and hence an extravert and objective.  This assessment contradicts the common perception of both Plato and Aristotle being objective, but in different ways.  Plato's Forms created a basis for orderly science, and Aristotle's disciplined observational approach contributed to the scientific method.  Both of them are further perceived as highly objective because of their resistance to sentimentality.  The Similarminds questionaire makes a similar distinction with questions that define a rational/sentimental bipole ("Personality Test," n.d.).  Jung further contradicts the common perception of Plato as objective by attaching the concept of "empathy," and hence sentimentality, to objectivity (p. 48), and by showing that empathy's antithesis, abstraction, is used by the introvert to synthesize a version of the world within his mind--as he may be afraid of the real world (p. 505).  As Jung's ideas are the basis for the instrument of this assessment, this conclusion by Jung underscores the necessity to assess the individual in the context of his personality and experiences, and not in the context of contemporary society with its many preconceptions. 

Sense/intuition and thinking/feeling
Jung's two functional bipoles, sense/intuition and thinking/feeling, also obey the rules of his "bent universe" that forces compensation at the extremes.  Intuition can be thought of as an added, or sixth sense.  This implies that unintuitive individuals who are sense-oriented rely on superficial cues from the surrounding environment, and hence may not be able to interpret the meanings of surrounding phenomena, and therefore are distanced, and possibly afraid (p. 505).  "Sense," therefore, might be counter-intuitively interpreted as an introverted pole and "intuition" an extroverted, and also empathic, pole.  Jung self-debates the extra- and introverted nature of the sensing/intuition bipole, but agrees that intuition is important, along with empathy, for understanding others (p. 473).  Thinking and feeling are even easier to explain; thinking is the domain of the introvert.  Jung describes it as thinking of subjects, and, as thinking is the polar opposite to feeling, the thinking/feeling bipole further attaches Plato to subjectivity.

In Psychological Types, Jung describes a dichotomous bipolar model of opposing traits that not only explains personality phenomena along the established poles used by the Myers-Briggs, but introduces many related descriptors that can create a flexible matrix that is applicable to diverse therapeutic scenarios (Jung, 1976).  Jung built his theory by critically examining other theories being developed during the early 20th Century, and further supports it with classical anecdotes.  Jung's writing is self-critical in a way that creates possibilities for alternate analyses, which allowed the participant to modify his interpretation of the intuitive/sensing bipole to improve his self-assessment.  Psychological Types gives advanced insights into the relationships between many psychological concepts.  The most important of these are empathy, abstraction, and conceptualization (Jung, 1976, p 48), as he reported seeing these concepts being implemented to define emotional intelligence.

References

Jung, C. (1921). Psychological types. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Jung/types.htm

Jung, C., (1976). Psychological Types. Princeton: Princeton University Press

Vacha-Haase, T., & Thompson, B. (2002). Alternative ways of measuring counselees' Jungian psychological-type preferences. Journal of Counseling & Development, 80(2), 173. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Was CG Jung a racist?

I felt encouraged to absorb more of Jung's ideas when I found a possible relationship between his archetypes and the evolution of language and the "deeper" meanings of words.

I found much about mythology in his writing (in fact I found it overwhelming), but attempted to stay on-topic with respect to his typology.  Nonetheless, I found his bipole approach (which was not his alone) to be so dimensional as to be "cosmic."

I found two of his three measures to be simple enough; it was the "sensing/intuitive" measure that took more effort to grasp.  He shows in different places how this axis can be either intro- or extraverted.   I found a racist component of his thinking that I feel would be different if he lived today, and would alter his "cosmos."

Jung makes statements in Psychological Types (1976) linking both intuition and extraversion to the "primitive" person in a negative way that was influenced by his time and culture.  They would have opposite meaning if he lived to day, as the third quote seems highly-racist as it compares natives to monkeys, and presumably would be different:

• "unconscious demands of the extravert have an essentially primitive, infantile, egocentric character" (p. 571),
• "intuition is characteristic of the infantile and primitive psychology" (p. 454), and
• "a bush-man had a little boy whom he loved with the tender monkey-love of primitives" (p. 227).

In congruence with his time, he viewed natives seemingly as a lower species.  If this perception were to be altered throughout his writing, as it would probably be if he lived today, then the sensing ability of the "primitive" would become revised as the intuitive knowledge of the shaman.

I think this would alter the sensing/intuition bipole, and possibly the typology's use in instruments today.  As is, I believe that he was very much "on the fence" with respect to this and other related concepts such as empathy, abstraction, and conceptualization.  Perhaps he was forming a better view of these concepts unconsciously while he was expressing views of his time that included some racism.  I just don't see him as a racist, as racists, in my experience, tend be wholly ignorant and, in at least one case, decidedly bipolar (which mean in the other sense).

Empathy model outline

A "clean room" approach to emotional communication


This introduction:

It is difficult to write about psychology because the traditional theories (which are still philosophy-based, using 2500 year old material) still confound observed phenomena, often obviously, such as in the cases of Freud and Watson. I wrote this synopsis of my "clean room" implementation of the empathy model primarily to focus and refresh the learning.  My learning, counseling psychology (masters degree), is being shared on the Wikiversity.

Resource model

• Emotional communication works to create a communication matrix that allows for the collaboration and mutual support that is found in higher organisms.
• Responsibility grows from emotional connections within the environment of family and community in humanity and with many animal groups.
• Those with dysfunctional emotional communication systems, who are unable to collaborate to create resources, are forced to group to use predatory strategies.  They often create predatory cooperation group systems that rely on digital communication (Humbolt squid).  This is organismic fate, which is, in nature, a mistake in the genetic code in higher animals, and especially in humans.  Capital structure, the dominant component of modern human society, leverages emotional communication dysfunction to develop predatory strategies to obtain resources violently such as through theft and through war.

Evolutionary empathy

• The emotion and emotional communication are ancient and below (or behind) the neocortex (mouse, cortex, PAG)
• Higher empathy appears to be in brain networks, such as in the pyramid cells of the neocortex, and  leads in two directions:

1. Compassion for others outside of the immediate family to the community and on to distant people--"intangible" relationships
2. Collaboration becomes so sophisticated combining analytic and emotionally communicative facilities to combine reason and affection into a technical responsibility-based desired ability to create resources

• In the opposite direction, the unempathic forces take this product, remove the community of knowledge and, in the process, natural responsibility so as to be able to direct  technology toward a predatory purpose: to take other's resources.  In recent centuries this has been in factories and mechanized warfare, and, more recently, to reduce productive society to a pure consumption mode.

Natural organisms are the successful result of evolution; organisms that are not finely-tuned in the ways produced by evolution to meet needs required by the environment are genetically defective and hence dysfunctional.  In higher organisms, emotional communication is the most important evolutionary refinement, and, in nature, emotional communication dysfunctions result in social isolation, and hence far fewer opportunities to reproduce.  This allows natural organisms to keep moving forward in evolution, and keeps social cohesion strong.  In contrast to nature, modern human society does not isolate the emotionally dysfunctional, and, in many cases, attempts to force them to become successful, which tends to place those with emotional communication defectives in control positions--with consistently bad and sometimes horrific results.  Further, they are often encouraged to reproduce for reasons of spirituality or human capital, which assures that future generations will be affected.

The model was initially based on empathy basics such elephant family observations and the monkey colonies of Cayo Santiago where members who unable to interact collaboratively, effectively forcing them to steal to survive, are marginalized. 

Predatory relationships

• Predatory-normal: victimize through a relationship such as an abusive marriage.
• Predatory-predatory: find normally empathic people to exploit. 

Someone may enter into a predatory-normal relationship, have children, and then find and marry a fellow-predator, a better "match," who can be a partner in an exploitative business.  Since predator-predator relationships lack the empathy that defines normal relationships, they are dependent on a resource stream that can very likely be defined in terms of capital.  Their relationships with their children will fall into the same patterns. 

