Watched Jim van Os TED talk now (see link to video below). Certainly an important step to show the popularity of psychotic experiences. I always tell friends that each has been psychotic... Surprised looks. Well, I say, as kiddos we all have been often... examples I use to take out the homicidal prejudices created by media about scapegoat-schizophrenics. However I do not agree with the dichotomy of singled out brain and inner/outer world presented. Still Descartes Error (Antonio Damasio, Luc Ciompi, more later). There is plenty of research demonstrating that the production of meaningful sounds or images is actually embodied AND distributed in the complex relations of human beings: people as they are actively interacting and interconnecting thereby creating eco-social-embodied and partially aware practical, emotional, visual, verbal living knowledge. One wonders (me) that nothing is mentioned about big, very big emotional distress and intense affects which are implied in perturbing the complex connectedness and sharing of distributed interactional, emotional and aware knowing of realities... of many people who experience changes in their situatedness and relatedness in their relational realities... and eventually having unusual sensual cognitions called hallucinations. A huge step forward is actually the consideration of psychotic experiences as related to unusual ways of meaning making... Nevertheless, I disagree with the reductionistic attribution of these to brain functioning (as suggested in the video) as this does not allow to understand the affective and embodied changes in enacted and challenged, unusual relatedness... however Jim von Os does mention the many challenging experiences people have and which can alter the conscious ways of knowing, thinking, perceiving. For those interested, Robin Timmers has given a hugely inspiring talk at the last World Hearng Voices Congress where he presents truly original ideas about strong affects that may not be accepted in the aware, distributed, social knowlegde one participates in - or not really. Robin suggests some new ideas about brain function related to this. So yes, whereas I welcome the humanization and popularisation of psychotic experiences in Jim van Os talk, I disagree with the predominant disembodied, individualized, brain-centered, cognitive framework presented. Very interesting to compare with the more interactional, interrelational complex life functions,their social, embodied, strongly affective and dis/un/acknowledgement challenges possibly leading to disruptures in non-aware ways to find oneself within socially un-usual exchanges and the possible creation of psychotic ways of relating and making meaning emerging from these challenging, frightening, intense experiences with no common social rites and vocabulary to keep them as part of normal life interactional and interrelational realities. O, you wonder why I do not focus predominatly on the brain (i must be really stupid?!) For a long time I learned the brain and whole nervous system are interrelated and interdependent of the relational and distributed life functions experienced within lived social reality and in part-taking embodiment. This different approach I follow for more than 25 years with teachers like neurology and animal behavior professor Gerd Rehkämper or philosopher and psychiatrist Thomas Fuchs. Fuchs (Uni Heidelberg) has integreted more and more of relational embodiment processes in the development of lived practices, emotions, knowing, enacted perceptions and socialised language, as underpinning thoughts and private ideas. He asks interesting questions about possible changes in these complex psychosomatic and interrelational emotional, perceptual, cognitive co-productions in the development of psychotic ways to experience oneself in altered realties. Fuchs (as my early teacher Rehkämper, or the researchers in psychosomatics) make a lot of sense to me when related to the phenomenological, descriptive testimonies of many survivors, when related to the inspiring and courageous researchers with more long term psychotic experiences as: Arnhild Lauveng, Rachel Waddingham, Eleanor Longden, Jacqui Dillon, Robin Timmers... just a few gorgeous, inspiring people who create new knowledge from lived experience and diverse scientific or psychological knowledge out there! https://youtube/watch?v=sE3gxX5CiW0&index=5&list=PLsRNoUx8w3rNhwSql41ofVK_z0oTeh3Kv
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 10:58:48 +0000
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