CHAPTER 3 OF THE BOOK CALLED, ___ (UHB)

CHAPTER 3

DEPRESSION

Chop your own wood and it will heat you twice.

(Henry Ford)

Depression is certainly a complicated subject to understand but if physical reasons can be ruled out, then the following ideas apply.  Life is nothing more or less than an endless series of achievements. 

We all have a built-in desire to become successful at the achievements that are important to us.  But at the same time, all of these achievements have the capacity to activate the emotion of fear.  It is our reactions to this fear that determine the stress level that we will experience.  

If you are succeeding at achievements that are important to you, you will be excited and happy.  If you are failing, you will experience some form of mental agitation which, if reacted to correctly, should be viewed as a motivating force to increase your knowledge about the achievement in question.

If continued attempts to succeed only lead to more failure, --- if you do not learn from your mistakes, --- if you lose your motivation to keep trying; then, you have the potential to develop depression.  The level of depression that you will experience will depend on the value that you place upon the achievement that you are failing at.  

It will also depend on the level of despair that you experience when you conclude that any new approach to the problem will only lead to more failure, so why go through it all over again?  Why bother trying when it will all end in failure anyway?

And still further, if you place so much importance on the achievement(s) that you are failing at, that other aspects of life seem to be of little or no value, this type of attitude can also lead to a prolonged state of depression. 

This is actually a two headed sword.  On the one hand it is a worthwhile quality to refuse to give up on important achievements in your life, but on the other hand, without any new methods to achieve a higher level of success, this --- “stick to it” --- determination can also lead to depression.      

The above scenario is a vivid description of the vicious cycle of depression with its inevitable downward spiral.  To counteract this, the individual so afflicted, must also look at depression as a motivating factor. 

The individual needs to acquire more knowledge about the achievements that he is involved in or that he wishes to become involved in, so as to obtain a higher level of success, which in itself will reduce and/or eliminate the depression.

This attitude must definitely include the motivation to share ones problems with as many other competent people as possibly.  It is wrong to conclude that the problem cannot be solved.  There is always someone else with more knowledge than we have in any specific field and invariably they are more than willing to help others who are confident enough to seek help.

The bio-psychiatric profession recognizes short-term depression as the normal fluctuations of everyday life.  But it has concluded that long term depression is a psychiatric disorder that is caused by a chemical imbalance inside the human mind.  I say that it is caused by unresolved failure in achievements that are important to the sufferer.  

People with short-term depression have enough other areas in their lives that give them cause for happiness and a sense of value and worth.  In some cases they ultimately find methods to reduce the sense of failure or actual failure in the areas that are causing the feelings of depression.  Obviously this is the best method to reduce depression.  In some cases, people avoid prolonged depression by devaluing the achievement that they are not succeeding at.  

In other cases, long-term sufferers do not have a sufficient “cache” of successful achievements to bring them out of their depression.  Many people have lofty goals that are either beyond their ability to succeed at, or they do not have the patience or persistence that is necessary to achieve the success that they dream of.  This model for depression indicates that the condition is at all times negotiable.  

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy evaluates the fears that are happening inside the sufferer’s mind.  More often than not, at the core of their distress is to be found the twin culprits of conglomerated and distorted fears. 

A therapist who finds a patient who is exhibiting a high level of procrastination must realize that he has a patient who has a distorted fear of failure that is robbing the person of his or her initiative.  

These types of personalities inevitably rob themselves of the knowledge that can be gained from analyzing ones errors.  It is from such analysis that one has the best chance to increase ones potential for success at the chosen achievement in the future.

Let’s look at a baseball player who is having a terrible hitless steak.  It does not mean that he cannot hit the ball, he has already proven that he can.   It can mean that his current failure has siphoned off a large portion of his confidence and he is allowing the fear of failure to detract from his ability to hit the ball to an area where no one can catch it or throw him out.  

Taking into account the fact that there is an element of luck involved in hitting a baseball, it is usually a change in attitude (positive) that brings about the end of the hitless streak. Rather than wait for a lucky bounce to end a hitless streak, which in turn leads you into a more positive attitude, the best method is to instill a positive attitude inside your mind on your own volition. 

You do so with the realization that such an approach will bring results faster and give you greater control over the fluctuations of lady luck.  It is our variable reactions to fear that determines our mental make up.  It is the tenacity to press on in spite of failures in the past that shapes our personalities. 

It is the belief that you are learning from your mistakes and that you are on the road to success that helps to make that success possible and/or inevitable.   It is precisely that kind of personality that is less affected by depression than any other type of personality.  

But it is also true that anyone who searches deeply into the meaning of life and who has the desire to help the human race overcome some of its more complicated dilemmas, will find themselves feeling depressed, from time to time, over the enormous challenges that lie before us.  

It is at these moments that such people must realize that the feelings of depression are in reality a call to the spirit of motivation that ultimately will lead to new understanding.  This type of mental resolve is one of the many attributes of an expansive personality.

STOP STUTTERING

Good messages, when short, are twice as good.

I watched America's Got Talent last night, August 11, 2015, and saw the young man who stutters.  He apparently got hit in the throat while playing softball and suffered damage to his vocal chords.  A Doctor told him that his stuttering was caused by this damage and he would stutter for the rest of his life.

However, since he can now pronounce most words and speak without stuttering for short periods of time, the wound has now healed sufficiently for him to be able to speak.  This simple truth dictates that his Doctor was wrong.

It is the Doctor's belief that his stuttering is beyond his control and his own fears that such advice might be right that is causing the stuttering. When he was waiting to hear what the judges on AGT would say, you could see the fear in his facial expression.

The love of his girlfriend [acceptance] and the acceptance of the judges and audience last night will increase his confidence and he will be stuttering less as a result.  This is my prediction for the future which will unfold one way or another on the show itself.

I assume that he has been stuttering for a long period of time, if I am right, he will have relapses from time to time but with enough love and acceptance and/or increased knowledge about what causes stuttering; he still retains all of the potential to become totally fluent again.

IS IT A MYTH OR THE TRUTH

On page 38 of her book called, --- Understanding Stammering or Stuttering,  the author Elaine Kelman lists a number of myths about the cause of stuttering.  The second myth that she mentions is actually the truth and her answer is the myth.

In reality, parents can be partially responsible for their children's stammering but since the parent's don't know that they are doing it, one can hardly blame them.  In that regard, I concur with the author Elaine Kelman.

There are 10 myths listed in the book but I have only used 3 of them which I determined to be the most egregiously inaccurate.   The other ones contain elements of truth as well as elements of misdirection or outright false statements also.

First of all let's clear up the difference between the word stammering and stuttering.   In England they call it stammering and in the USA they call it stuttering.  So in reality they are synonyms that mean the very same thing.

Let me share with you the actual words that are written on this subject on page 38 of the above mentioned book:

Myth #2

Parents are to blame for their child's stutter.

This is a very persistent myth.   Even in the King's Speech [the movie], the impression was given that the King may have developed a stammer because his parents were cold and unaffectionate.  

This notion has often been repeated in the media.  No one would dream of suggesting that parents cause their children to be dyslexic or to be short-sighted.  Parent's do not cause stammering.

My response:

I agree completely that a parent would not deliberately cause their child to stutter but they could do it if they failed to understand how stuttering happens and that is exactly what my point is.