The normal, or victim, in the relationship will often attempt to "fix" the predatory partner with the misconception that the predator has within the components necessary for normalcy, and will attempt to re-write the predators thinking, especially since a mutual relationship is more logical, and hence beneficial.  This is encouraged by capital structure, and especially by religion, which often views all as having a "holy" spirit or soul.  For capital, the goal is the development of valued human assets, or resources.  The process, which can be thought of as mapping, will often work temporarily, but the predator's basic mode will always return, forcing the normal partner to try again.  In effect, the normal partner "paints a pretty picture" of the relationship, a process which, in fact, is a cognitive disorder.

Children will attempt to reconstruct these defective relationships in future relations such as marriage if the consciousness has been mapped by a predatory parent.  With time, they see the ill-logic and marry appropriately.

Not surprisingly, as we know that societal structures have been refined from family structure, modern civilization often fits this pattern especially as we find it in Plato's Republic.

Mediated glandular responses

• Creating benefits through good work, especially through collaboration, produces the benefits of life, and with them good feelings that are the result of positive glandular responses to that beneficial work.
• Bad results produce bad responses that are negative glandular responses

The emotional benefit from the effort of developing physical benefits, especially through collaboration, gives people (and perhaps most higher organisms) a good feeling that is provided by the glandular systems of the brain in parallel to the physical benefits.  People who are consistently unable to obtain the benefits of life (possibly because they are not connected to the normal community process of creating benefits such as occurs in the case of an emotional communication dysfunction), will often attempt to use some means to create the same good feeling that accompanies natural benefits.  They attempt to mediate a response synthetically to obtain the same positive glandular response that beneficial activity provides.  Gambling is an example, as a gambler pays a lot for the opportunity to be able to feel the benefits of winning, despite having to lose many times to do so.  "Hard" drug users short-circuit the entire benefit-creation process by producing the glandular response directly, such as with a chemical injection.  In some cases they may take this mediated path this because their brains cannot produce positive glandular responses through any other means, such as through beneficial success. 

Poverty often precludes the ability to succeed, and hence the ability to naturally "feel good" as a benefit of collaborative success.  This, logically, would make it a cause for mediated and short-curciuted attempts to create positive glandular responses.  Poverty should then result in high levels of gambling and "hard" drug use.

Emotional VS character (digital) communication

• Conceptual versus sequential
• White matter versus purely executive function

The necessity, or urgency, of predator-victim model pushes the most important component aside, which is the underlying difference between the two.  Normalcy, or empathy, is the goal of evolution, which all you can find in nature.  Normalcy has slipped in humanity to possibly 80% with 20% only able to function in an exploitative mode.  Why?  In our time, cocaine, or powered narcissism, is probably the most to blame.  Throughout history humanity has been slipping away from natural appreciation, which is highly complex, to calculating thought, which is sequential.  Sequential roughly relates to linear thought, which is how sequential-only thinkers think of their thought, but it is not linear.  It is prone to error causing dead stops in logic, but continues in the crooked path that normal people are expected to accept--or else.

Sequential thought could be considered executive function, and complex thought all the other parts of the brain usually detected as white matter.  White matter is insulating fat on neurons that allows neural electrical activity to accelerate, so complex thought could be said to require a pick-up in processing speed to achieve the "critical mass" necessary for complexities such as higher emotions.  This is described as empathy and is usually attributed to the specialized spindle and mirror neurons, but many, if not most, animals have empathy without these neurons and interrelate without them, such mice and our pets do.  Researchers find it in the more ancient parts of the brain, and we find sequential communication in the very ancient Humbolt Squid with its humboldt squid chromatophores.  Those without the ability to reach neural "critical mass" are unable to conceive of what it is and attempt to thought purely in terms of sequential, usually calculating thought.  The vast healthy majority (80-90%) that is able to reach "critical mass" tends to take it for granted.

Mechanical and synaptic descriptions: Lewin and Boyton 

• The activity is in the spaces between us, much like Lewin attempts to describe using physics, but for corporate organizational psych, a behaviorist area.
• Extensions of that into person to person connections in psychoanalysis, or transference: Boyton

Constructivism

• The community of knowledge is where home is
• Loss of the natural and historical community of knowledge leads to moral collapse and mental illness
  

The economic phenomena of "churning" forces constant job-change, and in many cases, constant migration, guaranteeing the destruction of the established communities of knowledge that define human society and culture.  The churning effect results in the creation, or "development," of synthetic communities that are linked to non-productive mall-type commercial centers that attempt to imitate culture as a lure for resources for consumption.  Missing entirely is the basis of human collaboration, and hence responsibility and morality.  What is substituted for morality is synthetic: the rule of law, which, of course, does nothing to support mental health.  As this type of capital construct invariably lacks a productive component and functions purely on consumption, it has to locate remote resources to exploit to prevent economic collapse.

Counter-empathy
Un-empathy, the lack of emotional communication abilities, or emotional communication dysfunction (ECD) which is a noun and static.
Anti-empathy, action based on this dysfunction, which is the obtaining of resources by taking instead of by contributing collaboratively. 

The model tends to define anti-empathic phenomena in evolutionary terms, which would point to DNA.  Sociology and psychology more more demanding; the negative results of anti-empathy would have to be described in social or mental context.  Following the resources component of the model, it is likely that aggressiveness would result from a perception that resources may not be available, or that there is some threat, probably as a result of resource unavailability.  Since most organisms are healthy, including humans, this perception will likely be a misconception; in other words, paranoia.  Within the context of the Internet, where the model is being developed, there have been examples (that were easily documented) of paranoia being used to actually generate small examples of humanity's two big problems: bias and hate.

Society moves from a mutually supportive community to an un-empathic capital environment where controllers exclude normally collaborative people (Lewis Mumford's democratic technic) who created the benefits society into desperation.  Their contributions, or innovations, are transferred to the unempathic, Plato's upper layers, and the process is imitated with exponentially declining success usually protected with misinformation, preserved with exclusion strategies such as the high stakes testing of human capital systems (Confucian/Mandarin testing), and if not that, violence.

Layered Model
This is a gift from recent information technology; the Internet protocol stack model that describes, in abstraction, simultaneous yet different events, and sometimes seemingly unrelated events strike on each levels necessary for Internet communication.  Each has its own nature and purpose, yet each layer operates as a component of every action. Comparison of the "IP stack" with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

As a teacher in an autistic school, I learned to think of external human functions as abilities, and the underlying mechanisms as facilities that enable these functions, or give people abilities.  Most obviously missing in the severely autistic is speech; Chomsky describes speech ability as the output of underlying functionality that is somehow independent within the mind (and brain). 

The layered approach to digital Internet communication can be use to show how each of the interrelating components of each mental action can be abstracted into layers, starting from the very lowest neural activity and moving upwards to the point that the mental activity is communicated. , from the neural layers (which are analogous to circuits in many ways), up through the emotional layers, out to the surrounding environment (where emotional actions influence others), and ultimately upward to influence to the nature of human society.  From there a layered model can be used to show how actions affect the surrounding environment and ultimately society.  Healthy thoughts initiate with the actions of well-functioning neurons, and ultimately positively influence the surrounding environment. Likewise, badly-formed thoughts arising from poorly-functioning neurology will have unhealthy effects on the surrounding environment.  The model can abstract the effects of defective neurology in important places to show how they can, and often do, have exceptionally bad results for the World.

