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http://www.webmedcentral.com/images/Header_Logo.giftext/html2011-02-07T18:55:02+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Leonid PerlovskyConsciousness And Free Will, A Scientific Possibility Due To Advances In Cognitive Science
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/1539
Free will is fundamental to morality, intuition of self, and normal functioning of the society. However, science does not provide a clear logical foundation for this idea. This paper considers the fundamental scientific argument against free will, called reductionism, and explains the reasons for choosing dualism against monism. Then, the paper summarizes unexpected conclusions from recent discoveries in cognitive science. Classical logic turns out not to be the fundamental mechanism of mind. It is replaced by dynamic logic. Mathematical and experimental evidence are considered conceptually. Dynamic logic counters logical arguments for reductionism. Contemporary science of mind is not reducible; free will can be scientifically accepted along with scientific monism.text/html2010-12-03T18:01:48+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Leonid PerlovskyCuriosity And Pleasure
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/1275
Heuristic decision making received wide attention due to the work of Tversky and Kahneman (1981) and inspired multiple studies of irrationality of the human mind and a fundamental disregard for knowledge. But what is the source of all human knowledge, including heuristics? We discuss the hypothesis that acquisition of knowledge is a deeply rooted psychological need, a motivational mechanism for perception as well as higher cognition. We report experimental results showing that acquisition of knowledge is emotionally pleasing. The satisfaction of curiosity through acquiring knowledge brings pleasure. This confirms the hypothesis that curiosity or need for knowledge is a fundamental and ancient motivation on a par with other basic needs, such as sex or food. This paper connects curiosity, knowledge, cognition, emotions, including aesthetic emotions of the beautiful, mechanisms of drives, high cognitive functions, minimization of cognitive effort through heuristics, and knowledge maximization. We anticipate our finding to be an important aspect for several classical fields including cognitive dissonance, personality, self, learning, and new directions in cognitive science studying emotions related to acquiring knowledge, personality types in relation to types of knowledge, relating higher cognitive abilities to knowledge-related emotions, and new directions in aesthetics revealing the cognitive nature of the beautiful and music.
text/html2010-09-23T16:37:51+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Sze Chai KwokMood Induction and Unintentional Learning in Healthy Subjects
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/717
Whether induced-depressed individuals demonstrate a mood congruence effect in unintentional learning is unknown. We manipulated 51 healthy participants into either a happy (n = 25) or a sad mood (n = 26) state and tested their mood-congruent information processing with unintentional learning of negatively charged pictorial stimuli. Participants in the happy mood induction group recognised significantly more negative items than induced-depressed participants. I conclude that there was no evidence of mood-congruence in unintentional learning in induced-depressives.text/html2013-01-23T19:31:57+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Diana S DimitrovaHighlights of Prenatal Education at the School for Parents Varna
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/3959
According to modern scientists as early as when the egg is fertilized it has a "mind" of its own about whether the pregnancy is wanted or not. Unwanted pregnancy often ends in a miscarriage. Today it is considered proven, that in the womb babies can hear, feel, see, experience and even receive instruction at the elementary level. Prenatal education is performed by the mother in the natural course of pregnancy. It relates to the vital question of the quality of the future generation. The idea of having a live and meaningful connection with the baby in the course of pregnancy has been around for a long time. Modern medical and psychological research prove that the thoughts and emotions of the pregnant wife have a direct bearing on the development of her child, as well as on its self-awareness. The American scientist D. Chamberlain has proven that the brain and feelings of the child are activated much earlier than previously thought. Thomas R. Verny, MD, narrates a very interesting experience in his book "The Secret Life of the Unborn Child: How You Can Prepare Your Baby for a Happy, Healthy Life":“Pregnant women were asked to lie prone for twenty to thirty minutes on a table under an ultrasound machine. What Dr Reynolds deliberately did not tell them was that when a woman lies like this, her child eventually quiets down and lies still too. As each child relaxed, his mother was only told that the ultrasound screen showed her baby wasn't moving. The terror that information produced was expected and deliberate. Dr Reynolds wanted to see how quickly a mother's fear registered on her child and how he reacted when it did. In every case, the response was swift: Seconds after each woman learned her child was lying motionless, the image on the ultrasound screen began stirring.”The influence of stress and unhealthy way of living on the new generation has often been discussed. More and more parents feel powerless to deal with the education of their children. Few, however, are aware of the "ecology" of intrauterine life. There is conclusive evidence that individual psychological and intellectual development starts with intrauterine development. Years of scientific studies prove that the child feels happy or unhappy, aggressive or loving, calm or irritable in its successive life, depending on how its mother has felt, what signals it has received from her in the period of its prenatal development, and the palpable presence of the father. The building up of a relationship (bonding) between the child