I am reminded here of the discovery of Insulin by Frederick Banting.   When he first went to Professor Macleod to obtain laboratory space, to try out his theory , he was told that his ideas would probably all disappear into a cloud of smoke. 

Later he was told by the Professor that in all probability a magical solution to solve diabetes would never be found.   You can watch the story unfold on youtube.com, by typing in the title, --- Glory Enough For All.

On page 39 of Elaine Kelman's book called, --- Understanding Stammering or Stuttering the following words appear:

Myth # 4 --- Stuttering is caused by an event.

Some children and their parents say that they recall an event --- a family row or the birth of a sibling --- that happened around the time when the stuttering began.

However, such events occur in the lives of all children, and only a minority of children stammer.  In some cases an event may have been the trigger rather than the cause of the stutter in a child whose speech was already vulnerable.  It is more likely that the timing of the event was purely incidental.

My Response:

You can play with words if you want to but in my world being the trigger and being part of the cause amounts to the very same thing.   And where did you [the author] get the notion that everyone must react the same way to a traumatic event.

Let's look at King George's older brother.  He was subjected to the same kind of parental abuse as his younger brother.   But he did not have a nanny that intrinsically added to his level of stress.

His older brother Edward, made a decision, conscious or otherwise, not to show his fear in his voice.  He hid it inside until his father's death prevented him from avoiding the truth any longer.  He then opted to marry the twice divorced Mrs. Simpson.

Subsequently, his forced abdication, and his profoundly expressed love for Mrs. Simpson allowed him to abdicate and never let it come to the surface that he was terrified of becoming the King with all the responsibilities involved.

I will readily admit that in some cases we cannot fathom the extent of the deflection in human behavior that the emotion of fear can cause to happen.

But that is not an excuse to decide that unless every person who experiences some kind of stress does not act the very same way, --- [in this case become a stutterer] --- that stress itself cannot be the deciding factor in such behaviour..

Myth # 8       Page 40 

Stammering can be 'cured.'

Parents often ask us if stammering [stuttering] can be cured.   This makes it sound like some kind of illness, --- which it is not.   There are courses and techniques that will help reduce the stutter, --- it may even seem to disappear.

However, many children find it exhausting to use techniques each time that they speak and they may relapse.  Many children learn to manage their stammer and learn to live with it.  There is no 'cure' for stuttering but there is much that can be done to help.

My Response

She is quite right, much is being done to help those who stutter.  But since distorted and conglomerated fear is the  real cause of stuttering and such reality has not been accepted for the truth that it represents, then --- that help is not as efficient as it could be.

Theoretically we can solve every problem for anyone who stutters.  However in real life such perfection can easily escape us.   One of the ways that such failure may occur is as follows:  

If the stuttering occurred because a child was sexually molested and that child does not want to reveal the truth, or more accurately, is coerced into silence, --- then the stuttering may never be cured.

It is of significance to understand that the feelings of fear, in the form of disgust or embarrassment etc., can be overcome with the acceptance on the part of the child, --- in this instance, --- that he or she was in no way responsible for the abuse.

Overcoming that fear of disgust or embarrassment is central to the method by which the stuttering can be eliminated.   If that outcome can be achieved, then it becomes unnecessary for the guilty party to be named.  

Ruining the reputation and the life of one’s father or some other close relative is not always what the aggrieved person would want to do.

The author, Elaine Kelman is indeed right when she states that  stuttering is not some kind of illness.   But knowing that the cause can be realized is far better than resorting to a technique which, as the author readily admits, becomes too time consuming and exhausting for the stutterer to adhere to.
 
Just the fact that there is supposedly no cure, leaves the stutterer in a state of confusion wondering when and how the stutter will make its way back into the person’s manner of speech, in a way that is beyond the control of the said speaker.

In the brilliant movie called, --- The King's Speech, the King's father at one point says:  "I was afraid of my father and by  God, my children are going to be afraid of me also.  The real cause of stuttering is distorted and conglomerated fear. The last thing that a child needs is a parent who deliberately sets out to make them afraid of him or her.   I always thought that one should love ones children, not make them afraid of you.

I said that the King's parents, namely his father, was partly to blame.  Some of the blame must also go to the nanny who in her warped desire to keep her job, pinched the future King to make him cry when he was "presented" to his parents daily.

The King's father didn't want a cry baby in his presence and so the child was sent away with the nanny.   This gave the nanny more value than she was actually worth.   Eventually the pinching was discovered and the nanny was let go but it apparently took 3 years before this nonsense was discovered by the parents.

In all probability she convinced the four year old future King to keep quiet or she would make things even worse for him.   To add to the stress, the nanny would starve the future  King for a few days after such incidents as that described above.

So you might say:  Why didn't George's older brother David stutter also?  He kept his fears hidden inside and they showed up in spades when his father died and he became King.   At that moment he put his head on his Mother's shoulder and cried like a baby.  He also got up and left immediately to hide his embarrassment about his childish behavior.  Then he avoided having to face his fears by marrying Mrs. Wallace and abdicating the throne.

Here is a perfect example of the elaborate rationalizations and the impenetrable maze of defence mechanisms that Dr. Forgione brilliantly foretold in his book called, --- Fear [Learning To Cope].   It is my unalterable belief that only in his most private moments, did David admit such chicanery, but nevertheless it all came to pass.   But I digress, let us go back to George who eventually became the King.    

George's inability to make the sound K, was a direct reference to the level of fear that was planted in his mind.   Only repeated success in his various speeches allowed George to complete the speech without stuttering.  In another part of the movie the King comes out with a string of obscenities.  This is also a fear for the sutterer that he or she will use profanity in a setting where such behavior is unacceptable.   This problem also occurs for a person with Tourette’s Syndrome except that they succumb to the fear and scream out such invectives from time to time.

Suddenly blurting out some form of profanity represents a new fear for a person who stutters that comes into existence when he becomes aware that he cannot control how or when he will stutter.  In other words, he developed a fear of not being able to control what he wanted to say. 

This next conclusion on my part will risk the wrath of some of the members of the reading public but either you must follow the truth or accept partial understanding about the situation that you are discussing.

The K sound became a triple fear for King George a long time   before he became King.   That is, on the one hand it provoked the memory of his fear-mongering father and on the other hand, it represented a fear of using profanity because the sound of the K,  is the start of a profane word that is used to describe a woman's birth canal, --- or part of a man’s genital equipment. 

Lionel Logue wanted to remain in contact with the King.   Instead of building up George’s confidence so that he would no longer fear his father’s memory or that he would blurt out some profanity, he had the King avoid the above problem by finding a substitute word for King.  Eg.  My people instead of the King’s people.  Other substitute words were used also in other areas. 

THE MOTHER OF A 14 YR. OLD

GIRL WHO STUTTERS

On page 63 of Elaine Kelman’s book called, --- Understanding Stuttering, the following story appears:

I just can’t help myself.

I do get irritated with her.  Especially after the therapy course when her speech was really nice.  I’ll say: “Where are your shoes?   I’m in a hurry! Where are they?”

I know I shouldn’t be doing that.  I’ll say:  “What time is it?”   She’ll go:  “Oh aaaaah and I’ll say:  “Oh let me have a look!”   I just can’t help myself.

                                   Mother of 14 yr. old girl           

My response:

Whether the mother’s anxiety started the stuttering for her daughter many years ago or not is unclear to me from the short message contained above.   But it is clear that the Mother’s current attitude about the intellectual skill of her daughter is one of the “triggers” or causes of the stuttering.