They layered, or stack, approach quickly brings the model to the sociological level.  Large organizations typically lack empathy as organizational control requires that executives may have to exploit people for the resources necessary to keep very large structures growing to offset the inefficiency caused by their overbearing managerial superstructures.  Within large, and sometimes small organizations, managers are required to have a cold approach to others as they may have to fire them.  In general, the empathy of an organization is proportional to the distance from people of its supporting foundation to the control center at the top, but small organizations are in no way immune.  Empathy quickly disappears within the first few layers of a controlling superstructure, or capital structure.  This was described in Michael Moore's Roger and Me.

Facilities (neural functional systems) produce abilities (neural constructs) that facilitate (predispose) unique actions to allow a person to produce a self (self-actualization).  The ability to speak leverages emotional communication, but does not define it.  The use of speech for emotional communication lies above the emotional constructs that utilize it for emotional communication, so, in a sense, the ability to speak combines both underlying speech facilities and expressive abilities.  The constructs that utilize speech can use other communication abilities, or channels, such as eye contact and touch.

Missing mental facilities result in mental disabilities, but, in the empathic model, mental disabilities are only limitations if they are so deep that they actually prevent the development of empathic constructs, and hence prevent emotional communication within the social environment.  A person may be disabled in significant ways, including communication abilities such as speech, but if they can develop and reflect emotion communication constructs, that is, to communicate empathically, they can always rely on the community support that comes from the responsibility of empathic people.

As an example, Down's syndrome victims have nothing wrong with them from the perspective of the model because they typically have an ability, and often a strong desire, to connect emotionally.  What we see as a problem is that they are missing an executive function facility that helps us moderate friendliness and use caution specifically to assure that we are not victimized by organisms that have no empathy: in humanity, the anti-empathic.

However, there is a problem with empathy.  Empathic people, through higher empathy, often attempt to provide support to the emphatically dysfunctional to empower them, usually as an extension of religion or spirituality combined with concepts of human capital.  As a result, people who outwardly appear normal, may in fact be disabled in terms of emotional communication, and despite this will be encouraged, or even forced, to attempt to succeed beyond the scope of their natural abilities.  The misconception is that people with empathic defects can be empowered to be responsible in the sense that they can be made to contribute to the capital structure.  As they cannot fully function at expected levels, they become angry when they are pushed beyond their natural abilities, and even if they have a degree of natural empathy, once they are empowered beyond their capabilities, they effectively become cruel.

Implementation
The empathy model is fairly easy to implement.  As a resource model, problems, in the most general form, result from someone, or a cooperative group, attempting to obtain resources non-collaboratively as a predator; someone else is being victimized.  This can be anywhere, including the family, as family members are sometimes thought of, by people lacking empathy, as assets.  FGM in ancient African nations is an example. 

Extending this idea of a person as a family asset is human capital; capital structures see humans if it can profit from them, and liabilities if it cannot.  Most institutions are structured around this, and as such, are looking to benefit people so that they can "contribute" to the national (and now global) capital structure's growth.  Often those who cannot succeed in similar school-type didactic structures, are pushed so hard that it is the "desire" of the capital structure for their success that is the cause of their problems; and hence the saying "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

If it is difficult to find an actual resource benefit for abuse, then the next step is to look for a mediated "feeling" of benefit, or glandular response; many may be abusive because abuse has benefited them in the past, given them the good feeling of success, and they reproduce the feeling by repeating the action; this is a sadistic mediated glandular response.

The paranoia component has been addressed for several millennia; forgiveness is necessary to prevent the paranoia resulting from past transgressions, or "trespasses" as Christians say, from continuing a cycle of paranoia.

In all cases, whether predatory, victimized, or simply normally happy, happiness is dependent on a productive position that is within the scope of the person.

Contemporary-versity

Singly the most important thing is freedom of speech, and this is what distinguishes the Wikiversity (WV) from the Wikipedia (WP).  In the WV it is encased in the concept of original research, or OR.  Obviously I am referring to cold fusion (CF), but I am also talking about my research on the WP that has given real insight into the underlying mechanisms of humanity's big problem of hate.  (It seems reasonable to assume that energy-hungry humanity would have implemented it decades ago!)

Having said that, the successful anti-free speech strategy has been to utilize free speech itself as the vehicle for limiting it; this strategy is not only universal, it is so successful that it has consistently installed the non-productive in positions of control over normal productive populations to operate them un-empathically as a single organic mass in every single case--even in revolution!  (In keeping with free speech, it is necessary at this point to overtly state that free speech does not include the right to censorship.  This has to be stated in this way because censors are unable to view omnidirectionally; they are defective in this way, and, as a result, are pathologically biased and, hence, undesirable here--or anywhere else.  If there is information removal, it has to be done by consensus; three un-consensual removals lead to a lifetime ban, with previous bad-will being the enforcer.)

A concrete example
I cannot go forward without a concrete relevant example; I am forced to be critical to be logical.  Slogging through the mess of CF, I came across what I have recently identified as the reactionary rebellion within the open forum to dominate the open form, (Mumford's Democratic Technic), for the benefit of elite (Mumford's Authoritarian Technic) or the oligarchy to everyone else: Several of the cold fusion supporters compare themselves to Socrates.  Socrates is inseparable from Plato, and Aristotle spills the beans by taking credit for others' work, especially Hippocrates, and then convinces Alexander that non-Greeks are objects like "plants to be cut down."  It is impossible to be a humanist and a genocidal racist simultaneously as each requires radically different neural constructs; Aristotle was faking; he was as mentally isolated as Plato was. While their self-comparisons with Socrates and the Platonics may seem narcissistic, it is far more than that, it is clever.  By playing the outsider or underdog, they can follow the path of those who established Western Civilization; he is attempting to take the well-trodden revolutionary path to domination.  It does not matter if he, himself, believes in CF; his absurdity is his power; if he is challenged he will behave absurdly, precisely as Ayn Rand's characters do in the Fountainhead: her rebel oligarchs who seek to crush the unfeeling, corrupt mass of humanity.

That this strategy should actually work comes as a surprise to the average person as it is so counter-intuitive.  Key to understanding this strategy is perceiving of it is a picture within a picture.  Athens used a "naval tax" (based on its successful naval defense of Greece) to build the Parthenon, its democratic forum.  It implemented (Mumford's) diffuse tribute collection system that Rome would later use to build its Empire.  In other words, to build its democracy, Athens had to rip-off Sparta using tribute collection, or taxes, giving the Socratic-Platonic school (or the Academy from which all education descends) the rationale for treachery against the democracy of Athens (that unruly mass!) to, quite significantly and ultimately, create our Western oligarchy on behalf of the Spartan aristocracy.  The Confucian structure of Asia must be the same; we specifically know from the Vietnamese revolutions that the exam-filtered Mandarins viewed the normal, productive population as a nameless organic mass to be exploited; normal minds don't think this way, but will have to soon, as time is running out for humanity.

Restoration of humanity
Because Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle gave us such simple structures, each of us intuitively knows what to dismantle.  We also know that we as normal people can provide for ourselves all the basics (good-tasting food, attractive clothes, comfortable dwellings, and stimulating entertainment) except one: medicine (or perhaps, Medicine).  Socrates' oligarchy has successfully created a monopoly from this, the very thing we need for life, even though the majority of medicines come from the shamans of the forests.  Another related important monopoly is Education, which is of course, closely related to Medicine as it controls not only the factual information, but, more importantly, the certification system.

To be able to move past the misnamed "modern" but wholly ancient system, to our also misnamed "post-modern" contemporary system, we have half of what we need: an Education system!  From this we can build a Medicine system specifically targeted at the oligarch's core medical monopoly.  Also keeping the basics of food, shelter, clothing, and entertainment moving forward in the fashionable post-modern mode of "DIY."

