anti-Causality


Tuesday, October 8, 2019

The Cree through a Conscious Lens

John Bessa

November 2012

Abstract

Helping the Cree includes understanding their relationship with Nature; their stories; and the mediating tools of their spirituality, which include a well-developed psychology that descends from shamanism. Cree belong to a greater Algonquin linguistic group that ranges across Eastern subarctic Canada and much of the Canadian West, and forms a cohesive spiritual group. Surrounding large groups, such as the Inuit and Dine, share similar values with respect to Nature--as do most Aboriginal cultures. “Civilized” Westerners are genuinely interested in Aboriginal culture, but tend to over-think its spiritual meanings in Western contexts such as metaphysics and mysticism. Aboriginal spirituality simply and colorfully benefits Aboriginals by helping to integrate aspects of Nature with human life so as to make life survivable and meaningful. There are surprising similarities between Cree stories and other religions such as an intermediary to the Creator in the deity Wisahkecahk, and a flood that destroyed humanity. An important aspect of Cree culture to comprehend is the spirituality of the life-giving hunt. As the Cree genuinely like animals, their spirituality is seen as animistic in that it mediates conflicting feelings caused by hunting--so, the hunt isn’t entirely about hunting.

Author's note

This academic writing for my master's degree in counselling was inspired by meeting a boreal Cree, J-Bear, at a sweat lodge ceremony and a council circle soon after that celebrated the launching of a purely Aboriginal Canoe in the Saint John River of New Brunswick, Canada.  This document is written from the clinical perspective specifically to educate the professor in the context of her worldview.  The theme becomes apparent at the end, when I introduce "the anthropologist" as an "objective observer" attempting to penetrate Cree spirituality in its contradictory contexts; there is a word play as the light-collecting glass of a camera lens is called the "objective."  Important to me in this writing is an observation of similarities between Judeo-Christian and Cree religions, which prompted me to look closely at the Bearing Strait to see if European concepts could have crossed from Siberia to Alaska much earlier than is presently thought.

Cree, Current Situation

The Cree population is estimated to be 200,000 (The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2012), and can be grouped by the biomes they occupy: forest (western boreal and swamp; eastern woodlands), rock (arctic), and plains. Their greater Algonquin language group includes the Wabanaki federation to the east which is symbolized by its trading canoes, and the closely-related Ojibway to the south who etched birch bark scrolls (Goody, 1987) to enhance and standardize sacred stories, record medicinal cures, and distribute knowledge.

J-Bear is in his mid-20s, which is a typical age as half of Canada’s Aboriginals are under the age of 25 (CBC News, 2008). Until recent decades, boreal Cree hunted during the winter months and socially-integrated in villages during summer. Today’s Cree live in over-crowded apartments or houses (Stastna, 2011), and, in 2011, many arctic Cree were suffering their winter in tents and trailers such that Canada became the focus of United Nations activism (APTN National News, 2011).  The boreal forests that are providing the tar sands that fuel Canada make the industry’s center, Fort McMurray, one of the richest places in Canada; but Cree largely do not support the exploitation (Earle, 2010), and thus do not benefit from it.

Cree Worldview

The Cree worldview is a vertical continuum from the cosmos, through daily life--which embraces surrounding nature--to dreams and memories (Alberta Learning, 2005). The spiritually-important phrase “all my relations” (McCabe, 2007, p. 10) shows that family and community inclusion are only two of many Cree interrelations; others are components of the environment: wildlife, the Earth, and the Cosmos (Berry & Brink, 2004; Brightham, 1973). The Cree remained independent enough to forestall the worst effects of assimilation (Wiebe, 2008), and thus their traditional stories and memories of Shamans have survived (Brown & Brightman, 1998; Niezen, 1993). The marginalizing and alienation effects were not seen among forest and rock Cree until the 1960s (when their land was opened to exploitation) because they are remote have had a strategy of avoiding Whites (Wiebe, 2008). (Boreal J-Bear, who is very friendly, has a history of defiance resulting in prison terms that might be evidence of Cree resistance that may inform us about behavioral problems in Cree that are not pathological.) Cree spiritual beliefs that mediate relationships with nature for survival are said to be anthropomorphic (Brown & Brightman, 1998; Niezen, 1993). However, the central Cree mythical figure, transformative Wisahkecahk who represents Cree values, is usually human. This same figure is known to Aboriginals far into the United States as a big rabbit (often smoking a sacred pipe) through the literature of the linguistically-related Ojibway (Brown & Brightman, 1998).

Mental Health Issues

Many times more Aboriginals are in prison or suffering depravity such as homelessness compared to non-Aboriginal Canadians (Walsh & MacDonald, 2011; Office of the Correctional Investigator, 2010). Many agree that a core reason for this disproportion is the direct effect of many “civilizing” influences and assimilation attempts by the “Euro-centric” mainstream (Wesley-Esquimaux & Smolewski, 2004). The view is that aboriginal identity and self-concept have thus been largely destroyed, resulting in self-destructive behaviors that are often described in terms of mental trauma that is transmitted between generations. Because Aboriginals are six times as likely to be prisoners in Canada (Correctional Service Canada, 2012), it can be hypothesized that the White prison population consists largely of those who are unsuccessful in society because of anti-social disorders, whereas Aboriginals are largely in prison due to deprivation and highly-damaged self-concept resulting in anti-social behaviors. Accepting this helps derive hope from the many on-going efforts to restore Aboriginal identity (Waldram, 2008). Thus, the ill effects suffered by the Cree might be reversed to allow them to participate in Canadian society in their cultural context.