The Mother has forgotten that the speech therapy does not offer complete fluency.   Since the therapists  are not cluing into the possible causes relating to fear, they cannot provide perfect fluency for the child.

Many therapists use the technique of having the stuttering person avoid sounds or words that cause him or her to stutter, rather than actually overcoming the background fear that is causing the stuttering.  Thus the child “backslides” in the eyes of the parent.

Once you understand how important the emotion of fear is, you can find something of immense value in this story.   All of us are affected by fear.   Some people show it in different areas.

In this case, fear is causing the daughter to stutter and it is causing the Mother to become irritable when she realizes that her daughter’s stuttering is going to make it harder or even impossible for her to succeed at the various achievements that adult life forces us to embrace.

The immense value of this story comes from the fact that the sutterer can realize that we are all in the same boat together.  The Mother becomes rattled when anxiety rears its ugly head.  The daughter becomes rattled when she tries to speak.  

Both of them can learn to become better at their problems.   The 14 yr. old girl is not defective.   She simply has a different fear affecting her behavior which, --- with the  proper hierarchical approach to fear, will ultimately find her speaking fluently. 

Perhaps in the future or even right then and now, she can make an attempt to help her Mother overcome her irritability while she is experiencing anxiety.   The confidence that this girl could get from this approach is probably even greater than I am able to predict. 

As an aside to the above example, my wife remembers a story from long ago where the father came home from work and in his frustration he became angry and started screaming at his young daughter.   Their young 4 year old daughter started to stutter.

They took the child to a family Doctor who, luckily for them, understood the problem.   He told them that for the foreseeable future that the father in particular would have to hold the child and reassure her that he loved her very much.  Approximately one or two months later the child stopped stuttering and she never stuttered again.

In 1976, Martin F. Schwartz, PH.D., wrote the book called, “Stuttering Solved”, and in 1986 he wrote another book called, “Stop Stuttering.”  On page 8 of this second book he writes about the myth of stuttering as a psychological problem. 

Although he acknowledges the importance of fear, he now believes that the different physical reactions to fear that people exhibit are genetically determined.  Those whose vocal chords are supersensitive to the emotion of fear, are the people who will be susceptible to the problem of stuttering.

The second half of this book is written by Dr. Grady L. Carter who was a stutterer himself.  His story proves beyond any doubt, that the causes are indeed psychological. 

It is a prototypical account of behavioral deflections that are caused by fear and the verification of the simple fact that all fears that are experienced by mankind are negotiable.

The difference between Dr. Grady L. Carter the stutterer, --- and Dr. Carter the fluent human being, is a study in the maturing process that we all wish to achieve during our journey through life. 

On page 124 of the above mentioned book, which was co-written by Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Carter, the latter writes as follows: --- “The open admission of my stuttering shifted the power from the stuttering to me.   When there was nothing to hide, the fear was gone.   When the fear was gone, there was no more stuttering.”

Dr. Carter correctly writes about the importance of the longevity of the stuttering habit as a determining factor in the correction of the problem.  The longer the habit is reinforced, the longer it takes to eradicate it. 

It is this aspect of traumatic childhood experiences or other distorted fears that are experienced in childhood, which have the capacity to derail the normal maturing process.  This is why one’s childhood can be so important in understanding ones personality limitations later in life.

But at the same time, the above story about Dr. Grady L. Carter, shows that these problems are all negotiable and in fact, it is not overtly necessary to search back into one’s childhood to begin to change one’s personality. 

It is more important to begin the process of learning how to reduce and eliminate distorted fears that one has entertained over a long period of time.   This process is referred to as the hierarchal approach to overcoming fear.  It is similar to a 12-step program in that small steps are taken that eventually lead to a cure. 

It is as if the cure for one’s distorted fear in any area, is represented by a ladder that is 50 feet long.  The only sensible way to get to the top is to take one small step at a time.

Once Dr. Carter overcame the fear of stuttering, his capacity to embrace more achievements increased exponentially.  This new and higher level of confidence owed its conception to his determination and dedication to force changes in his previous ways of thinking and behaving.  

Paraphrasing Dr. Carter here, --- it felt like he had been literally “recalled to life.”  Similar rewards await all those who have the courage to face their fears and overcome them. 

Whose opinion about stuttering should we accept, Dr. Martin F. Swartz or Dr. Grady L. Carter?  What we have here, is the age-old question, which came first the chicken or the egg.  Dr. Martin F. Swartz has concluded that each of us has a different level of base line tension in the area of our larynx, which is genetically determined.

I have concluded, and I emphatically believe that Dr. Grady L. Carter’s story proves that I am right, --- that the larynx or voice box of the stutterer was not super-sensitive first, but rather, the fear of speaking caused the tension, which caused the super sensitivity in the muscles of the voice box, which in turn is causing the stuttering.

If a young boy or girl is slapped in the face for using vulgar language, then the potential for stuttering can occur.  If ones thoughts lead to actions that cause punishment, either physical or psychological, this too can lead to stuttering in a person whose learned responses to fear are increased tension.

When we speak to others, we are in reality, exposing the value or competence of our brain to those who are listening.  The more people we are talking to at one time, the more potential there will be for nervous tension to occur inside our brains and nervous system.  

Since our brains are the greatest gift that our Creator has bestowed upon us, to believe that your brain or nervous system is somehow inferior to others can cause such beliefs to result in a performance that seems to verify your mistaken belief in the inferiority of your brain.

In all achievements in life, the hierarchal approach to overcoming fear is the preferred method to employ.  Slowly but surely, with increased experience at whatever achievement that you are trying to embrace, you have the potential to learn from your mistakes and eventually become competent in your chosen achievement.

Of course the sense of embarrassment that is ever present in the human psyche, finds some people simply giving up on an achievement.  It is the persistent people who fight their way through embarrassment and nervous tension that finally become successful. 

Of course these psychological insights alone will not provide you with success.  It is your responsibility to increase, as much as possible, your knowledge of the achievement that you are trying to embrace.

In Dr. Martin F. Swartz’s first book, a Vietnamese boy who lost a leg in a land mine and then began stuttering one month later disproves the genetic predisposition to stutter. 

If his baseline tension was supersensitive, he would have started stuttering much earlier in his life.  Because of the war, there were plenty of high stress situations that he would have had to endure before this.

Not everyone who loses a leg begins to stutter.  This is in keeping with the subjective nature of fear.  That is, each person reacts differently to the implications of fear. 

This boy had been hiding to avoid being injured by bombs that were being directed to where he was living.  His sister had chosen a far more dangerous place to hide and he decided to go over to where she was and take her to a safer place.  As he ran toward her, he stepped on a land mine that tore off his leg.

If this boy lay in the hospital developing a fear of his thoughts, then this could show up as stuttering.  After all, the thought that motivated him to go across the open area to help his sister had cost him his leg.  In this scenario, thoughts themselves could become very fearful inside the boy’s brain.

This Vietnamese boy had been stuttering for about two years when Dr. Schwartz first saw him.    Since he had not developed the stuttering habit over a long period of time, and since he had about 12 years of fluency before the stuttering started, it was easier for Dr. Schwartz to help him overcome his stuttering. 