To succeed we have to assure that we do not fall into Socrate's or Rand's "picture within a picture."  We need to assure that our rebellion is not an oligarchy in the making bringing us full circle back into the present state of disaster.  The solution therefore is not retaliation for all the evils of oligarchy and aristocracy (collectively the elite), but, as we showed this summer at the Rainbow Gathering, to find level-appropriate highly-productive niches for all--especially the mentally ill.  This applies especially for the overly intelligent (executive functioning) obsessively-compulsively driven (with broken brain networks), so that they don't attempt to succeed where they cannot by grabbing power because they cannot collaborate and hence be normally productive. 

Therapy
This theraputic solution has a problem; because available production positions are diminishing as a result of oligarchic expansion, there are fewer and fewer available productive niches for the defective oligarchs.  Such positions were increasing through the 1950s and 60s, but the growth of the elite and guardian structures has shrunk the productive layer until finally it was shipped out of the country.  We though we had a solution by implementing (this) information technology; but the oligarchy cleverly reversed this effort to create productive positions in the US, the "new economy," by handing information technology over to an especially hateful uber cast on the opposite side of the planet--possibly deliberately to halt this path to productivity for the defective oligarchs.  They, the oligarchs, understand their minds far better than we, the mass of normal people, ever will; they will always be a step ahead of our normal attempts at therapy, as it is their disease that we seek to cure, and especially because we are forced to practice within their maze-like structure.

What we have to understand is that people don't deliberately do bad things, they lack the ability to function at the top levels that wholly natural organisms do.  They synthesize as Plato did rather than organize as normal people do.  Evolution shows us that each organism operates at its full capacity; any mutations will result in an inability to pass along mutant genes, and also probably death.  We in society can prevent these unfortunate deaths, typically from starvation, but we tend to allow the mutations to reproduce, creating a humanity that may be as much as 20 or 30 percent defective, especially in terms of emotional communication and brain networks.  This kindness has to continue and increase, but the mutant reproduction must stop.  As Jon Scot showed us, "evil" is not so much evil as an absence of "good."  People can only function within the scope of their abilities; the high-intelligent whose executive are cut off from their lower ancient empathic constructs because of damaged neural pathways really need to live within their emotionally limited scope, as otherwise they will hurt the normally functioning majority.

In other words, the therapeutic strategy is that nobody gets hurt.  But finding productive niches for the compulsively-driven will prove problematic as production in the West has been halted and handed over to ill-prepared agrarians in Asia (who don't as of yet understand the concepts of critical inquiry into the morality of production) by the compulsively-driven.  This creates a possibly insurmountable problem that reminds me of violent revolution: struggle for the means of production.  I cannot imagine a solution that is non-violent as every attempt at non-violence in the global arena has met with violence from the globalist guardians through swat teams, billy clubs, arrests, and tear gas; and reverse violence from the rear by so-called anarchists who are merely terrorist egotists, and in my experience, fascistic themselves.

Latest empathy-evolution-oligarchy

From the free desktop of John Bessa:

I strongly believe in the evolutionary model that shows that apes, monkeys and elephants have the "higher" empathy that most humans have because of special neurons enabling the brain networks.  Whales have even higher empathy as they have a set of more advanced neurons possibly to link together parts of their huge brains.

Mice have "ancient" empathy, as the basic affection component is ancient and in the lower brain closer to the nervous system, but they are shown to have a high level of empathy, along with other "critters."

So it is all love, but higher empathy is able to plug in advanced thinking (in the frontal brain) into the long-standing love that animals have (that is nearer to the spinal chord).

The evolutionary purpose of empathy can easily be said to help families care for their children, and, I can say that there is a "freaky" tendency for higher empathy to form along different evolutionary branches.  Birds descend from dinosaurs, and they have empathy.  Doves, for instance, symbolize love for us.  If there are aliens out there, they (or perhaps most of them) have higher empathy!

Higher empathy boils down to the idea that higher animals have the ability to care for community, and in the case of humans, care for the World.  There seems to be a "will" of evolution to create beauty, such as flowers, and the ability to appreciate this beauty, which is very spiritual if you think about it.

The only "rub" in the theory is that a certain percentage of humans do not have this ability to connection especially with respect affection, as they act partly or purely as predators (1).  The more stupid of the predators get locked up; if they are clever, then can drive whole nations into a predatory mode.

My explanation for that is that they somehow did not get the necessary facilities to assure higher empathy, either at birth or during growth, and they have been able to leverage various human components to get into positions of control.  

Another factor, is that the non-empathic do not "feel" the pain that they inflict on others, so there is nothing, except possibly a strict upbringing or time in jail, that will prevent them from hurting others.  If they are especially clever, they can find loopholes in protection laws, or, if they are especially clever, they can add "riders" to laws that effectively nullify them.

And if they are especially--especially--especially clever (clever cubed), they can "liberalize" the laws as the Neo-liberal former US President George W. Bush did, by, for instance, effectively legalizing torture in a nation founded on outlawing that kind of behavior (2).

(Bush is ESTJ, or perhaps, Bushes are that.)

The most important factor, which is also a form of loophole is empathy itself.  Nature requires that you follow the evolutionary path, which, for community- and family-oriented organisms, means being responsible to the family and group.  Animals that are not responsible tend to get socially rejected, or at least harassed to isolation, preventing them from passing along their mutated non-empathic genes.

In humanity, we try to give them democratic rights, even giving them special compensation, and, most amazingly, empower them by encouraging them to achieve responsibility in the community (3).

So let's cut to the chase.  What is the therapy for people who lack empathy.

That is exceedingly simple to me, and I tested/observed my solution at the most recent national Rainbow gathering.  I have camped there with the "fairies" at the gathering for decades, now (4).  They are the descendent's of the gay rights movement from San Francisco's Castro, and NYC's Stonewall Rebellion.

This year a particular guy, who I will tentatively define as bipolar in nature (just for background reference), attempted to steer the camp towards a Hollywood version of primitiveness, that included sex shows (5).

My reaction is that this is not what the family-minded Rainbow Family wants in its culture.  In the bigger picture, I saw an example of how gay culture can isolate itself from normal culture by making something public that is naturally private.

What happened was simple.  The more sensible fairie members pressured him to lay off the Hollywood sex-savage-satan thing, and he very successfully transitioned into the guy who manages the fire and what was on the grill.

What happened, in my view, is that he gave up his unsuccessful attempt to be "great," and lowered his expectations to his abilities, as a bipolar person, which was to focus on an important role within the community that is not socially demanding.

What I am saying is that society demands that we all be "the best," or suffer highly-reduced positions in life that makes us feel like slaves or, even worse, components of a vast machine.  Options are becoming the slave-master, as this bipolar attempted, or rebelling completely.

I am also saying that the solution to the problem as I describe it: people just need to reach their normal levels (6).

I think it is easy to imagine that the people who set up this system are highly unempathic; the word system is telling, they are systematic and not emotionally caring: thinking and not feeling, or T's,

Rebellion introduces another rub.  Rebels are marginalized from society, and, while many are attempting to liberate society, many are trying to set up a splinter group (7).    

Moving to evolution theory--since the majority of organisms are normal, even in twisted human society, it seems that rebels, if genuinely interested helping the majority of people, or the normally empathic, achieve democratic rights, they can count on support of their support.  But if they are rebelling against the majority of people, because they believe the norm to be bad and against them (as gays and lesbians might) then they are actually working towards the opposite of democratic liberation, which is fascism in Western civilization.

This is were a key factor comes in (and why I wrote all this).  I was studying the evolutionary paths of the thinking VS feeling dichotomy, in terms of "reason" VS "sense" -- or rational versus sensual thinking, I looked at logic and the Socratic school.

I ran smack into Plato through his seminal work, "Plato's Republic."  I instantly identified the model for the modern corporation (as a technologist I worked for an endless list of global banks), and also the model for Fascism.  This latter lineage is based on Lewis Mumford's "Technics and Civilization" that places Roman colonial fascism as the source of our problems.  And also the ancient Roman historian Plutarch, who confirms that Rome's strength was built by implementing Plato's Republic (8).