Many justice experts support this as “restorative justice” (Correctional Service Canada, 2012; Mason, 2000), or even as “relational justice” as from “all my relations” (Ross, 2007).  Rock and forest Cree elders support this hypothesis, as they are emphatic that two over-riding mental health problems (that had not previously existed) emerged as a result of the opening of their territory to hydroelectric exploitation: alcoholism and suicide (Niezen, 1993). Prior problems were depressive, psychotic and existential. Substance abuse (which has expanded to narcotics, stimulants, and inhalants) is so damaging that it will have to be resolved before Aboriginal identity can be fully restored (Waldram, 2008).

carl ray, recreation myth
carl ray, recreation myth

Current Cree Medicine

In line with academic and popular views for the causes of the self abuse, social defiance, and suicide, the treatment that is internally recommended is cultural restoration.  It parallels the learning process for multicultural competency, which includes appreciation for historical and traditional treatments. This suggests that clinicians could do well to initiate efforts with most clients using traditional modalities. A minority of Cree have resisted traditional approaches because they are highly-Christianized (Taliman, 2011; Waldram, 1997).  The benefits of the medicine wheel, the sweat lodge, and talking circle are far easier to experience than explain; studies of them have been overwhelmingly encouraging (Mason, 2000; Waldram, 1997).

The medicine wheel has four quadrants that variously represent body, spirit, emotions and thoughts. Its use is highly-flexible and can be layered to create any four interrelations; the four racial skin colors are seen on all wheels. It has been successfully applied to social work and nursing academics (Dumbrill & Rice Green, 2008). An early wheel is a huge mountain-top astronomic chart dated to 1200 AD (Stanford Solar Center, 2008).

Half of aboriginal treatment centers use the sweat lodge ceremony (SLC) (Garrett, 2011). Historical uses were for infectious diseases (particularly respiratory), and counselling (Niezen, 1993). Health benefits are widely-evidenced, and social uses include initiation into spiritual societies and endurance-building (Marder, 2004). The most impressive evidence for the healing effects of sweat lodges is from ceremonies led by elders in prisons attended largely by non-Aboriginals (Sturmann, 2006; Waldram, 1997). Herbs are also part of SLCs including sage, tobacco, and sweet grass (Mason, 2000).

Talking circles are group counselling events that occur within the SLC; participants express thoughts and concerns that arise from within or are brought to the group (Waldram, 2008). The dialog is usually meditative but can be cathartic (Sturmann, 2006). Optionally, a full-blown council circle can be organized that is mediated by herbs and a sacred object passed by each participant; whomever holds it “holds the floor” and all are thus encouraged to speak.

The most important Cree mediator is story-telling, which, from the theological perspective, is typically-religious in that it explains natural phenomena.  Cree story-telling hinges on the adventures of the creation figure, Wisahkecahk (Brown & Brightman, 1998). Cree stories seem written for children and the fantasy-enjoyment of adults, but, nonetheless, were and remain a key component of Cree medicine, and are important in therapy (Mason, 2000; Niezen, 1993).

The important Cree spiritual being is not the Great Spirit, the creator Mantiou, but the “transformer” figure, Wisahkecahk, as he is humanity’s re-creator or “savior,” as, apparently, the Mantiou allowed humanity to drown (Brown & Brightman, 1998). Wisahkecahk recruited animals to dive into the water to retrieve earth so that he could rebuild the world (through transformation); only the muskrat was successful, so the two married and recreated humanity. To the south, Wisahkecahk is often a pipe-smoking rabbit, Missapos.  Wisahkecahk’s story mirrors the Old Testament as he mediates human interaction with the Creator; some have suggested a similarity to Christ (Ryan, 1999).  Cree nonetheless pray to the Great Spirit, such as when a plains Cree chief, Big Bear, meditated on the Grandfather Buffalo, a meteorite (the Manitou rock), when the the buffalo herds were being exterminated by Americans (Wiebe, 2008). Buffalo-killing “whiskey-louts” from the US poisoned carcasses to kill wolves, and then killed 40 Cree, which led to Cree resistance to American invaders. Conflict with a Métis Chief, Dumont, resulted in Big Bear’s arrest and imprisonment: Dumont was a mass-murder and major thief, but is remembered as a hero; Big Bear was wise, pacifistic, and had never killed, yet he is only known to the Cree.

Assuming clients are open to these mediators, there is no reason not to initiate other treatments with them, as they tend to create resilient alliances (Sturmann, 2006), and are shown to be healing in and of themselves. The inquiring, relational, and restorative journey mediates levels of self-understanding and participation that can be extended to any therapy.  The clinical approach itself can be considered a mediator because the clinical and multicultural learning processes mediate effective helping. “The lens” is often used as a metaphor because it seems nearly impossible for a researcher to fully-comprehend the meanings of the relational continuum (as in “all my relations”), but it is easy to experience the health-giving and consolidating effects of Cree mediators--especially the sweat (Ross, 2007). As so much of Aboriginal maladaption falls to justice systems, Aboriginal relational healing (termed restorative justice) stands as a solution.  Like the sweat ceremony in prison, it is useful for all, because the victim’s relationship with an assailant, for instance, is often one of hate that has to be “let go.” Likewise assailants need to grasp the effects of their actions if they can.  With this theory, relational healing brings conflictive parties together for resolution in the healing context. Prison SLCs have successfully mediated “gangland” conflicts (Sturmann, 2006).