Those who start to stutter at an early age and spend many years stuttering have much more difficulty breaking the habit.  Of even greater significance is the negative self-image that is reinforced over a long period of time by this socially unacceptable behavior.  This is a perfect example of what Dr. A. G. Forgione meant, (see page 137 of his book called, --- Fear [Learning To Cope]),  when he attached such far-ranging behavioral deflections to the theory of conglomerated fear.

Other motivating factors were also at play for this boy.  First, this important Doctor from America says that he can cure me.  That in itself, as an example of the power of suggestion, lays the ground work for the potential to build a positive image inside the boy’s mind.  

Second, since his country (Vietnam) is experiencing abject poverty, the future life of a one legged man who stutters is almost definitively reduced to begging. Learning to speak fluently and then having Dr. Swartz provide the ultimate incentive of taking him to America to help validate his ideas about curing stuttering, created a powerful motive to overcome his stuttering.     

Much time is spent in this book about stuttering, talking about the subconscious.  I do not like to use this expression because it denotes something very mysterious and therefore beyond our specific control.  I believe that when we use the word “subconscious” we are actually talking about the mind’s capacity to generalize. 

Our individual actions are attributed to our conscious mind but they are governed by the generalizations from the so-called “subconscious” mind.  In my opinion, the dictionary definition of the word subconscious should be changed as follows: --- the mind’s capacity to make generalizations concerning the ideas that it entertains.       

The generalizations that you have formed about yourself, determine  the make-up of your self-image and consequently, your personality also.  If they are negative, then your individual actions will be negative and the predisposition to failure will dominate your behavior.  This is why positive thinking is so important. 

However, by itself, positive thinking is not enough.  The process of positive thinking must include the capacity to look at every conceivable way that an achievement can go wrong so that you can increase your knowledge and avoid as many mistakes as possible.  This will not eliminate mistakes, but it will, hopefully, reduce them. 

Then comes the ultimate level of positive thinking.  Rather than allowing mistakes to incorrectly verify an ill-conceived negative self-image, they are looked upon as illuminated possibilities for increased knowledge. This is the psychological model upon which our most courageous and action oriented leaders construct their personalities.

Fluent speech is a complex and compound achievement.  As stated earlier, life is nothing more or less than an endless series of accumulated achievements.  Progressing from childhood to adult achievements is itself an achievement. 

Just as distorted and conglomerated fears can change the potential for fluid speech into disjointed, stuttering speech, so also can other conglomerated fears change mature adult behavior into that which is referred to as being less than reasonable.  In fact it can go so far as to be considered to be a form of  mental illness.

I firmly believe that 90% of the biological damage that bio-psychiatry has been able to discover inside the human brain, is not genetic or chemical imbalance that is germane to that person’s brain. 

On the contrary, I postulate that it is the by-products from fear reactions such as noradrenaline and its derivatives in excess --- or other metabolic  chemicals in the brain. 

It is far past the time for the human race to aggressively take hold of this unknown area and transfer it into our accumulating storehouse of knowledge where it should have been residing since many years ago.

I myself, through my own intransigence and an insufficient amount of determination have prevented this book from being written 10 or 20 years ago.  In this regard, I must assume the lion’s share of the blame for not making it happen sooner.  With a touch of shame, or irony, in my words, I ask that you do not compound my inaction.  Please help me make it happen --- NOW!  

I am not simply talking about a new psychological home for you or myself or our loved ones; --- I am talking about a new psychological home for the entire human race.  When such a new home comes to pass, the human race will begin to experience a level of peace and harmony that has thus far only been visualized inside the human mind as a distant --- and seemingly unattainable goal. 

This age-old dream of mankind will only occur if our capacity to embrace more achievements continues to expand in direct proportion to our ever-increasing population. 

It is the deeper level of understanding about the motivational importance of fear, that will allow the above dream to become even closer to reality, --- rather than the age-old pipe-dream that it currently is.

I fervently issue the following challenge to you the reader.  I do so by paraphrasing the immortal Winston Churchill: --- “Let us therefore conduct ourselves in such a manner, that if the human race should continue to exist for another one million years, men and women  will still say --- this was their finest hour.”     

ANGELA

The courage that we should desire is

not to die decently, but to live courageously.

(Thomas Carlyle)

In her book called, “Making The Prozac Decision”, author Carol Turkington includes the following story on page 89: --- “Angela, 70, was under a lot of stress at home that just kept getting worse.  She and her husband  had moved to a smaller apartment, and her husband  had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.”

“For the past three months, she’d been feeling more and more depressed and anxious.  She’d begun to lose weight; she couldn’t concentrate; she felt helpless and worthless.  To her husband’s alarm, she  began talking about suicide”.

“Deeply concerned, they finally sought help for her at a psychiatric hospital.  Four days after getting a prescription  for Zoloft (seraline) and beginning psychotherapy, she was back home. 

In three weeks, she was back to her normal self and was no longer troubled by the same problems that had seemed so difficult only a few weeks before. 

Angela's suicidal thoughts had disappeared.  After six months, Zoloft and her therapy were stopped and one year later the depression had not returned.”

This is an uplifting story that has elements of success for bio-psychiatry and psychotherapy.  Which one of these two procedures is indispensable to the patient’s recovery?  The answer is the correct use of psychotherapy. 

While this story records a relatively easy transition from using a Selective Serotonin Uptake Inhibitor, to facing life without this medication, in reality, many people face a harrowing array of withdrawal symptoms from ending this type of medication too quickly.

If you break your leg and you are given an anesthetic, but they do not repair your leg properly, (set it straight), you will not get proper healing. If the Doctor who is repairing your leg has partial or incorrect knowledge of the proper procedure, you will not obtain the return to physical good health that should be available to you.  The same type of thinking applies to the alleviation of distorted and conglomerated fears.

It is more than a coincidence to note that initial bouts of mental illness, as well as subsequent returns of such symptoms, are almost always precipitated by an increase in stress in the affected person’s life. 

As previously mentioned, the word stress is a more acceptable synonym for the word fear.  The biological model of mental illness sees this correlation between stress and the onset or re-occurrence of illness as indicative of a physical malfunction that does not allow this person to handle the stress like a mature, normal person could.

The conglomerated fear model sees this problem as one in which the person used avoidance behavior to control these fears in the past but the unavoidable dynamics of life have forced the person to now confront.   

That is, in this story about Angela, the diminished and possibly life-threatening health of her husband cannot be rationalized away or avoided; it is reality. 

The following fears, which are affecting this ladies behavior, can be ascertained from this story:   

1... The potential for economic failure.

2. The potential loss of the important psychological necessities that occur when one loses ones mate.

3.  The loss of control which inevitably becomes a part of the aging process.

4. Her fear of life without her husband has become greater than her fear of death and that is one of the prerequisite components which brings about the onset of thoughts and even actions leading to suicide.

These factors are helping to cause the anxiety that this lady is feeling.  It is important to realize that anxiety is actually a compound or double fear.   Fear regarding the responsibilities and achievements that you are involved in, which are compounded by the fear of time.  Our capacity to imagine the future also plays a significant role in producing anxiety.

The valuable insights from psychotherapy that this lady must have received to help her deal with all of these new fears, plus the passage of time, which did not include the further impairment or death of her husband, helped her to overcome the helpless and worthless feelings that had dominated her thinking processes and she appears to have become more capable of facing the uncertainties of life that none of us can escape.

A terribly disturbing scenario for problems of the nature that Angela was going through, sees some people who are given an SSUI, such as Paxil, Zoloft, or Effexor, to help them get through a difficult emotional period and then sees them kept on the drug permanently. 