I see the Socratic/Platonic school as a splinter group that complained about repression but actually formed the basis for repression that is the primary problem with Western Civilization.  This is the most significant component of our society, and it was created by a splinter group.

This a very interesting idea, and if it is true, then similar groups that started as splinter groups in other civilizations (Asian, Indian, Muslim) would necessarily have to follow the same development path.

I have not gotten that far yet, but I can give an embryonic example.

For centuries, Japan was a peace-loving liberal Buddhist dynasties kept Japan peaceful with activities like flower-arranging, rock gardening, and abstract pottery design.  The leadership wanted to keep Japan that way by isolating it, but an especially liberal dynasty allowed Chinese Confucianism to form a school.  

This Confucian school would ultimately become the University of Tokyo, and ultimately take over Japan through its military studies program.  With the Confucian takeover became brutal, ultimately destroying China during WWII.  

The change converted Japan from a pacifist isolationist country (like Bhutan is now) to an expansion-istic capital-colonial economy, and the change was actually the fault of the USA (9).

In this context, I think it is important to note that the Confucianists invented the examination systems that in Asian determined, undemocratically, who would be in charge (10).  High scorers would be come Mandarins, the leaders and poets; middle scorers would become doctors and administrators, and low scorers would be sent back to the nameless mass of people, or the masses (11).

Links:
Empathy Model
Empathic Dariwnism
Capital Structure

(1) From quantifying observed driving and other behaviors, I believe that the unempathic percentage may be as high as 30%.

(2)

(3)   I am hopelessly heterosexual, and I am not certain why I gravitate to them, and fairies seemed to wonder why too, but got used to me being a straight among them.

(4) This defines libertarianism and ego-centric anarchism, as opposed to social liberalism and social anarchy.

(5) This cannot possibly exist as nature is evolutionary, and not satanic.

(6) This is something I think gay and lesbian culture needs to look at to help end anti-g/l bias.

(7) Plutarch goes farther, saying that the Socratic/Platonic school, called both the Academy and Lyceum, was repressed by the democratic Athenians, and, further, that the Athenians repressed all scholars and philosophers. Plutarch is obviously lying about the repression, as ancient Athens was the most liberal society ever, encouraging anyone with a significant thought contribute that thought for the benefit of the city's culture.  We also know that Athens was exceptionally gay-friendly, and it is believed that they Lyceum was largely gay.

(8) We call them "special," and I believe from observing an FASD who was pushed to get certification, which made him become controlling and cruel based on being pushed.  But if he remained at his pre-teen level, he was friendly and fun.

(9) The Western "high stakes" testing serves the same purpose, which is called human capital, and Japan is held as the model

(10) The Western communists are, or were, Platonic (as Marks was reading the classics), and they thought of "the people" as a mass to be dictated to, or over.

(11) The change happened just after an American fleet threatened to destroy Tokyo if Japan did not join the global trade of the time, this was during the 1800s.

Recognition, Thirdness, and the Mirror Neuron System

Relational synapse of the mirror neuron system

Jessica Boyatt talks about the mirror neuron system as a "relation synapse" that is part of the relational psychoanalysis (below, 2009).  The mirror neurons enable a connection that is in "the physical and experiential space" (p.2) in between people who are communicating, such as a therapist and client.  It can also be the space surrounding the members of crowd, or what she calls a social "bubble."  What emerges from the "bubble" becomes part of eveyone's experience, and is the cause for more communication, and more experience construction.  The quality of the experience, I imagine, would depend on its context and the emotions experienced in the "bubble."

"Conscious verbal articulation" Boyatt says, "is the tip of the iceberg."  There is "implicit, nonconscious communication" in the bubble that is derived from experience.  This reminds me of the constructivist "community of knowledge" where "knowledge is a complex of meanings continually negotiated" (Constructivism and education).  Boyatt calls communication within her system "languaging" and she says that it operates at a much higher speed than normal articulated langauge.  She describes in the context of the therapist/client relationship, but I would probably see it more explicitly in romance, and hence highly more emtional--perhaps emotional communication.


Boyatt, J. (2009). Relational Synapse: Recognition, Thirdness, and the Mirror Neuron System. Washington, District of Columbia, US: American Psychological Association.

Depression: Non-psychotheraputic therapies

It is widely agreed that two neurotransmitter systems are implicated in depression: serotonin (5HT) and norepinephrine (NE).  While many psychotherapeutic strategies have been adapted for the treatment of depression, the therapy of choice is the medication that makes existing serotonin more available by preventing its re-uptake, or the SSRI (Peterson, 2004). 

In depression, the brain networks become hyperactive, and the serotonin enhancing medication "calms down" the activity, helping the brain networks normalize and allowing a return to normal cognitive-affective functioning.  The SSRI medication helps reduce the dysfunction, or dysregulation, that causes depressive symptoms, especially uncontrollable worry (Peterson, 2004).

Sometimes there is no benefit from SSRI medication, and a common alternate strategy is non-SSRI medications such as bupropion, mirtazapine, or venlafaxine (Papakostas, 2008).  Mirtazapine and venlafaxine affect norepinephrine function (they are called noradrenergic) where norepinephrine is shown to reduce neuron excitability (Zhaoyang, 2009), and hence help keep the brain "calm" in ways achieved by SSRIs.

In the case of seasonal affective depression (SAD), a third medication, bupropion, is used to prevent the re-uptake of dopamine rather than serotonin (Modell, 2005).  SAD is a "hibernation-like response" typically triggered by the change of seasons that creates a desire, even craving, for sleep (Morano, 2003).  Bupropion is considered an "activating" medication (Rye, 1998) as it promotes the stimulating effects of dopamine.  Bupropion is also effective in treating the "sleepiness and fatigue" associated with major depression (Papakostas, 2008), which implies that there are widely differing seemingly contradictory types, or perhaps components, of depression requiring divergent treatment strategies.

Treatment resistant depression describes depression that won't respond effectively to medication.  While counselors remain a lifeline for the deeply depressed who cannot respond to treatment two electric stimulation therapies are used to stimulate the brain: electroconvulsive therapy and Deep brain stimulation (Bewernick, 2010).
 

References

Bewernick, B., Hurlemann, R., Matusch, A., Kayser, S., Grubert, C., Hadrysiewicz, B., et al. (2010). Nucleus accumbens deep brain stimulation decreases ratings of depression and anxiety in treatment-resistant depression. Biological Psychiatry, 67(2), 110-116. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.09.013.

Modell, J., Rosenthal, N., Harriett, A., Krishen, A., Asgharian, A., Foster, V., et al. (2005). Seasonal affective disorder and its prevention by anticipatory treatment with Bupropion XL. Biological Psychiatry, 58(8), 658-667. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.07.021.

Morano, R. (2003). The sun also rises. Better Nutrition, 65(1), 46. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Papakostas, G., Fava, M., & Thase, M. (2008). Treatment of SSRI-resistant depression: A meta-analysis comparing within-versus across-class switches. Biological Psychiatry, 63(7), 699-704. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.08.010.

Petersen, T., Papakostas, G., Mahal, Y., Guyker, W., Beaumont, E., Alpert, J., et al. (2004). Psychosocial functioning in patients with treatment resistant depression. European Psychiatry, 19(4), 196-201. doi:10.1016/j.eurpsy.2003.11.006.

Rye, D., Dihenia, B., & Bliwise, D. (1998). Reversal of atypical depression, sleepiness, and REM-sleep propensity in narcolepsy with bupropion. Depression & Anxiety (1091-4269), 7(2), 92-95. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Zhaoyang, X., Pan-Yue, D., Rojanathammanee, L., Chuanxiu, Y., Grisanti, L., Permpoonputtana, K., et al. (2009). Noradrenergic depression of neuronal excitability in the entorhinal cortex via activation of TREK-2 K⁺ Channels. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 284(16), 10980-10991. doi:10.1074/jbc.M806760200.