and its parents starts long before its birth. This is the reason why in recent years there have been so many discussions of the different ways of communicating with babies.Since 1999, as part of the prenatal preparation courses at the School for Parents – Varna, the following techniques for training have been advocated:1. Firstly, providing the Mother with a calm and harmonious environment. Stress affects adversely the fetus, especially in the early stages of pregnancy, when it can induce a miscarriage. During the 24th week episodic electrical activity of the fetal brain can be registered. This in turn suggests, that in the presence of a reduced oxygen supply to the fetus (which happens when the mother is subjected to strong stress) will adversely affect the brain structure. Pregnant women are recommended to daily stay in the "bed rest" position for at least 15 minutes with their feet above the level of the womb. In this way blood is drained from the lower limbs, and the inflow of blood to the placenta is increased. Avoiding stress factors is desirable, rather than obligatory. Most women confine that it is difficult to attain perfect harmony in pregnancy.2. Touching and caressing the abdomen of a pregnant woman has a relaxing effect and can soothe the tense uterine muscles, to tone down the womb and prevent the occurrence of untimely contractions. In pregnant women with an intensified womb tonus, caressing is only recommended after a consultation with an obstetrician. Usually pregnant women often feel the need to touch their abdomen themselves, when talking or thinking about the unborn child. Touching and caressing can also be done by the father, and is usually accompanied by the sending of verbal or mental messages.In a study of 134 pairs, who attended the School for Parents in the August 2011 - January 2012 period, 68 of them (50.7%) report that when caressing and touching the abdomen their child reacts with active movements, which are remarkably noticeable.3. Talking, listening to music, singing are also types of communication between parents and their unborn child, which are often recommended by modern prenatal psychology. During the seventh lunar month the fetus's nervous system is mature enough and all sensory and motor centers are already localized in the brain. The fetus has sensors for touch and pain. It can differentiate the louder external sounds from those, accompanying its intrauterine development. During the 27th week of pregnancy the baby responds to intense external light and can turn its head to face it. Neurologists accept that during the 32nd week after the conception babies demonstrate awareness to what is happening around him. Scanning the baby's brain indicates the presence of periods of rest and activity. Our studies prove that many mothers tend to accept the statement that their unborn child can hear them, when they speak. Around one-third of them share that they talk and sing to it on a daily basis; about 15% do so only every now and then, but not more than 2-3 times a week. However there are still some pregnant women, who do not accept the idea of the prenatal development of senses, and do not communicate with their babies in any form or shape (13.4% - 18 of respondent mothers). Obstetricians, trained in the materialistic medical approach, strongly refuse to accept the presence of fetus consciousness. Their conviction is then transferred to the pregnant women they consult.4. Recommendations for a safe environment Pregnant women are advised to avoid the direct impact of electromagnetic radiation: computers, TVs, GSM and microwave devices. Science has not yet given its final word on whether those effects are safe for the developing baby. More than half of the pregnant women (67%) claim that they know the dangers of the environment in which they reside and try to avoid them. Unfortunately, 15.6% are aware of the threats, but are unable to eliminate them.As part of the courses for future parents we offer instruction in meditation, respiratory methods for relaxation and yoga techniques to reduce stress. Films and books are commented, helping the pregnant woman and her family to prepare for their new member. The recommendations to furnish the home beautifully, to find the appropriate scents and colors, both at home and at work, stimulate the future mother to focus her positive thinking on the fetus. Thus a suitable emotional background for the baby's development is created, and we work towards a constructive intrauterine bonding. Satisfaction from attending the prenatal courses is extremely high. Over 98% of participants provide an assessment of over 5.50 (with 6 being the maximum grade) at the end of the course at the School for Parents in the city of Varna.text/html2018-09-07T08:44:29+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Deepak GuptaThe Core Question Named \"Whydunit\"
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/5507
I am addicted to reading because I am addicted to exploring. Recently I read three books, not in a particular sequence, which aligned my line of thought to a tee. The first book was The Alienist by Caleb Carr [1], read after religiously watching television series, The Alienist on TNT [2], a cable television network. The book explores the evolution of crime investigation from whodunit into whydunit at pre-dawn of the 20th century. The essential gist of the book was that we are born out of our experiences during childhood; however, it forgets to dig further into the experiences which shaped our parents into shaping our childhood. In that regards, everything can boil down to our ancestry's whydunit. Herein comes the implication for reading the second book The Moral Lives of Animals by Dale Peterson [3]. The quest for humans' whydunits may be satiated by simply observing, analyzing and understanding why the animals do what they do. This exploration has been amply aided by non-intrusive real-time observation of animals living in the wild. Hereafter, I lapped up to the book That's What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together by Joanne Lipman [4]. The world has been listening to That's What He Said since eternity and it has been well into the 21st century before it is exploring That's What She Said.