In this type of case, the psychiatric profession concludes that the onset of the person’s problems exposed a hidden chemical imbalance that must now be treated for the rest of the person’s life. 

This decision then exposes the individual to whatever side effects that this drug can have on the body, either on a short-term basis or even more dangerously, on a long-term basis also. 

It also exposes the person taking the drug to an unnecessary economic cost, which in turn represents a veritable boondoggle for the pharmaceutical companies. 

And still further, there is always the potential for the person to forget his or her medication and then fall victim to withdrawal symptoms that some psychiatrists mistakenly conclude is the definitive proof that the person did have a latent chemical imbalance that has now become full blown. 

For a definitive explanation of this phenomena, I recommend that you read Dr. Joseph Glenmullen’s book called, “The Antidepressant Solution.”On numerous occasions, in patient stories throughout his book, he restores such people to mature approaches to the uncertainties of adult life, without the use of life long medication.

I must say that my fear of death has changed dramatically as my knowledge about fear has increased.  I now see it as the ultimate form of motivation for me to press on with the writing of this book. 

You could compare it to a woman’s biological clock which begins to tell her that her chances for reproduction are not infinite and it is restricted by the passage of time.  I know that I am expressing ideas about the human mind that are fundamentally correct.  That does not mean that it represents the final piece of the puzzle concerning how our minds function. 

On the contrary, I am sure that it will be seen, in the not too distant future, as one small but necessary step towards a higher level of understanding about how the human mind functions. 

As previously stated elsewhere in this book, I strongly suspect that understanding the human mind and how it thinks and reacts to reality; will be found to approach infinity.      

As for the reality of this moment, it remains to be seen if I have developed the communicative skills that will allow my fellow travelers through life to progress to this higher level of understanding that I am trying to put forward.

To write these words which have the potential to be published, is to react correctly to the natural fear of death.  It is motivating me towards action and in this regard, I consider it to be my very best friend.

If our Creator gave me a choice between having these new ideas about fear accepted within the next year, but without any credit to me personally; --- or having them accepted 10 years from now with fame and fortune heaped upon me, --- without a moments hesitation I would choose the first option.

I LOVE THE HUMAN RACE AND I WANT TO SEE THE SUFFERING REDUCED AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. 

SUPERMAN

The chief danger in life is that you

will take too many precautions.

Everyone in the city of Hamilton, which is located in southern Ontario, has a right to be proud of the facilities at the McMaster-Chedokee Medical Center.  However, I wonder how many people know that a Superman is masquerading there as Clarke Kent, --- well actually Dr. Chuck Cunningham?

During the summer of 1993, the Toronto Star newspaper carried weekend features on a children’s behavioral problem known as, “Elective Mutism.”  The main characteristic of this problem is the decision on the part of the children never to speak to anyone except their own immediate family and further, only when they are inside their own homes.

Psychologists said they were baffled.  Some prescribed tranquilizers, others said it was a genetic abnormality and the affected parents were left in an absolute quandary. 

After returning from school, where she refuses to speak, one child checks every room, closet and crawl space inside her home before she starts a non-stop talking barrage with her mother.

Isn’t it obvious that these children have a distorted fear of strangers?   Perhaps they have seen too much violence and too many people being killed on TV.   Perhaps the parents, in their desire to protect the child from strangers have unwittingly added to, --- or conglomerated this fear.  Whatever the reasons are, it is obviously a distortion of reality inside the child’s mind.

Emerging from an imaginary phone booth comes none other than Dr. Chuck Cunningham from the McMaster-Chedokee Medical Center.  In one of the most simple, yet eloquent quotes that you could ever hear, he says:  “All of the children that I have known with this condition eventually came to speak normally.”

Dr. Chuck Cunningham shouldn’t be a Doctor, he should be teaching other Doctors his expertise.  What about all of the other children who continue to fail to mature because of the bio-psychiatric bias or the insipid meanderings of unskilled psychiatric practitioners?

Again you might ask: okay --- okay, everybody makes mistakes; the bio-psychiatrists have learned from them and let’s get on with it.  Ah, but what about other more complicated behavioral problems for children as well as adults that are routinely misdiagnosed?  

What about the incorrect diagnosis for some of their patients by bio-psychiatrist who mistakenly look for physical causes to explain behavioral problems that other more competent psychiatrists and psychotherapists have shown can be corrected without drugs or long drawn out psychiatric intervention?

It is my belief that a good example of the above syndrome is the expanding conditions whose original founding member was Attention Deficit Disorder. Give the child some kind of drug and hope that the interactive maturing process shows the child how to overcome fear, --- to learn to be assertive without resorting to aggression, --- to curb anxiety and to learn how to concentrate and not make mistakes caused by failure to pay attention.

Now, they are diagnosing the parents of these children with the same quote, “illness”, and prescribing pills for them also.  Apparently they think our Creator was some kind of an idiot and the whole world will eventually have to be given neuroleptic (mind altering) medication. 

As is the case with the elective mute children, it is about time that we realized that distorted fears are the cause of distorted behavior.  The more severe and conglomerated that the deflections become, the closer the individual, so afflicted, comes to being labeled as being mentally ill.

Ask Dr. Norman White at the McMaster-Chedokee hospital how he has to educate some people who have suffered heart attacks, to prevent them from allowing their distorted fears, and consequently their distorted beliefs, from adversely affecting their behavior and robbing them of their potential for a rewarding life after suffering a heart attack.

The increased fears that these heart attack patients are feeling, if reacted to correctly, will help to motivate them towards increased understanding of his or her personal health issues and in the process, these fears will be alleviated. 

No matter how complex they are, behavioral deflections caused by fear are all negotiable.  So bring on the Dr. Chuck Cunningham’s and the Dr. Norman White’s of this world.  Their expertise is long overdue.

       CITIZENS OF LONDON

 

On page 268 of the book entitled, --- Citizens of London, authored by Lynne Olson and written in 2010, which concerns the stress and fears that could not be avoided during the second World War, the following apocryphal words appear:  “In the 5 months before D. Day, over 2600 bombers (and 980 fighters) were [shot] down and more than 10 thousand crewmen were killed.”  

“The morale of the bomber crews, already in the depths, plummeted even further.  The number of mental breakdowns skyrocketed as did cases of alcohol and drug abuse.” I suppose all of the pilots who had mental breakdowns had latent genetic flaws which curiously decided to manifest themselves simultaneously among these particular individuals, at this particular time, as if the fear of imminent death was somehow inconsequential. Please, --- give me a break!!!

And still further from page 268 above, comes the following exchange between an inebriated young pilot and a Colonel in a drinking establishment somewhere in London. After the Colonel ordered the pilot to leave because of his raucous and objectionable behavior. --- “Colonel”, said the young pilot, “yesterday I was flying over the city of Berlin.”  “Where the Hell were you???

The alcohol and the drugs were used to shut off the thoughts that could not be stopped by these young flyers who were facing almost certain death every time they climbed into their airplanes.

Talking back to a superior in the forces, would normally result in a severe penalty.  Apparently nothing was done by the above mentioned Colonel.   I am sure that he passed the young pilots insubordination off as being fueled by alcohol. 

In reality, the Colonel had to admit that he really had no idea how much stress these pilots were forced to endure and as a result he was stunned into relative silence.  The young pilots words had struck a chord for the truth.