The aboriginal conscientiously experiences nature as part of the continuum that mediates respect for surroundings, or “relations;” while the Westerner experiences this spirituality factually by recording data to be reassembled as empirical evidence. Nonetheless, the researcher experiences visceral healing by virtue of the experience. Thus, sweat ceremonies in prison empirically “acid test” relational rehabilitation efforts with “hardened” felons and validate restorative justice through “relational healing” for all of society in ways that participants may be unable to explain (Mason, 2000; Sturmann, 2006; Waldram, 1997).

Cree counselling psychology has survived (Niezen, 1993). There are four known approaches, and the first three have survived intact and are always available: Cree medicine, forest living, and counselling. The forth is Shaman, or mitau, which was eliminated by the Anglican Church (Niezen, 1993; Waldram, 2008).  Cree medicine is largely the sweat ceremony as described, and treats ailments as well as promoting psychological well-being (Niezen, 1993).  Forest living means reconnecting with the natural continuum by having clients spend time in the wilds with an elder, as community leaders often send difficult youth to a remote elder.  Traditional counselling is most common and not too different from Western counselling; it is Humanistic, behavioral, and proactive. When Elders learn of a problem, they widely research causes for it (with a transgenerational approach), and they confront the client because maladaptive behaviors affect all.  Open conflict, for instance, will affect the hunt by scaring prey. The primary rationale is that the preservation of harmony through the vertical continuum integrates family life with natural. Disrespecting a mother metaphorically extends to nature, as Nature is mother-like; thus avoiding spousal abuse is necessary to assure food. In such a counselling situation, an ancestor mediates the mother-Earth connection through “all my relations.”  Thus, those who are unfamiliar with relational ways might not be trusted by elders in such a situation, which can frustrate newly-arrived social workers. Knowledge of exceedingly bad behavior is distributed by gossip, causing counselling to start spontaneously in public or over radio waves, which causes friction between young and old.  However, the possibility of disclosure is a behavioral deterrent.

Because of the restorative use of the relational lens, it is likely that in many cases both counsellor and client are learners. A “not knowing” humbleness that would signal weakness in the mainstream might be perceived by Cree as respect and awe for the natural continuum, and elders might find resulting inquiry refreshing from individualist clinicians. However, to successfully impress Cree elders, one must comprehend the spiritual meaning of the most important event, which is the hunt.

Attempting to Understand the Spirituality of the Hunt

This writing was initiated by my participation in a SLC, and in a later council circle at the launching of a historical canoe at a Maliseet reserve. A sweat ceremony was professionally organized by M-Bear for local clinicians; it resulted in my relationship with J-Bear. Participation in the sweat was health-giving, unifying, and therapeutic in ways that I did not instantly understand; the extent of its effects were surprising for me: the heat, the sweat, the openness of the clinicians in discussion, and the depth to which it sent me in search of memories of formative experiences. Negative memories were ignored; I recovered a color image of a hitchhiking experience long ago where a chief and a warrior gave me a ride through the night in a Pontiac so old that it had an amber hood ornament of Chief Pontiac’s likeness. I remember complaining about the cold Alberta air coming through the back seat, and the chief calling me “Little Bear,” which, in this context, is not insignificant. M-Bear is a Sun Dance warrior, and J-Bear became my equivalency student; their last names are also significant to me considering what the chief called me. The council or talking circle that followed a few days later was also enlightening as it showed a seamless transition for many Aboriginals from the Christian, church-based prayer format to the Aboriginal relationship with Nature.

After the clinicians’ sweat, deli-meat trays emerged from car trunks, and I was surprised (but should not have been) as M-Bear shoveled baloney slices into his mouth while criticizing fast-food. I brought bright red wild sumac tea, my best harvest, which, by the taste of it, must be cleansing and fortifying in the way pomegranate is. I was also surprised that only the clinicians tasted it, and all liked it. M-Bear, J-Bear, and the sacred pipe carrier looked at the sumac tea with suspicion. While I was novice in the ceremony experiencing its benefits for the first time, I felt highly-aboriginal because I proved to be a successful forager.

Animals are especially included in “all my relations,” with emotional attachments to them just as with family and friends. Killing is an unfortunate, but necessary, component of the kinship relationship with wild animals that is felt by many Aboriginals, especially the Inuit who live by a pure meat diet (Brightham, 1973; Reimer, 1999). In short, the “spirit” of the animal, which, to them, is no different from any spirit anywhere, has to be respected or it will not provide itself as future sustenance. To the Cree, this may mean feeding the animal’s spirit its own flesh. Every bit of an animal must be used out of respect, and an animal may only be killed out of nutritional necessity. A hunter described how he hung in a tree for a long period (with his rifle) while a moose tried to retaliate for his killing of the moose’s relations--three mares. Despite the self-defense situation, the moose was allowed to live as no animal may be killed except for nutritional survival (Niezen, 1993). Despite this sacred law, none have reported a vegetarian Cree, nor observed feelings of guilt in Cree while they eat their prey. A variety of mediating conversations may happen with the animals during or after the hunt, including apologies and rationalizations, but faith in the spirit mediates good will despite the killing of animal “relations.”