The basic questions which rattled me during this addictive exploration of whydunit are: Should everything in a person boil down to mommy-daddy issues? Shouldn't mommy's and daddy's mommy-daddy issues be also accounted for so on and so forth? Should animal instincts be abhorred because humans feel superior to animals? Shouldn't animal instincts provide insight into our uncharted minds to provide better understanding of humans' whydunits? Should it always have to be us versus them when they are as good a part of us as we are of them? Aren't we all fortunate to be born into an extended ethnicity/gender/sexuality diversity spectrum [5-7], although the unclear minority/majority living at extremes is yet to realize and understand the unexposed majority/minority living around dead center? Aren't we essentially overlooking societies' whydunits during our restrictive inquisition of individuals' whydunits? Who can question the time that keeps refining or even redefining societies' whydunits so as to override individuals' whydunits while individuals remain bound to their current actions despite being oblivious to their own limited understanding of whydunit?
Summarily, the core question named "whydunit" may never get answered completely. However, disowning the past may not be the path to success because our past shaped our present just like our present is shaping our future. Who knows if time being beyond our control represents the helplessness in creation of everything out of divine perfect vacuum's nothingness with divine's whydunit remaining unanswered for eternity despite our oblivious attempt to procreate the creator of everything [8]? text/html2010-09-10T07:02:22+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Joseph O Prewitt DiazParticipatory Community Mapping: A Tool To Enhance Psychosocial Wellbeing
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/585
This articles proposes that community participatory mapping is a valuable tool in developing psychosocial support activities after a disaster or emergency. Throughout the text examples from the field are provided to support the suggestions given.text/html2010-09-19T12:06:54+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Prof. Marco ValentiPerceptual and visuospatial abilities in chess players: a cross-sectional study
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/668
The differences in ability of chess players at different skill levels to copy and to recall positions are attributable to the experts’ storage of thousands of chunks (patterned clusters of pieces) in the long-term memory.The aim of this study was to check differences in perceptual tasks and the visuo-spatial abstraction cognitive ability of chess players compared to non-players.A cross-sectional study was conducted by comparing the perceptual and visuo-spatial performance of 50 agonistic chess players, and a referent group of 50 age- and education-matched non-players. The following tests were undertaken by the participants: Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT), General Ability Test 2 (GAT-2 Abstract and Spatial modules).The status of chess player does not affect the outcome of the GEFT perceptual test or the GAT-2 abstract test, whereas a significative effect is demonstrated by the GAT-2 spatial test. This study reveals a significant difference in visuo-spatial abilities between chess players and non-players, after adjusting for age, whereas no difference could be demonstrated with respect to perceptual or abstraction skills. Visuo-spatial abilities seem not to be influenced by age, and one wonders whether visuo-spatial ability is developed only in a specific form in chess players rather than in more general forms.text/html2010-11-24T16:31:49+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Joseph O Prewitt DiazDr. Carlos Albizu Miranda: The Man And His Contribution To The Field Of Psychology
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/1213
There is an attempt in Puerto Rico, to develop a holistic view of the life and contributions of Dr. Carlos Albizu Miranda to the history of Psychology of Puerto Rico, and what has been his legacy to the World. Most of the commentaries after his transition in 1984 focus on his interest to develop a “Psicologia Puertorriquena”. No human being acts as moved by the spirit or the psyche. The environment, and the person’s perception of that environment, has a direct bearing on the actions of that person. Such was the case with “Don Charlie” as many of us called him. I was blessed by the words of wisdom of this man, now it is my turn to share another perception of his work.text/html2010-12-15T17:41:12+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Sanjay K SomaniTrichotillomania With Gastroduodenojejunal Trichobezoar
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/1367
A 6-yr old girl presented with pain abdomen for 3 years and vomiting for one and half month. There was history of pulling of own scalp hair (Trichotillomania) and its ingestion (trichophagia). Her body weight was 16 kg, she looked pale. There is no alopecia. Per abdomen an irregular, firm non tender lump of 5 X 4 cm overlying the part of epigastrium and part of right hypochondrium, which moved from right to left after food intake. Ultrasound report shows a cresentric echogenic area in left hypochondrium in the region of stomach and dense acoustic shadowing posterior to it suggesting bezoar. Mildly dilated small bowel loops. CECT whole abdomen shows gastroduodenojejunal bezoar with bezoar in ileal loops and mild ascites. MRI abdomen shows bezoar in distal duodenum with adjoining thick wall of duodenum and proximal loop and gastric dilation. Upper GI endoscopy shows, a large ball of hair in the body of stomach with a thick root going into antrum and pylorus, scope could not be passed to the duodenum due to obstruction by hair ball. The final diagnosis was trichotillomania with gastroduodenojejunal trichobezoar.text/html2010-12-17T13:00:54+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Leonid PerlovskyPhysics Of The Mind: Concepts, Emotions, Language, Cognition, Consciousness, Beauty, Music, And Symbolic Culture