Yes indeed, the alcohol did provide the courage that saw the young pilot making such a statement.  But it was also further motivated by the realization that in all probability he would be dead within a few days so what was the difference.   At least he would go out telling the truth.

HUMAN SEXUALITY

She’s trying to diet and I’m dying to try it.

To write a book about the human mind and the topic of psychology and not talk about sexuality would be the same as having an elephant in ones living room and not talking about it. If you believe in a Creator, as I do, then it becomes obvious that all living forms were created in such a way, that they would almost always have the potential to reproduce. 

Since our continued existence as a species, is the potential that our Creator has given to us, as well as other creatures also, it becomes patently obvious that the process of procreation would be given paramount importance inside the mind of all forms of life, including the human race also.

Many years ago, I spent a short time as a volunteer at a mental hospital.  On the mistaken assumption that I was one of them, the patients were not guarded with their conversations, as they were when a member of the staff was within earshot. 

Under these terms of reference, it was a revelation to me to realize that the weekly social dance and the potential to find a partner at these dances, was the main topic of conversation.

I was about 36 years old at the time and I became interested in a beautiful young girl about 18 years old.  Her facial appearance and demeanor was such that it did not appear that she belonged in that hospital.  Obviously something had precipitated her inclusion into that setting.

I believed that I could help her to extricate herself from her predicament.  Unfortunately a young female Chinese worker incorrectly decided that I was paying too much attention to this patient and she misconstrued my motives.   She gave me a number of looks that, according to the favorite expression, --- were sufficient enough to kill me. 

I presume that this young lady talked to her superior because the very next day I was informed that I was to stay away from that particular patient from then on. 

I often wondered whether she was able to extricate herself from the hospital and lead a relatively normal life; or did some misguided Doctor assign her a position of genetic inferiority and condemn her to a lifetime of psychiatric intervention? 

The point being, that the sexual interaction between two individuals is so powerful that confusion about ones motives and the potential for deceit and even criminality is always possible.  Of course when it brings the right people together, it can be the most beautiful part of life itself.

One of the most difficult situations that one might have to face in life is to have the moral fortitude to resist the overt sexual advances of a sexually skilled potential partner. 

Obviously these situations are fraught with danger.  For a psychiatrist to help a patient in all other areas of life but fail to help a person with a sexual problem is to render his or her service next to useless.  As previously stated, Dr. Joseph Glenmullen wrote a book which was at first called, --- "The Pornographer’s Grief”, which has subsequently been renamed as ---  “Sexual Mysteries.” 

Every one of the stories in his book is chalk full of important lessons to be learned about sexual conduct and misconduct.  I have already discussed in another part of this book, the story about Carl and Lee.  Their story is found under the heading of, “Ancient Rites.”

In the chapter entitled, “The Woman Who Wanted To Seduce Her Father”, we get a picture of a psychiatrist, (Dr. Joseph Glenmullen),  whose sexual boundary lines between patient and Doctor were clearly and unequivocally established. 

Would that such knowledge, restraint and an unshakeable desire to help, rather than hinder a patient’s recovery, were so strongly ensconced in all such therapists.

On page 127 and 128, the topic of bulimia and its sexual overtones are discussed.  The following words appear:  “For someone with an eating disorder, food is no longer an inanimate object.  Feeding is not merely a physiological function.  Instead, it is heavily invested with conflictual psychological meaning.  Interestingly, one only sees this kind of distortion of eating behavior in luxury societies where food is in abundance.”  

“Only in such circumstances do people overeat and vomit, even starve themselves to death, out of psychological anger and hunger.  One does not see eating disorders in underdeveloped countries where food in short supply is still yoked to biological necessity and not available to assume such distorted and symbolic meaning.”

The above, simple, straight forward knowledge means that any bio-psychiatrist who tries to say that bulimia is a sign of genetic damage or chemical imbalance inside the human brain, that is not conducive to behavioral change and repair, is unequivocally and demonstrably wrong.  

Obviously it is a selected response on the part of the sufferer to a multitude of psychological and physical problems that are all negotiable in the hands of a competent Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist or Cognitive Behavioral Therapist. 

It can also be alleviated by a family member, or group of family members, or friends who have a collective knowledge about psychology sufficient for the task and present it to the aggrieved sufferer in a caring and loving atmosphere of empathy. 

The last paragraph on Page 215 of that book contains a haunting reminder of how easily the human race can assign untold suffering to those who are the most vulnerable:

 “In the past few decades, the field of psychiatry has done a turn around on the issue of physical and sexual abuse in families.  In Freud’s day, abuse was regarded as too great a violation of social standards to be credible. Freud believed  that patients imagined sexual relationships with parents or other adults as an extension of their strong feelings towards them.”  

My words:

This conclusion speaks more about Sigmund Freud’s fear of economic failure as well as other fears that came into play here also. The well-to-do fathers of these children were paying the bill for their young daughters or sons psychiatric assistance provided by Sigmund Freud.

If these fathers are actually guilty of incest, it is rather obvious that they would find various and sundry reasons why their daughter or son should stop seeing Sigmund.  They would obviously be motivated to assign negative implications to Freud’s ideas.

All of which would conveniently fit inside Freud’s fear of economic failure but of even more importance to Freud, they would cast aspersions on his competence as  the most respected Psychiatrist of his day.  Whether Freud worked his way through the above thoughts or not remains quess work at this late date.

It is known that such deviant sexual behavior as mentioned above, was considered to be too illogical to be considered as possible.  Especially in such upstanding members of society at that particular time. The obvious question to be answered is simply this.  How deeply inside the human mind are some fears actually hidden??

Did the Freudian belief that the potential incest that his young patients were describing actually represent the strong emotional attachment that these children feel for their fathers, or indeed, do they represent the violation of the obtuse sexual code of conduct invoked at that time and which I  referred to above?   

Would such a misguided belief be sufficient to leave Freud thinking that his imaginary definition of this situation was authentic? One of the mistakes that Freud made was to attach his own kind of fears to the fears that his clients would express to him, rather than act directly on those fears themselves.

Fortunately today, more illuminating circumstances prevail and the criminal behavior that such children are reporting is more actively confronted and corrected today rather than being shunted aside as if they are illusory and not worth further analysis.  Sadly, even today such behavior is too easily covered up because of the explosive measures that such disclosure would bring about. 

On page --- of the book called Fears, [Learning to Cope, comes the following words.  “Fortunately, in recent years, strident patient advocates emerged within the profession to challenge such notions. 

Nowadays, abuse is recognized all too often as being true.  A burgeoning literature and support network provides survivors with sanctuary for breaking the taboo and being heard and affirmed.” 

Just like in all other facets of human life, the psychiatric profession must learn by trial and error.  Not to have seen beyond the apparent chaos of psychological understanding, to the clearer understanding of psychological factors that the theory of conglomerated and distorted fear has to offer, is an example of such trials and errors that must now be swept aside.  

And finally, on page 221, of the book called, --- Sexual Mysteries, we find the slide into criminal activity from failure to control ones sexual desires.  We then become aware of the all-encompassing emotional turmoil that such action can cause for the victim and in other destructive ways, --- for the perpetrator also.

Chapter 11 entitled, “Sexual Fears” in Albert G. Forgione’s book called, “Fear (Learning to cope)”, also delves into the devastating effects that sexual fears can have on a person’s life. 