Ethical issues of anxiety disorders

Many adolescents (and children) require proactive care for anxiety disorders.  In the most optimistic cases, early intervention can stem serious problems later on.  But for many suffering from anxiety disorders, proactive care means that their rights are limited, and they may be coerced into therapy and medications that they don't want.  There is endless ethical "gray area" between the two extremes: a happy alliance with the therapist, and an  apparent removal of basic rights.

In the happier purely voluntary form of therapy the counselor/client relationship is called the therapeutic alliance, "a collaborative nature of the partnership between counselor and client" (Hawaii State Department of Health), counseling ethics are easily applied as boundaries to the relationship to assure that the therapy is beneficial and that no harm comes to the client.

This is described succintly as the "four principles for biomedical ethics" (Westra, 2009): respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice.

The phrase "no harm" (Sheppard, 1999), may be added to stress nonmaleficence.  When clients are harming themselves or may be harmed, this comes to mean "preventing harm," and ethical issues become difficult.

Another more subtle situation that equally relevant situation involves what treatment is used, specifically prescribed drugs, rather than if treatment is used.

An approach to these contradictions is to show that adolescents that need to be controlled, have that need because they are victims.  Adolescents who have been sexually assaulted are at risk for PTSD (Lawyer, 2006), and PTSD as often as not leads to anger (Saigh, 2007).  That may require involuntary treatment if the anger is externalized as violence.  Angry adolsecents usually come from angry families (Avci,  2010), and  "school refusal" is most often positively reinforced by family members or cohorts from the surrounding environment (Kearney, 2004).  Other adolescents who "refuse school" are anxiously reacting to real threats at school (Dube, 2009).  Professionals agonize when young assault victims have to be placed in forensic units, really prisons, when they become threatening or self-injurious as a result of their victimization (Welsh, 1998).

Self-injury may be the most dramatic of issues, along with often related suicide, and it is usually an effort to distract from the pain of depression, or the result of low self-esteem depression (Dickstein, 2009) from negative appraisal by others, or assault (Weismoore, 2010).  Effectively, they have neurotransmitter dysfunctions (Dickstein, 2009).

Perhaps the best information is that adolescent "delinquents" have normal empathy, and that they apparently suffer from executive function disorders (Lardén, 2006).  The stresses that they face force them to limit their cognizance of others' feelings, and there is no self-reported empathy gap between girls and boys. 











Avci, R., & Güçray, S. (2010). An Investigation of violent and nonviolent adolescents' family functioning, problems concerning family members, anger and anger expression. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 10(1), 65-76. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Dickstein, D. (2009). A closer look at non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents. (Cover story). Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter, 25(12), 1-6. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Dube, S., & Orpinas, P. (2009). Understanding excessive school absenteeism as School Refusal Behavior. Children & Schools, 31(2), 87-95. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Hawaii State Department of Health (2010). Therapeutic alliance curriculum activity quiz. Retrieved September 16, 2010, from http://www.amhd.org/About/ClinicalOperations/MISA/Training/Therapeutic%20Alliance%20Curriculum%20activity%20quiz.pdf

Kearney, C. (2007). Forms and functions of school refusal behavior in youth: an empirical analysis of absenteeism severity. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 48(1), 53-61. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01634.x.

Lardén, M., Melin, L., Holst, U., & Långström, N. (2006). Moral judgement, cognitive distortions and empathy in incarcerated delinquent and community control adolescents. Psychology, Crime & Law, 12(5), 453-462. doi:1068-316X print/ISSN 1477-2744.

Lawyer, S., Ruggiero, K., Resnick, H., Kilpatrick, D., & Saunders, B. (2006). Mental health correlates of the victim-perpetrator relationship among-interpersonally victimized adolescents. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 21(10), 1333-1353. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Saigh, P., Yasik, A., Oberfield, R., & Halamandaris, P. (2007). Self-Reported Anger Among Traumatized Children and Adolescents. Journal of Psychopathology & Behavioral Assessment, 29(1), 29-37. doi:10.1007/s10862-006-9026-9.

Sheppard, G., Schulz, W. and McMahon, S. (1999). The code of ethics. Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association: Ottawa.

Weismoore, J., & Esposito-Smythers, C. (2010). The Role of Cognitive Distortion in the Relationship Between Abuse, Assault, and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 39(3), 281-290. doi:10.1007/s10964-009-9452-6.

Welsh, J. (1998). In whose ‘best interests’? Ethical issues involved in the moral dilemmas surrounding the removal of sexually abused adolescents from a community-based residential treatment unit to a locked, forensic adult psychiatric unit. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 27(1), 45-51. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2648.1998.00502.x.

Westra, A., Willems, D., & Smit, B. (2009). Communicating with Muslim parents: “the four principles” are not as culturally neutral as suggested. European Journal of Pediatrics, 168(11), 1383-1387. doi:10.1007/s00431-009-0970-8.

Self-esteem

Kutob reports low self-esteem in elementary and middle school girls in California and Arizona manifested as "low academic performance, social isolation, depression, anxiety, fatigue, headaches, and stomachaches"  (Kutob, 2010).   The low self-esteem was largely caused by cruel teasing and bullying associated with appearance: body weight.  Kutob promotes "zero tolerance" for teasing.  He blames society for allowing a "mindless acceptance and promotion of stereotypic definitions of personal value based on 'Hollywood' appearance standards."

Self-esteem issues can be cultural
Self-esteem for White and Hispanic girls declined by age 11, but, for Black girls, self-esteem remained the same "between the ages of 9 and 14."  The Black girls were immune.  As global self-esteem for Black and White children is equal (Jackson, 2009), the difference appears to be cultural.

Chinese children with "absent migrant parents" suffer low self-esteem (Li-Juan, 2010).  Loneliness predicts low self-concept, which is restored when their parents spend quality time with them.  Here, family affection links to self-esteem and -concept rather than appraisal.

Top down (social) and bottom up (biopsychological)
Low self-esteem for White and Hispanic girls in California and Arizona resulted from negative appraisal rather than self-concepts of appearance.  There seem to be distinct internal and external components of low self-esteem and poor self-concept.  Mentoring improves self-concept and reduces anxiety, but may not improve school behavior or relationships, and depression may remain (Schmidt, 2007).  Bonding in group therapy benefits self-esteem (Marmarosh, 2005), but those who attempt bonding to reduce depression often become more depressed (Cambron, 2010).

Top down
Low self-esteem includes normal reactions (Hendel, 2006):

• need to win
• pleasing others
• perfectionism
• self-criticism
• withdrawing

Bottom up
It is also associated with three indicators of psychological distress (Huajian, 2009):

• depression
• anxiety
• "low subjective well-being"

Exercise improves self-concept, and hence self-esteem

Psychomotor programs "correlated with increased global self-esteem and decreased depression and anxiety levels" (Peter PV Van de, 2005).  Increased physical self-concept elevates low self-esteem--whatever its cause.


Reference

Cambron, M., & Citelli, L. (2010). Examining the link between friendship contingent self-esteem and the self-propagating cycle of depression. Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology, 29(6), 701-726. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Hendel, A. (2006). Restoring Self-Esteem in Adolescent Males. Reclaiming Children & Youth, 15(3), 175-178. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Huajian, C., Qiuping, W., & Brown, J. (2009). Is self-esteem a universal need? Evidence from The People's Republic of China. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 12(2), 104-120. doi:10.1111/j.1467-839X.2009.01278.x.

Jackson, L., Yong, Z., Witt, E., Fitzgerald, H., von Eye, A., & Harold, R. (2009). Self-concept, self-esteem, gender, race, and information technology use. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12(4), 437-440. doi:10.1089/cpb.2008.0286.