Bears hold a special place for Cree, as they are human in shape, can be bipedal, are facially and vocally expressive, and are highly-intelligent. When a Cree was asked why he wouldn’t eat bear by a researcher, his response was “do you think I am a cannibal?” (Brightham, 1973, p. 205, as cited in Cockburn, 1985, p. 44).  It is entirely possible for Cree to “marry” into animal society. Animal community must have been strong before the gun, and bears, in particular, would be better as allies. Marrying into animal society makes eating the species taboo, and also requires protecting the species from other hunters (Brightham, 1973).

Our approach to the Cree view of bears as being at the level of human society is anthropomorphic through the “anthropological lens;” thus we define the Cree as animist. Conversely, elders will continue to experience the natural continuum directly and will thus ignore the anthropological view because its anthropomorphism is only useful empirically; the “all my relations,” spirituality is what mediates Cree understanding of phenomena. If flial relations can be made with threatening animal neighbors, then natural threats will be greatly reduced, and the animals will also remain nearby for “all my relations” purposes. The emotional effect of this filial relationship with wild animals should cause the Cree to feel emotional conflict if they have to kill the animals considered relations, which hypothetically explains their rules.

Cree culture is highly collectivist in that all biological and physical nature is filial, but it is individualist in terms of the personal relationship with nature during the hunt. Some anthropologists see a difference between being “individual” and “individualist” (Cohen, 1994) such that the Cree can be viewed as being closely connected to society--and thus be collectivist, yet, still able to rely on the self-conscious to interrelate with Nature--and thus be individualist. The Cree hunter’s spiritual consciousness is mediated by his holistic awareness of Nature to create a spatially-oriented map that allows him to interrelate implicitly with the surrounding environment. Every aspect of the surrounding natural system is thus mapped into his individual consciousness such that he models within him the lives of the wild animals as if they are he.  No empirical framework exists to map a relationship such as this. Carl Jung is often cited as a potential source (McCabe, 2008), but he showed disdain for Aboriginals (Jung, 1921/1976).   Some anthropologists create a bridge to Aboriginal consciousness by immersing in Aboriginal life such that their very experiences become the data (Cohen, 1994). By opening their minds to the culture, they embrace the “original” cultural connections to the environment by using Aboriginal values and mediating techniques instead of empirical. The ethnologist temporarily “goes native;” his findings are no longer an “image” of consciousness viewed through the “lens,” but the experience of it. This is experimental, but could nonetheless provide relevant data to be used in preparation for counselling the Cree. For counsellors, however, structuring these types of values in their minds is not experimental, as they often model clients’ behaviors for better outcomes, and model other-cultures by participating in cultural events. Further developing this strategy can only benefit credibility with Cree clients, and, equally important, earn acceptance from Cree elders.


References
Alberta Learning. (2005). Worldviews and Aboriginal cultures: Where hearts are rooted. Edmonton, AB: Author. Retrieved from http://education.alberta.ca/media/307113/o02.pdf

APTN National News. (2011, December 20). UN Indigenous peoples rapporteur expresses “deep concern” over Attawapiskat housing crisis. Ottawa: Author. Retrieved from aptn.ca/pages/news/2011/12/20/un-indigenous-peoples-rapporteur-expresses-deep-concern-over-attawapiskat-housing-crisis

Berry, S. and Brink, J. (2004). Aboriginal cultures in Alberta: Five-hundred generations. Edmonton, AB: Provincial Museum of Alberta.

Brightham, R. (1973). Grateful prey: Rock Cree human-animal relationships. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Brown, J. S. H. and Brightman, R. (1998). Orders of the dreamed: George Nelson on Cree and Northern Ojibwa religion. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society.

CBC News. (2008, January 15). Canada's aboriginal population tops million mark: StatsCan. Toronto, ON: Author. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2008/01/15/aboriginal-stats.html

Cockburn, R. H. (1985). Like words of fire: Lore of the Woodland Cree from the journals of R. H. Downes. The Beaver, 315, 37-45.

Cohen, A. (1994). Self consciousness: An alternative anthropology of identity. New York, NY: Routledge.

Correctional Service Canada. (2012). Forum on corrections research. Ottawa, ON: Author. Retrieved from http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/pblct/forum/e121/e121j-eng.shtml

Dumbrill, G. C. and Rice Green, J. (2008). Indigenous knowledge in the social work academy. Social Work Education: The International Journal, 27(5), 489-503
Earle, J. (2010, August 14). Healing walk puts spotlight on oil sands. Edmonton, AB: CTV. Retrieved from http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/healing-walk-puts-spotlight-on-oil-sands-1.542309#ixzz2BYOTgM1A

Jung, C. (1921/1967). Psychological types. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.

Garrett, M. T. (2011). Crying for a vision: The Native American sweat lodge ceremony as therapeutic intervention. Journal of Counseling and Development, 89, 318–325

Goody, J. (1987). The interface between the written and the oral. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Marder, W. (2004). Indians in the Americas: The untold story. San Diego, CA: Book Tree.

Mason, R. (2000). The Healing of aboriginal offenders: A Comparison between Cognitive-Behavioural Treatment and the Traditional Aboriginal Sweat Lodge Ceremony. (Master’s thesis), Saskatoon, SK: University of Saskatchewan.

McCabe, G. (2008). Mind, body, emotions and spirit: Reaching to the ancestors for healing. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 21(2), 143-152.

McCabe, G. H. (2007). The healing path: A culture and community-derived indigenous therapy model. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 44(2), 148-160.