These are not confined to criminal activity but also embrace fears of any nature that prevent the average person from experiencing the pleasure and happiness that a mature sexual lifestyle can bring to each and every one of us. 

In an earlier chapter, I stated that Dr. A.G. Forgione came within an Ace of putting forward the main ideas that I am putting forward in this book.  Here is the relevant quote from page 137: --- “Fears that permeate many different aspects of an individual’s behavior may become deeply entrenched and protected through elaborate rationalizations and an almost impenetrable maze of defense mechanisms.  Such far-ranging fears, essentially affect the entire personality.”   

Dr. Forgione concludes the above comment by saying that:  [This topic] “is beyond the scope of this chapter.”  I consider the opposite to be true.  The theories about psychological matters at that time and even right now, fail to grasp the significance of the above bolded quotation.

I surmise that the so-called brilliant psychiatrists that Dr. Forgione knew, convinced him that even though his ideas appeared to have some merit, --- after all; he was only studying dental psychology, whereas the entire field of psychology was far more complex then what Dr. Forgione was capable of understanding.  Once again, as I said before, the opposite is true.

The last chapter in his book deals with the fear of flying.  For various reasons, one of which would obviously be the need to earn a living, Dr. A. G. Forgione accepted a position at the Logan International Airport in Boston teaching people how to overcome their fear of flying. 

It is somewhat ironic to note that the terrorist attack on 9/11 originated from Logan International Airport.    The question that I would like to ask Dr Forgione is simply this:  Does he realize how close he came to shedding new light on the manner in which the human mind functions?  

Without any doubt whatsoever, this author remains one of my most cherished heroes.  In spite of the fact, that as Winston Churchill once said:  “Some men stumble over the truth, pick themselves up and walk away as if nothing had happened.” I INTEND TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!!!    

Unfortunately, Dr. Forgione’s book was written in 1978, so you might have some difficulty finding a copy of it.  I was able to buy a copy of it for my personal library and if possible, I recommend that you get a copy of it also.   I also found a copy at the York University library which is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

It is altogether too easy to fixate oneself on the degradation of the human condition and fail to realize that decency, honesty, bravery and heroism is at all times surrounding us. 

Much of these positive attributes of the majority of human beings becomes lost in a sea of corruption and violence perpetrated by one human being against another.  The police officers and social workers in particular are subjected to such levels of negativity as to leave them feeling morose about mankind's future. 

But it is important to realize that the level of civilization that we have achieved, albeit not as complete as we would like it to be, would nevertheless be impossible unless the majority of people were decent, law abiding citizens.

The words of the following three people should never be forgotten when one is contemplating the human condition:   

1.  Margaret E. Sangster   (paraphrased)      

“Love makes the world go around.  It makes every enterprise worthwhile here on earth.   It is co-equal with life, outlasts death and reaches onward into infinity.”    

2.  Pearl S. Buck

“Nothing in life is as good as the marriage of true minds between a man and a woman.  Actually that is wrong.  It is life itself.”

3.  Charles Templeton

“I believe that the greatest motivating force in life is love.  Caring for someone else, we will be motivated to seek the best for that person and we will be ennobled in so doing.”         

4. And finally from the Christian Bible comes the ultimate message.

LOVE SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING.

THE WOUNDS OF WAR

True Friends visit us in prosperity only when invited,

but in adversity they come without invitation.

(The Orphratus)

The book, whose title is the heading of this chapter, was written by Herbert Hendin and Ann Pollinger Haas.  It deals with the problems associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  On page 62 they write that; ---

“Medication may be absolutely necessary in the short term for veterans who appear to have a conditioned emotional response to combat-related stimuli at the core of their stress disorders.   Nevertheless, in the long run, behavioral interventions are preferred.”

On page 87 they write:  “Although guilt is often the outgrowth of fear, the development of guilt perpetuates and increases fear.  It becomes a vicious cycle.   Conversely, reducing fear reduces guilt.” 

The dictionary definition of guilt is --- the fact or state of doing wrong.   But guilt is actually the fear that you are failing to live up to certain standards that are important to you or to the society into which you were born. 

It then becomes obvious that guilt is simply a corollary of fear.  Under these terms of reference, it should become self-evident that reducing ones fears will reduce ones feelings of guilt.

Because the lines of demarcation between those who were enemies and those who were not, was almost impossible to define in the Vietnamese war, many soldiers developed a distorted fear of everyone that they encountered who was not wearing the same uniform as they were. 

These problems are enunciated proficiently on pages 88 and 89 of that book.   These soldiers developed --- a conditioned emotional response to other people as potential enemies, out of proportion to reality.  But how many people, put into a similar situation would not react similarly?  

After all, ones very life is at risk at almost every moment in this scenario.   The problem then becomes how to bring this response back to a level that is consistent with the normal non-warlike state.  That is, a level more in keeping with everyday life.

These two pages, (87 & 88), contain a brilliant description of conglomerated and distorted fears, which have invoked adaptive emotional conditioning leading to aggressive action. 

When these types of reactions occur in everyday life after the veteran has returned home safely from the war zone, they become part of the diagnosis for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in combat veterans.

It is my contention that it also proves that a genetically normal brain can be transformed by fear into a brain that the bio-psychiatric community would describe as being mentally ill.  These words appear on page 231:

“Among veterans who were exposed to combat and who had both an unstable pre-combat history and a history of non-military violence in Vietnam, we have seen none who have escaped a post-traumatic stress disorder.”

On page 236 we have the story of a war veteran who believes that he is suffering from PTSD.  It turns out that his stress has been caused by the death of his wife and child in a recent car accident and it is not a product of his wartime experiences. 

This proves that stress (read fear) is at the core of these problems and the various life experiences and achievements, of a negative nature, are the groundwork from which the stress is developed.

On page 240 we find that unrelenting emotional after-affects of combat (fear of death) gave the soldiers symptoms of stress that caused them to fear for their own sanity. 

The fear of ones own thoughts and emotional responses, including the fear of the feelings of fear itself; are, as previously stated, the cornerstones upon which the theory of conglomerated and distorted fears as the actual cause of so-called mental illness, so convincingly resides.    .

On page 214, we find the other side of the coin.  Here we find a cluster of traits that are observed in veterans who did not develop PTSD: 

“Calmness under pressure, intellectual control, ability to create and impose a sense of structure, acceptance of their own and others emotions and limitations plus a lack of excessively violent or guilt arousing behavior. 

(All these features) --- comprised an adaptation response that was uniquely suited for the preservation of emotional stability in a context that was often unstructured and unstable.”

If one is attempting to put forward a new concept, a new and deeper level of truth in a chosen area of discovery, it becomes of paramount importance to try to find examples that will help to unequivocally verify the authenticity of this new concept.  

In this regard, the information reproduced above from the book called, “The Wounds Of War“, and that which a more detailed perusal of the book would provide for any reader so interested, --- in effect, represents the “Holy Grail” for yours truly. 

Namely, that the information thus described in that book should inexorably lead the reader to become aware of the following fundamental truth.

A large number of soldiers, who were classified as being in relatively normal mental health before they experienced combat service in the Vietnam War, were ultimately dispersed into all sections of the mental health spectrum after they had survived the war and returned home.    

That is, some suffered PTSD and were listed as being mentally ill and placed on medication.  Although all soldiers were obviously changed by having experienced the horrors of this war, some soldiers nevertheless remained in a broad spectrum of behavior that is considered to be consistent with normal mental health.