Kutob, R., Senf, J., Crago, M., & Shisslak, C. (2010). Concurrent and longitudinal predictors of self-esteem in elementary and middle school girls. Journal of School Health, 80(5), 240-248. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2010.00496.x.

Li-Juan, L., Xun, S., Chun-Li, Z., Yue, W., & Qiang, G. (2010). A survey in rural China of parent-absence through migrant working: The impact on their children's self-concept and loneliness. BMC Public Health, 101-8. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-10-32.

Marmarosh, C., Holtz, A., & Schottenbauer, M. (2005). Group cohesiveness, group-derived collective self-esteem, group-derived hope, and the well-being of group therapy members. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 9(1), 32-44. doi:10.1037/1089-2699.9.1.32.

 

Peter PV Van de, V., Herman HV Van, C., Ans AD, D., Joseph JP, P., Guido GP, P., & Koen KK, K. (2005). Comparison of changes in physical self-concept, global self-esteem, depression and anxiety following two different psychomotor therapy programs in nonpsychotic psychiatric inpatients. Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics, 74(6), 353-361. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Schmidt, M., McVaugh, B., & Jacobi, J. (2007). Is mentoring throughout the fourth and fifth grades associated with improved psychosocial functioning in children?. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 15(3), 263-276. doi:10.1080/13611260701201943.

Comparing schizophrenia and bipolar (and also psychosis)

A review of recent material about schizophrenia and bipolar disorder confirms that the two diseases are genetically inherited.  One article suggests that families with a genetic tendency for one of these diseases also have a tendency for the other (McIntosh, 2009).  A search for genetic information about schizophrenia shows that a particular genetically expressed protein, NRG1, and its related receptors, ErbB3 and ErbB4, are central to schizophrenia.  Recent studies implicating NRG1 in schizophrenia also implicate it in bipolar disorder, giving oblique support to the idea that the two diseases are connected genetically, and in other ways.  But they focus on different areas, and hence have seemingly conflicting concepts: myelin and neurotransmitters.  Myelin implies neural speed, and neurotransmitters bring to mind, as an example, dopamine reactions to stress.

A myelin, or ErbB3, study (McIntosh, 2009), shows that mutations resulting in NRG1/ErbB3 signaling failures causes oligodendrocyte activity to be impaired so that less "white matter" is produced resulting in a diminished "anterior internal capsule in subjects with both disorders" (p. 2) including unaffected directly-related family members of the bipolar disorder and schizophrenia subjects.  This effect is assumed to be developmental, and myelin formation in "frontal lobes, continues into late adolescence and beyond" (p. 3), giving optimism that new drugs could reinforce myelination for those at risk. 

This study also says that plasticity relates to myelination, and that there is myelination in adults, and hence plasticity, that may relate to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in terms of both development and maturity.

    Genetic loading for psychosis and the internal capsule (McIntosh, 2009)

Neurotransmitter, or  ErbB4, studies have a brain-wide view with a focus on neuron and transmitter activity such glutamatergic hypofunction (Li, 2007), failures in the formation of inhibitory synapses (Fazzari, 2010), and neural development such as the "wiring" of GABA-mediated circuits (Fazzari, 2010), all in the context of schizophrenia.  While a bipolar disorder can be linked to schizophrenia in the context of ErbB4 (Chong, 2007), the more detailed material on neural activity focuses on schizophrenia. 

As dopamine hyperactivity is part of the schizophrenia pharmacological model (Stone, 2007), and methamphetamine is used to simulate it experimentally (Homayoun, 2008), studies concentrating on stimulants may give clues about the neural activity of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

The "white matter" study links myelination to plasticity, and is optimistic that new drugs may reinforce myelination (p. 4), and so raises an idea about myelination and plasticity with respect to maturity: could such drugs help the elderly retain plasticity?

These studies show similar diseases apparently caused by the same mutations, creating a causal relationship that should point to a common location for both diseases.  But we find the expressions on completely different levels--the causal relationship is misleading!  Still, the "neurotransmitter" studies show causal relationships linking the neural functions of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia to glutamatergic, GABAergic, and dopaminergic responses to stimulants, such as methamphetamine.  These relations may help show us how the disordered neurons may affect behavior. 

References

Chong, V.,  Thompson, M., Beltaifa, S., Webster, M., Law A., and Weickertad, S. (2007). Elevated Neuregulin-1 and ErbB4 protein in the prefrontal cortex of schizophrenic patients: Schizophr Res. 2008 March ; 100(1-3): 270–280. doi:10.1016/j.schres.2007.12.474.

Fazzari, P., Paternain, A., Valiente, M., Pla, R., Luján, R., Lloyd, K., et al. (2010). Control of cortical GABA circuitry development by Nrg1 and ErbB4 signalling. Nature, 464(7293), 1376-1380. doi:10.1038/nature08928.

Gever, J. (2009, January 15). Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia have overlapping genetic roots. MedPage Today
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/Schizophrenia/12480

Homayoun, H., & Moghaddam, B. (2008). Orbitofrontal cortex neurons as a common target for classic and glutamatergic antipsychotic drugs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(46), 18041-18046. doi:10.1073/pnas0806669105.

Li, B., Woo, R., Mei L., Malinow, R., (2007, May 24). The neuregulin-1 receptor ErbB4 controls glutamatergic synapse maturation and plasticity. Neuron, 54(4), 583-597.

McIntosh, A., Hall, J., Lymer, G., Sussmann, J., and Lawrie, S. (2009). Genetic risk for white matter abnormalities in bipolar disorder. International Review of Psychiatry, 21(4), 387-393. doi:10.1080/09540260902962180.

McIntosh, A., Hall, J., Lymer, G., Sussmann, J., and Lawrie, S. (2009). Genetic loading for psychosis and the internal capsule disorder. International Review of Psychiatry, 21(4), 387-393. doi:10.1080/09540260902962180.

Stone, J., Morrison, P., and Pilowski, L. (2007, January 26). Review: Glutamate and dopamine dysregulation in schizophrenia — a synthesis and selective review. Journal of Psychopharmacology June 2007 vol. 21 no. 4 440-452

Executive function, working memory control, and ADHD

Executive function (EF) and working memory
ADHD is largely defined in terms of executive function impairment (Biederman, 2004), and shares descriptive language.  Very recent studies describe executive function as "executive attention" (Kane, 2005) and show a unitary model that links it with working memory in terms of working memory control, or WMC, and higher levels of cognition.  WMC is central to  to EF, often called "central executive functioning"  (McCabe, 2010).  McCabe indirectly describes WMC in terms of ADHD: inhibitory control, and focus of attention.

WMC benefits from education
Gathercole shows benefits for impaired working memory through remedial education (Gathercole, 2006), and Berneir shows autonomy support as the "strongest predictor" for healthy EF in children (Bernier, 2010).   Jang suggests a blending of autonomy support and traditional structure, or "autonomy-structure," that has high understanding and leadership, and low admonishing and uncertainty in a way that should benefit working memory control in view of recent executive function material. 

Speculated benefits for ADHD
These executive function, ADHD understanding, and educational concepts form a tight matrix with respect to working memory and its control.  Perhaps, for this reason, parenting and early education strategies that target WMC development via autonomy and guidance will help children with ADHD and other executive dysfunctions.


Bernier, A., Carlson, S., & Whipple, N. (2010). From External Regulation to Self-Regulation: Early Parenting Precursors of Young Children’s Executive Functioning. Child Development, 81(1), 326-339. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01397.x.

Biederman, J., & Faraone, S. (2005). Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): Two case studies. Medscape

http://cme.medscape.com/viewarticle/513743_1

Gathercole, S., & Alloway, T. (2006). Practitioner Review: Short-term and working memory impairments in neurodevelopmental disorders: diagnosis and remedial support. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 47(1), 4-15. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2005.01446.x.