Niezen, R. (1993). Telling a message: Cree perceptions of custom and administration. Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 13(2), 221-50.
Office of the Correctional Investigator. (2010). Backgrounder: Aboriginal inmates. Ottawa, ON: Author. Retrieved http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/rpt/annrpt/annrpt20052006info-eng.aspx

Reimer, C. (1999). Counseling the Inupiat Eskimo. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press

Ross, R. (2007). Exploring criminal justice and the Aboriginal healing paradigm. Toronto, ON: Ontario Justice Education Network.

Ryan, A. (1999). The trickster shift: Humour and irony in contemporary native art. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.

Stanford SOLAR Center. (2008). Bighorn Medicine Wheel. Stanford, CA: Author. Retrieved from http://solar-center.stanford.edu/AO/bighorn.htm

Stastna, K. (2011, November 28). First Nations housing in dire need of overhaul. Toronto, ON: CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/11/25/f-native-housing.html

Taliman, V. (2011, February 7). Christian Crees tear down sweat lodge. Indian Country Today. Retrieved from http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/02/07/free-to-be-intolerant-christian-crees-tear-down-sweat-lodge-15500

Sturmann, J. (2006). Hot rock redemption: Sweat lodge ceremony in juvenile prison. News from Native California, 19(4).

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Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

Waldram, J. (1997). The way of the pipe: Aboriginal spirituality and symbolic healing in Canadian prisons. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press.

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carl ray, recreation myth

Saturday, February 23, 2013



Simplified Model

The empathy model is unique in that only looks at  mutually-beneficial interrelations for organismic success, and is easily accepted by the vast majority of people, that is to say, those who normally interrelate.  It can easily be applied by them to situations where normal interrelation is problematic or impossible--perhaps to design an avoidance strategy, or, possibly, to fight back.

With the start of my psych masters, the established empirical model that leverages the ancient Socratic method, the dialectic, introduced to me an entirely new language to describe mental problems that is not accessible to, or easily-used by, the average, normal people.  Further, the use of common psychological words from the dictionary such as psychotic and schizophrenic may be considered "unethical" to use with "proper training" (ie, a PhD and a license).

However, there are big changes happening in the study of the mind with the introduction of digital imaging.   This change is very popular; more accurate fMRI-evidenced material is being produced now than empirically-evidenced material using the thesis, antithesis, synthesis of empirical science.

Now, mental brain activity as it surfaces as human activity can be seen accurately in images.  Maladaptive activity can be directly related to parts of the brain that are failing.  That is to say activity (or behavior) that results from an inability to adapt to an internal problem, such as those that are organically-caused by DNA failures, or traumatic resulting from unfortunate events often deliberately caused by others, can be viewed, or seen to be absent, in images on a screen.  An important example  is in this article about signalling errors (in this blog) caused by DNA problems where the protein that is supposed to instruct neural function is broken and thus cannot do its job.  In this study, patients with the broken signalling process suffer from schizophrenia, psychosis, and bipolar disorder.

This study points us in the right direction.  It encourages us to create hypotheses that can suggest that specific major mental illnesses can be caused by specific signalling errors, and that maladaptive activity can be predicted by testing for these errors.  

Initially a problem surfaced with an early attempt.  If you attempt to tease apart illnesses based signalling errors, this does not help as it accounts for three separate diseases.  Psychologists who have been consulted are adamant that schizophrenia and psychosis are completely different illnesses.  When looked at closely, psychosis seems to result in problems in networks (including psychotic depression) that causes "out of control" behavior, and schizophrenia comes from false information signalling in the analytic, executive function, working memory part of the mind, the pre-frontal cortex.  It should be noted that the protein signalling errors were correlated with diagnoses made using the DSM, which predates fMRI evidence; the DSM may be (or probably is) dragging fMRI research backwards.  Further, one of the very first discoveries while building the empathy model, is that most of those interviewed in the empathy working group who had had problems, had had on average no less that five separate diagnoses; diagnostics are problematic--probably because the DSM is so horribly convoluted.

So, to create a workable model that is in line with the empathy model, psychosis (being "out of control") and schizophrenia (hallucinations) are pulled apart and the third important "empathy model" problem, aspergers, is added as it is generally linked with the inability to feel others' emotions, and thus act with respect to them--morally.  Since the empathy model is made for the common person (that is to say it is democratic), and since there may be peril in using these terms (because of ethical perversions), the definitions, or descriptions, for the diseases are used rather than the disease names themselves.   This is a wallet card that should provide one with a map to avoid the maladaptive behaviors of those whose maladaptions to sickness make them immoral, and thus dangerous.  If it is a successful model, it should save the average person a great deal of grief.

The final item, that is not directly related to signalling errors, is the idea of metacognition that appears in the empathy model as "painting a pretty picture" of poor events to make them more palatable.   This is often the basis of cognitive therapy which suggests looking finding an "alternative" way to look at things to relieve troubling symptomatic such as anxiety or depression.  The problem is, of course, that the underlying problem is ignored and that only symptoms are addressed.  A person could spend their entire life feeling better about a person with dangerous signalling errors, say, to save a marriage, without realizing that their life has been stolen.  

In this model's view, the adaption of humanity to signalling errors as they manifest as psychosis, aspergers, and the combination of the two, socio-psychopathy, is at the crux of humanity's failure; it is an alternative to what is natural in that it empowers dangerous people in the traditional sense, it gives them control.  In the empathy model sense, the maladaptive are given power to take resources from others through coercion.  This is necessary for the emphatically maladaptive because they cannot use empathic abilities and facilities to work with others to create resources.  