And still others obtained remarkable new insights into psychological values, which translated into their capacity to handle far more responsibility then they could prior to experiencing the Vietnam War. Many of these veterans went on to become pillars of society and others became what the writer Harry Overstreet referred to as --- “Intercreating Minds.”

How can one use the biological or genetic model for mental illness to explain such a dispersal of those who were considered to be in good, or “normal” mental health before joining the forces; into all of the other spectrums of human behavior including mental illness?  Fortunately for me, I do not have to try to embrace such a task, because I believe that it is impossible.

I believe that the Vietnamese conflict and the psychological ramifications for its combatants, precisely and succinctly verifies the theory of mental illness being caused by distorted and conglomerated fears. 

It is not that the Vietnamese war was somehow unique and as a result, it illuminated more completely the veracity of the above statement. In reality, the accumulated psychological knowledge of the human race at that time was such that some one such as Herbert Hendron and Ann Pollinger Haas would write the book that they have and someone such as myself would, in turn write this book.

And still further, it is not that these personal intersecting lines of evaluation between myself and these writers represents the only possibility for the human race to acquire this new knowledge. 

In reality many other researchers are approaching this new understanding from a proliferation of other sources and ultimately this new understanding was destined to come into existence in the not too distant future. 

The only claim that I can make then, is that because of my determination to make this book happen, this new understanding might come into existence sooner --- rather than later.  And in reality, what more can any one man or woman ask for.

As stated elsewhere in this book, a combination of increased world wide population, which in turn causes an increase in the fear of the unknown in any particular chosen achievement, which then brings about an increase in the human desire to acquire new knowledge to reduce the unknown in that particular achievement, ultimately leads to new knowledge for the human race as a whole.

These underlying laws of probability that produce new understanding very rarely amount to monstrous leaps which lead to fundamental new understanding and new truths. 

With the exception of Albert Einstein and perhaps a few others, it is far more common that a veritable profusion of individuals in a chosen field of discovery, are inexorably moving towards the discovery of new and deeper levels of truth in that field.

This scenario applied to Frederick Banting in his discovery of Insulin, it also applied to Charles Darwin in his discovery of the Origin of Species.  These are simply two examples of the above-described laws of probability that apply to new discoveries. 

Of course there is also the simple fact that the word truth is not as simple as we might have once thought it to be.  Very few truths can be labeled as absolute truths.  It is always our human destiny to seek out even deeper levels of truth. 

Very few of our new platforms of knowledge obtain the status of being called an absolute truth.  In most instances they become the launching pad for new generations to reach into the unknown and find even deeper levels of truth for the field in question. 

I believe that a similar future will obtain for these new ideas about how the human mind functions that I am putting forward in this book at this time.        

EMOTION

If I had not used humor, I would have

gone insane a long time ago.

(Mohandas Gandhi)

Current theory suggests that emotion in most cases defies reason and it is represented as a force inside the human mind that must forever contain what one might best describe as uncharted waters. 

Although I am quite ready to admit that emotion and reason are not exactly married to each other, at the same time, I believe that: --- emotion is not divorced from reason but rather, it is a product of reason under the influence of fear.

Distorted fears give rise to distorted emotions and although we already know that many emotional feelings and actions can be analyzed and corrected, it also remains true that a large area of emotional understanding will remain outside of our current ability to understand.  

The above situation will apply no matter how much we increase our knowledge about how the human mind functions.  Because of the infinite nature of reality, no matter how much knowledge the human race is able to accrue, we will always have partial understanding about reality. 

This is where our emotional responses come into play in an effort to keep us alive until such time as we advance to the next level of understanding. 

The following is obviously a simplification of the method by which the feelings of fear are transmitted through our nervous system.  Before starting, I think it is appropriate to mention that there is a miniature muscle for every hair on the human body. 

Although some nerve tissue is microscopic in size, nevertheless the muscular sheath that surrounds the flow of electricity through the nervous system has the capacity to expand and contract.  

Increased electrical flow, caused by adrenaline and noradrenaline, which in turn are activated from the fight of flight response to fear, in combination with constricted nerve tissue, produces the varying degrees of sensations that make up the feelings of fear. 

These feelings represent a part of our emotional system and it is this simple fact that leads me to make the above statement that emotion is not divorced from reason, but rather, it is a product of reason under the influence of fear.

Understanding how or where the feelings of joy, happiness and pleasure come from is rather complicated.  One source seems to be the ability of these experiences to relax the nerve sheaths and allow a more stable flow of electricity throughout the body. 

Laughter also seems to bring about the same kind of relaxation.  Before the discovery of some of the newer neuroleptics, some mental patients would laugh uncontrollably.

Now that we know that their mental tensions, which caused their abnormal behavior, are caused by distorted and conglomerated fears; --- now that we know that this condition will constrict the nervous sheath and cause nervous and mental anguish; --- now that we know that this anguish can be somewhat alleviated by laughter; --- it is easier to understand why these people were laughing at what appeared to be nothing.  In effect they were trying to self-medicate.

I predict that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy will be the leading edge of psychological assistance for the general public at large in the future. With this in mind, I decided to read the autobiography of one of the pioneers in the science of behavior whose name is B.F. Skinner.

Although he correctly visualized the future importance of behavioral science, he made a basic mistake at the very start of his career.  It constituted a fatal flaw that helped to dictate the pessimistic view that he predicted for the future of the human race. 

When studying or describing behavioral processes, he purposely avoided any reference to mental states or to the structure and function of the human mind.  

He chose to almost entirely ignore feelings and by so doing, he robbed himself of the total picture, which severely limited his chances for success.

H

e believed that --- “Talking about feelings is safe because nothing will ever be done about them.”   This quotation comes from the book called, --- “B.F. Skinner (a life)”, which was written by Daniel W. Bjork.  In this regard, I must empathically say that Mr. Skinner was dead wrong.  

In fact, I will do everything in my power to motivate the entire human race to increase its knowledge about emotion and feelings.  Specifically, to use them as a beacon along the side of the road that will lead us to more successful approaches to life for all of the years that remain in the history of mankind.

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

Just recently CNN showed a program about Glen Campbell's mental deterioration due to Alzheimer’s disease.   Everyone's hat should be off in tribute to Glen for his desire to face this problem and not hide it from the public at large.

From listening to his answers to various questions it became obvious to me that he had a distorted fear of failing to remember the words to the songs that made him so famous and earned so much money for him.  

Unfortunately he decided that other memories were unimportant and he would concentrate all of his memory skills on remembering the words to his many famous songs.

It is this attitude that resulted in his hippo-campus being much smaller than it should have been.  It would be like not using one of your arms and watching it shrivel up rather than become the healthy looking appendage that it should have been. We are lucky that we can now see such shriveling of the hippo-campus.  In the past no such telltale signs would become self-evident.

I cannot offer Glen Campbell any skill in bringing his hippo-campus back to a healthy looking one.  I am sure that others could help to alleviate the symptoms of this disease for Glen in various ways. 

But I can offer younger people a chance to reduce their chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease.   Do not deliberately shut down your memory cells!!!  \I do not mean that you should try to memorize everything that you experience.  What I am saying is to use moderation in this area as well as almost all areas in your life. This type of response, in my opinion, will help to reduce your chances of ending up with Alzheimer’s disease as you get older.