Jang, H., Reeve, J., & Deci, E. (2010). Engaging students in learning activities: It is not autonomy support or structure but autonomy support and structure. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(3), 588-600. doi:10.1037/a0019682.

Kane, M., Hambrick, D., & Conway, A. (2005). Working Memory Capacity and Fluid Intelligence Are Strongly Related Constructs: Comment on Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005). Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 66-71. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.66.

McCabe, D., Roediger, H., McDaniel, M., Balota, D., & Hambrick, D. (2010). The relationship between working memory capacity and executive functioning: Evidence for a common executive attention construct. Neuropsychology, 24(2), 222-243. doi:10.1037/a0017619.

L4 Criteria: an open letter to David Sugar

Hi David,

I have been following the L4 operating system's slow growth, and there is now a runtime environment that includes a framebuffer and a windowing service.

I am attempting to continue my socially motivated input into computer/network growth by adding suggestions to the L4-developers mailing list that are much the same as my initial suggestions in 1989 when I was one of the very few socially-motivated engineers (actually, administrator, same thing!)

My first "demand" is a drop-in replacement for Linux, so that common Linux users will not notice much of difference, but L4 developers can develop and implement on one machine.  This "demand" specifically attempts to create a pathway for poverty-stricken Third-Worlders who have limited equipment, and especially youthful programmers in the first world who are continually being told that they are wasting their time because Bhopal owns computing.

Of the two, I think youth support is the more important from our perspective because it is nearby, and the youth, of course, are the future.  Today's youth are purely open-minded with respect to culture, thanks to the efforts of previous generations--that would be us!

What I want to do is to help guide the purely technical low-level programmers with high-level design so that they can now that the GNU-type freedom strategies do work, and do make money!  These programmers need to know that the corporations that they are developing systems for free for, are not necessarily God-like and all-powerful, and that there is computer and network democracy.

I want to focus first on the social aspects, but then quickly get to the nitty-gritty of the lower technical layers.  In my very successful implementation of layered models, I think the social aspect is, in fact, the top layer -- morality, if you will.  This would imply, I hope, that simply feeding the cell-phone monster with free code is not moral, systems morality means modeling a full system that supports every aspect of humanity in beneficially in efficient ways.

I also see transforming the culture to being multi-localist, where localist literally means local activism (I am still busy attempting to redeine nativism as native activism.)  The international nature of computing already supports this with the use of the term "locale" to mean internationalization.

All I am looking to do is create short lists of desireable things so that these things are necessarily included.  Linux has fit many of these criteria, but as a monolithic kernel, it has been unable to fulfil other needs, such as a path for hardware driver implementation that does not include re-compiling the kernel, something the vast majority of users cannot do.  L4 is also vastly more efficient in every way.

I am still using the banner of "ThinMan" as an data-centric open network VM that still seems to be the obvious solution only to me.  The derivation, a ubiquitous thin client, really is excellent marketing, and I own it so I can assure that it is used in the spirit of the public domain, or sector--democracy.

I hope you can find some time to list out criteria with me, as I don't want to be the only person doing this, for obvious democratic reasons.

John

Oligarchy: What we learned in the Empathy Group

What we learned in the Empathy Group is that people who lack the necessary neurological constructs for collaboration will attempt control to gain resources because they cannot create them themselves, as the lack the ability to work with others collaboratively.  They will also resort to endless strategies to take from others and present themselves as something they are not.

This situation is so prevalent in society that it has formed society's control structure and that structure has been given a name: the oligarchy.  It is described nearly precisely in Plato's republic and it is the basis for control in our civilization--police enforcement, corporate management, judicial officials, politicians--and especially medicine: doctors and the medical and hospital industries that now absorb approximately half our money.

We termed the neurological defect "emotional communication dysfunction."  People with the dysfunction cannot collaborate in the normal way because they cannot connect using the emotional communication paths that humans and many higher mammals have.  Because of this, they cannot directly sense the pain they inflict on others, and further, they cannot conceive of the long-term effects of their actions.  This is a handicap in normal society, but society has been changed by them, as they can be intelligent, and they can cooperate to solve their problems, allowing them to obtain what they cannot create by trickery and force.  With time their cooperation became organization allowing groups of these dysfunctional people to gain control over large components of society.

For the West, the development of societal templates such as Plato's Republic, was a locus for their control, as Plato and his followers are credited for the basis of Western Civilization.  At the highest levels, Plato's elite, the dysfunction is complete; there is no human empathy, and the system is operated purely mechanically with only affectations to normal humanity allowed to create a thin, yet effective, pretense to humanity.  This is medically described as Aspergers  In the middle layers of the template is the guardian class; dysfunctional people whose inhumanity is part-time; they have hybridized diseases: bi-polar.  Some of the time they are humane and can connect with the mass of normal people, and sometimes they cannot and their disassociation allows them to be inhumane.  Without expert knowledge of these dysfunctions, a normal average person is easily confused by the changes, and hence the value of the part-time inhumane to the oligarchic structure.

OCD is another related dysfunction; those with it drive the system recklessly so that it can grow fast enough to offset the waste caused by its inefficiency: gambling is obsessive compulsion; Capital is obsessive consumption.

ADD also appears to be an oligarchic component, though its use to the structure is less obvious.  Possibly the random nature of the attention deficit mind mimics the random changes to DNA that drive evolution.  It may introduce the only form of creativity internally available to the oligarchy, as the oligarchy has to obtain all of its ingenuity from the normal mass of people; people the oligarchs cannot trust because of all they have done.

The oligarchy has continually leveraged technological evolution to expand its control to offset the natural enlightenment of a continually modernizing humanity.  Today the annexation of technology is so complete that entire Information Society is skewed to obscure the mentally dysfunctional reality of humanity's controlling elite.  The oligarchy has corrupted morality by confusing its meanings to focus society on a singular task of empowering the empathically defective, what is often called "the high-functioning autistic."  Initially these misconceptions were forced on the native and natural by the Roman Church; now even socialists work to convert sadistic children into future leaders and healers.

The oligarchy is ancient in its core, but as adaptable as a virus on it's surface.  in the post-Apartheid era, even its capital component has adapted to using anti-bias as a tool for the benefit of the pathologically-biased elite by forcing the misconception that the further expansion of their control, what they call governance, and along with it, exponentially increasing rates of natural exploitation, will benefit the mass of normal humans.  Of course it has not as it has never done so before; the moral fabric of natural society if further torn apart as the planet is moved exponentially closer to environmental collapse.

The most recent strategy of using anti-hate as a weapon of hate against anyone or any group that attempts to resist oligarchy's inhumanity.  It followed the successful destruction of the last the slavery societies, South Africa, when democratic peoples effectively politically forced South Africa's economic isolation causing Apartheid's collapse.

Other biased groups preceded Capital's conversion pure hate to a hybridized anti-hate hate; the most biased group of all, Feminists, successfully converted the struggle for equality in democracy to equality in the oligarchy; these women were the only of the socially rebellious to benefit from the global expansion of Capital.  The Western oligarchy has internally incorporated equality within their structure and for themselves in a way that allows it to bond with oligarchic structures from regions that were former competitors.  But the peoples of these regions are forced into fierce combat for  resources made increasingly scarce by Capital's continuing growth; and any complaints from the lower productive levels can be dismissed as racism.  In their minds, they can plausibly deny their bias with the most absurd rationale; they and only they deserve to be elite, as only they are unbiased.  Of course the normal average person, upon hearing that, will obviously think them insane, but will be frustrated as the oligarchy has now, more than ever, dominant control over all of valid humanity.

1. Empathy and Emotional Communication Wiki
2. Capital Structure Cheat Sheet