Saturday, September 26, 2015

Some Notes on Mental Illness

Current psychiatric theory deals with imbalances in neurotransmitters, imbalances in neural activity in the cerebral cortex, and actual damage to neural structures such as the hippocampus. Leaving experimental psychology to the qualified practitioners perhaps it is an appropriate moment in the development of neurophysiological knowledge to step back and use the brain to understand the brain logically.
Certainly the phenomenon of personal trauma resulting in psychosis is well known. Specific diagnoses such as PTSD are defined in those terms. It is generally agreed that the inability to process through trauma causes psychotic symptoms. This leads logically to an inquiry as to what an external trauma would look like in the brain. Hypothetically it would be an unintegrated structure of dendrites and synapses. If this is the case and one is intent upon curing this type of psychosis, what approach would be taken?
Obviously the object of psychotherapy in this case would be to integrate such a structure, a trauma fragment, into the greater neurology of the brain. There are many effective techniques for doing this which are based on conjectural psychological theory. Wouldn't it be easier to use a physiological model and address the mechanics of managed dendrite formation directly? Of course it would.
What would such a therapeutic regimen look like? Hyperconnectivity probably involves dopamine, HGH, vitamin B12, and neurostimulation. Such a regimen would involve, as any sufferer of psychosis will tell you, an espresso and a cigar. Properly practiced, it would also involve LDopa, 1000 mcg of B12, and exercise. There is no doubt in my mind that reading the right books, nonfiction and fiction, and regularly participating in appropriate conversation is required to fully integrate a significant trauma fragment.
One must think through personal trauma in order to fully integrate it into a healthy brain. Popular culture is not in the business of integrating trauma. At times it appears to be in the opposite business of incurring trauma. A healthy retreat from a constant diet of discomfort and shock can only improve the coherent structure of the brain, but this can only be a temporary withdrawal in the manner of a lion licking his wounds. At some point reality must be dealt with successfully as a criteria of recovery.