In this view, psychology (historically with the dialectic and currently with the DSM) have provided an alternative to what is natural using what is called the Socratic method.  We normal humans are expected to view maladaption from an alternative perspective, that is to paint a pretty picture in place of reality to make life less anxious and depressing.  This, in this view, is the "method" of civilization, the dialectic, and deception.  

Normal human success depends on shining a light on it, which is the purpose of this "simplified model wallet card."


Mediated Citations:
this section is an implementation of annotated bibliography that (eventually) hopes to blend referential support, footnotes, and (most important) forum discussion with the idea that it is our differing influences that define our points of view, and that by combining these influences we should come to agreed-upon explanations for phenomena

Protein signalling
A look back on this research shows how abstracted this simplified model is, and the size of the gap between pure science and everyday reality.  Initially I intended to directly apply the research which links many diseases to a single signalling error, but resistance from experts in the field forced me to reduce this one error to a single disorder, psychosis, because (as they say) psychosis is functionally related to bipolar, but not to schizophrenia.  In defense of the pure scientists, the signalling goes to "maintenance" cells such as the astrocyte in the background. (I think of these cells as relatives of neurons).

A though that occurred to me as I first read the studies, is that I had once hypothesized that the fat on the cells, mylein, gets burned off when the mind is over active, such as in the term "burned out."  This occurred to me in the mid-90s when I was fixing an expensive desktop computer and noticed that the CPU chip got much hotter when it was running a "batch job" than when it was still.  Given the many abstracted similarities between computers and humans, I also assumed human intellectual matter will get hotter in similar proportions, and hence "burn off" the insulation causing dysfunction--in any part of the brain.  This implicates both dopamine-exciting meth, and extreme overactivity caused by, say, terror-level fear resulting in trauma, sometimes called an insult.

APA-style citations:

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.

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.

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. 21(4), 440-452

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Defective Dominance: De-evolution and the spread of greed




Defective dominance, a phrase I use often (but never wrote about) to describe the ugliness we see in "our" human society is "defective dominance." This is to say that, because it is easy to profit using cruelty, and difficult to prevent cruelty through kindness (or profit from generosity), cruelty, and especially cruelty-causing genes, win out in "our" synthetic world.

In the political context, psych-types would describe this defective dominance in terms of personality disorders, the most dangerous of which is malignant narcissism, what Adolf Hitler had. I assume Dawkins would agree; I believe he speaks from experience, as he, as academic oligarch, probably self-describes in his best-selling books about "selfish genes."

Surprisingly to me, I found "defective dominance" to be important evolutionary and genetic term, though not necessarily widespread. (I was expecting to find more paranoid conspiracy-type stuff.)

Like most genuine genetic-evolutionary material, references to defective dominance are exceedingly difficult to fathom, but very easy to observe in everyday life. By adding up all the "ugliness" that we see, and then adding to it all the "ugliness" elsewhere that we don't see (which requires multiplication), and then "factoring in growth" which means raising it to an exponential (such as "squaring" it), any of us can comprehend that we, as a Human race and a planet Earth, are in deep trouble. The result will be mega-genocidal disaster in coming decades.

The question is "how will we reverse the control of the defective dominant?"

The humanitarian approach is to attempt to create awareness of the problem, but I believe that effort will be ineffectual; I use the Vietnam war as an example: it was the military action by Vietnam that ended the war, not the active opposition to the war by the US population.

Blocking possibilities of a popular "information-based" solutions is the academic use empiricist science--which is very much what it sounds like. Empiricism has, for 23-2500 years, focused on developing empire-building technologies for the economic growth of the aristocracy (with a short communist experiment): roads, weapons, ships, towers, medicine. Academia, for its educational effort, has been rewarded with its own "ivory" tower in it has metacognitive control over nearly every one of us for big parts of our lives as students.


Economics as a symptom of defective dominance
Most importantly, economics is not constructive nor a whole systems model. It is a connected sequence of causal conclusions designed to resemble a model.

This should be a major concern to every one of us, because it is an alternative to the system that we evolved in (or God granted us); it is a synthesis -- a fiction. The terminology and math used are complicated lies designed to show that as a market-based synthetic system it benefits all through growth. In reality, it declines financially because of inflation, erodes the meanings of our lives, and will ultimately consume all the planet's resources --as a result of uncontrolled growth.

Specific fictions within the terminology and math of economics could be, for instance, the use of retail consumption as a positive asset (or growth) when in actual business, it is a debit (or decline). House building, as a product is an asset, but in its present context it is consumption, not production, as retail is.

Production has, of course, been largely shipped to other countries, and market values --the actual measurement of a market-based economy-- are out-paced by inflation.

Economists see growth in empiricist math, but the wealthy can only grow by absorbing the resources of others and undercutting their salaries. Even the wealth of the wealthy is eroded by inflation necessitating increasing "greed" to maintain lifestyles.

Technical Reference

Crutchfield, J. P. and Schuster, P. (2003). Evolutionary dynamics: Exploring the interplay of selection, accident, neutrality, and function. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Responses 

From the highy-supporting György Stiffel


  • Wonderful, John! Very well said (written)! And it is very simple to understand.
  • John Bessa wow, thanks -- I was going to post it on your wall, so glad you found it  I also got interesting comments from other venues (websites)

  • György Stiffel I´m very glad to know you because you are one of the "thinking" members of our society. But we have to recognize, that we can not change the world and its way into the final collaps[e].


From OpEdNews posting

Gentry L Rowsey



This is fascinating, John.
And I wonder if you saw the same TV program I saw, maybe a year ago, about a pure mathematician who had worked out a theory of how self-sacrificing genes could  prevail over selfish genes, and then went crazy because he tried to give away everything he owned including his shelter and clothes, and thereafter, committed suicide. Left unexplained (at least to me) was whether his suicide was evidence for or against his theoretical explanation of how altruism can genetically displace selfishness. And needless to add, the math was eons beyond what I could comprehend in my lifetime.




Reply to Gentry L Rowsey: 10,000 generations ?!
Thanks for the positive feedback, I have heard of your forest employees organization -- I have heard of a lot of suicide by heavy-thinkers who go too heavily involved these deep topics. My view is that DNA is pretty tough stuff, and to f* it up you have to really abuse it, which is apparently what is happening. What should only be about 1% is from 10% (DSM) to 30% if you included high-functioning psychos, but still a minority, so there is reason for hope and not to kill yourself. According to the technical reference, there will have to be 100,000 generations of this madness before it peters out... (heh)

Ned Lud


 
Reply to Gentry L Rowsey: the river styx
This reminds me of a story about a man who claimed to know 'what it was like' after death. He said it was exactly the same there as here. There was no difference at all!

  • There are places where the rational (or mathematical or scientific) mind cannot go and cannot explain because when it does, or attempts to, it looks stupid.
  • This is why true sages are often regarded as idiots.
  • And why parables and allegories are also important.
  • Science is essentially a dead end.

 



Friday, December 14, 2012

Cultural counselling services

Multicultural barriers for the therapeutic alliance exist on two levels: social barriers that can be thought of as misunderstandings or biases, and medical mismatches where the symptomatic descriptions and expectations of non-mainstream clients result in a conflict with basic clinical values and procedures. These mismatches result in misdiagnoses and wrong treatments such that client reflections can be mistaken for psychosis, somaticism, disassociation, personality disorders, and malingering. Kirmayer and his associates (2003) sought to show the value of recruiting mediators who are expert in translating the languages and explaining cultural values of non-mainstream clients, such as immigrants and refugees; these specialists provide cultural consultation services (CCS), and the cultural experts are called “culture brokers.”

Cultural formulation

The core of the study was a cultural formulation of the clients exceptional traits and states. There is no reason not to include clinical cultural traits as well (which was psychiatric and thus medical), as, in the end, clinicians benefited in much the same ways clients did. The components of the multicultural formulation where drawn from personal histories (that included the traumatic results of war for at least 40% of the participating clients), and current issues (which for the war-traumatized includes the anxiety of waiting for official decisions). Current factors for the clients were the effects of immigration on family structure and supports, friction between generations, personal identity issues with respect to society and gender, and spiritual losses. On the clinical side, biases were mediated not just by differing cultural values, but by the clinicians views of clients’ poverty, unemployment, politics, and even race. Both clients and clinicians felt the mismatch of differing approaches to medicine such that clinicians were frustrated by their inability to match clients’ descriptions of symptoms with DSM-provided data, and clients were disappointed by the clinicians’ inability to provide what they have come to expect from medicine.

How CSS works

When clinicians contacted the study team for CSS assistance, a signal was sent to the clients of the clinicians’ concern that instantly benefited the alliance. As the CSS helpers provided symptomatic translations and understandings, previously puzzling symptoms were put in contexts that could be related to the DSM. Clinicians also immediately benefited personally as their frustrations and biases gave way to appreciation for the sophistication of their clients' cultures. In the cases where only clinicians met with the CSS helpers, clinical alliances were built around the issues and thus motivated action.

How CSS can be applied

The core value of the CSS study is the “formulation” that seeks to model a relationship between both the cultural values clinicians and clients by embracing both. The client can then benefit along parallel tracks of care: traditional cultural approaches (which may have a social dimension) and current mainstream clinical that may better treat symptoms. A first step is for the clinician to signal the client of interest in client’s cultural approach by attempting to fully comprehend it. The clinician might note each component of the client's view of problems so that a holistic model can be constructed such that correlations can be identified to link the clients’ approach to mainstream diagnosis and treatment structure.

Conclusions and after-effects

The study had interesting after-results including the recruitment of the researchers as therapists, as some of the participating clinicians chose to "dump" their clients on them. This brought added attention to the transitional needs of multicultural clients as newly-provided understandings resulted in new diagnosis and treatments. Another need stressed by the study was for the clients' self-determination in determining the duality of treatments; many who might have benefited from CSS had likely left therapy or never attempted it because of the cultural rifts, both social and medical.

The service is not cheap because, to be successful, the consultants have to be well-trained; the study showed that low-cost substitutes, such using menial-level hospital workers as translators provided poor returns, and is thus not cost-effective. Further, clients may reject CSS support from community members as they are concerned that their privacy will not be protected. A similar concern is that many clients “dropped out” or never sought help because of the problems caused by multicultural rifts. An issue of concern for the refugees was their fear that a poor diagnosis would affect their status-seeking efforts. Beyond cultural and clinical support through cultural services is the need to promote the guarantee of ethical protections to the immigrant sub-cultures.

Complimenting cultural values benefits all

When components are found to be different, the approach should be complimentary; a holistic value is matched with a clinical procedure such that clinical does not replace the cultural, but confirms and enhances it. According to the study, a complimentary and mutually embracing approach benefitted clinicians as well as clients. It also opens the possibility that the cultural connection can benefit mainstream medicine with the dissemination other-culture knowledge.

Reference

Kirmayer, L., Groleau, D., Guzder, J., Blake, C., & Jarvis, E. (2003). Cultural Consultation: A Model of Mental Health Service for Multicultural Societies. Canadian Journal Of Psychiatry, 48(3), 145.

Defective Dominance: De-evolution and the spread of greed





Defective dominance, a phrase I use often (but never wrote about) to describe the ugliness we see in "our" human society is "defective dominance." This is to say that, because it is easy to profit using cruelty, and difficult to prevent cruelty through kindness (or profit from generosity), cruelty, and especially cruelty-causing genes, win out in "our" synthetic world.

In the political context, psych-types would describe this defective dominance in terms of personality disorders, the most dangerous of which is malignant narcissism, what Adolf Hitler had. I assume Dawkins would agree; I believe he speaks from experience, as he, as academic oligarch, probably self-describes in his best-selling books about "selfish genes."

Surprisingly to me, I found "defective dominance" to be important evolutionary and genetic term, though not necessarily widespread. (I was expecting to find more paranoid conspiracy-type stuff.)

Like most genuine genetic-evolutionary material, references to defective dominance are exceedingly difficult to fathom, but very easy to observe in everyday life. By adding up all the "ugliness" that we see, and then adding to it all the "ugliness" elsewhere that we don't see (which requires multiplication), and then "factoring in growth" which means raising it to an exponential (such as "squaring" it), any of us can comprehend that we, as a Human race and a planet Earth, are in deep trouble. The result will be mega-genocidal disaster in coming decades.

The question is "how will we reverse the control of the defective dominant?"

The humanitarian approach is to attempt to create awareness of the problem, but I believe that effort will be ineffectual; I use the Vietnam war as an example: it was the military action by Vietnam that ended the war, not the active opposition to the war by the US population.

Blocking possibilities of a popular "information-based" solutions is the academic use empiricist science--which is very much what it sounds like. Empiricism has, for 23-2500 years, focused on developing empire-building technologies for the economic growth of the aristocracy (with a short communist experiment): roads, weapons, ships, towers, medicine. Academia, for its educational effort, has been rewarded with its own "ivory" tower in it has metacognitive control over nearly every one of us for big parts of our lives as students.

Economics as a symptom of defective dominance
Most importantly, economics is not constructive nor a whole systems model. It is a connected sequence of causal conclusions designed to resemble a model.

This should be a major concern to every one of us, because it is an alternative to the system that we evolved in (or God granted us); it is a synthesis -- a fiction. The terminology and math used are complicated lies designed to show that as a market-based synthetic system it benefits all through growth. In reality, it declines financially because of inflation, erodes the meanings of our lives, and will ultimately consume all the planet's resources --as a result of uncontrolled growth.

Specific fictions within the terminology and math of economics could be, for instance, the use of retail consumption as a positive asset (or growth) when in actual business, it is a debit (or decline). House building, as a product is an asset, but in its present context it is consumption, not production, as retail is.

Production has, of course, been largely shipped to other countries, and market values --the actual measurement of a market-based economy-- are out-paced by inflation.

Economists see growth in empiricist math, but the wealthy can only grow by absorbing the resources of others and undercutting their salaries. Even the wealth of the wealthy is eroded by inflation necessitating increasing "greed" to maintain lifestyles.

Technical Reference

Crutchfield, J. P. and Schuster, P. (2003). Evolutionary dynamics: Exploring the interplay of selection, accident, neutrality, and function. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Responses 

From the highy-supporting György Stiffel


  • Wonderful, John! Very well said (written)! And it is very simple to understand.
  • John Bessa wow, thanks -- I was going to post it on your wall, so glad you found it  I also got interesting comments from other venues (websites)

  • György Stiffel I´m very glad to know you because you are one of the "thinking" members of our society. But we have to recognize, that we can not change the world and its way into the final collaps[e].


From OpEdNews posting

Gentry L Rowsey



This is fascinating, John.
And I wonder if you saw the same TV program I saw, maybe a year ago, about a pure mathematician who had worked out a theory of how self-sacrificing genes could  prevail over selfish genes, and then went crazy because he tried to give away everything he owned including his shelter and clothes, and thereafter, committed suicide. Left unexplained (at least to me) was whether his suicide was evidence for or against his theoretical explanation of how altruism can genetically displace selfishness. And needless to add, the math was eons beyond what I could comprehend in my lifetime.




Reply to Gentry L Rowsey: 10,000 generations ?!
Thanks for the positive feedback, I have heard of your forest employees organization -- I have heard of a lot of suicide by heavy-thinkers who go too heavily involved these deep topics. My view is that DNA is pretty tough stuff, and to f* it up you have to really abuse it, which is apparently what is happening. What should only be about 1% is from 10% (DSM) to 30% if you included high-functioning psychos, but still a minority, so there is reason for hope and not to kill yourself. According to the technical reference, there will have to be 100,000 generations of this madness before it peters out... (heh)

Ned Lud


Reply to Gentry L Rowsey: the river styx
This reminds me of a story about a man who claimed to know 'what it was like' after death. He said it was exactly the same there as here. There was no difference at all!

  • There are places where the rational (or mathematical or scientific) mind cannot go and cannot explain because when it does, or attempts to, it looks stupid.
  • This is why true sages are often regarded as idiots.
  • And why parables and allegories are also important.
  • Science is essentially a dead end.