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/1374
Mathematical approaches to modeling the mind since the 1950s are reviewed. Difficulties faced by these approaches are related to the fundamental incompleteness of logic discovered by K.Godel. A recent mathematical advancement, dynamic logic (DL) overcame these past difficulties. DL is described conceptually and related to neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, and philosophy. DL models higher cognitive functions: concepts, emotions, instincts, understanding, imagination, intuition, consciousness. DL is related to the knowledge instinct that drives our understanding of the world and serves as a foundation for higher cognitive functions. Aesthetic emotions and perception of beauty are related to ‘everyday’ functioning of the mind. The article reviews mechanisms of human symbolic ability, language and cognition, joint evolution of the mind, consciousness, and cultures. It touches on a manifold of aesthetic emotions in music, their cognitive function, origin, and evolution. The article concentrates on elucidating the first principles and reviews aspects of the theory proven in laboratory research.text/html2010-12-23T16:53:17+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Leonid PerlovskyBeauty And Art. Cognitive Function, Evolution, And Mathematical Models Of The Mind
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/1322
The paper discusses relationships between aesthetics theory and mathematical models of mind. Mathematical theory describes abilities for concepts, emotions, instincts, imagination, adaptation, learning, cognition, language, approximate hierarchy of the mind and evolution of these abilities. The knowledge instinct is the foundation of higher mental abilities and aesthetic emotions. Aesthetic emotions are present in every act of perception and cognition, and at the top of the mind hierarchy they become emotions of the beautiful. The learning ability is essential to everyday perception and cognition as well as to the historical development of understanding of the meaning of life. I discuss a controversy surrounding this issue. Conclusions based on cognitive and mathematical models confirm that judgments of taste are at once subjective and objective, and I discuss what it means. The paper relates cognitive and mathematical concepts to those of philosophy and aesthetics, from Plato to our days, clarifies cognitive mechanisms and functions of the beautiful, and resolves many difficulties of contemporary aesthetics.
Keywords: beauty, aesthetics, philosophy, art, cognition, instincts, emotions, concepts, learning, knowledge, knowledge instinct, evolution, language, hierarchy, mathematics, mind.text/html2010-12-23T17:34:52+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Leonid PerlovskyGrounded Symbols In The Brain, Computational Foundations For Perceptual Symbol System
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/1357
Perceptual symbol system (PSS) grounds cognition in perception (Barsalou 1999). “Grounded cognition… rejects the standard view that amodal symbols represent knowledge in semantic memory” (Barsalou 1999). PSS emphasized the roles of simulation in cognition. “Simulation is the reenactment of perceptual, motor, and introspective states acquired during experience with the world, body, and mind… when knowledge is needed to represent a category (e.g., chair), multimodal representations captured during experiences… are reactivated to simulate how the brain represented perception, action, and introspection associated with it.” Simulation is an essential computational mechanism in the brain. The best known case of these simulation mechanisms is mental imagery (e.g., Kosslyn 1980; 1994). According to PSS cognition supports action. Simulation is a central mechanism of PSS, yet rarely, if ever, they recreate full experiences. Using the mechanism of simulators, which approximately correspond to concepts and types in amodal theories, PSS implements the standard symbolic functions of type-token binding, inference, productivity, recursion, and propositions. Using these mechanisms PSS retains the symbolic functionality. “Thus, PSS is a synthetic approach that integrates traditional theories with grounded theories.” (Barsalou 1999; 2005; 2007).According to Barsalou, during the Cognitive Revolution in the middle of the last century, cognitive scientists were inspired by new forms of representation “based on developments in logic, linguistics, statistics, and computer science.” They adopted amodal representations, such as feature lists, semantic networks, and frames (Barsalou & Hale 1993). Little empirical evidence supports amodal symbolic mechanisms (Barsalou 1999). It seems that amodal symbols were adopted largely because they promised to provide “elegant and powerful formalisms for representing knowledge, because they captured important intuitions about the symbolic character of cognition, and because they could be implemented in artificial intelligence.” As we discuss in the next section, these promises were unfulfilled due to fundamental mathematical difficulties.There is a number of past and ongoing developments of computational implementations of PSS (Cangelosi et al. 2000; Cangelosi & Riga 2006) and references therein. Yet, computational models for PSS (Barsalou 1999; 2007) require new mathematical methods different from traditional artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, or connectionist methods. The reason is that the traditional methods encountered combinatorial complexity (CC), an irresolvable computational difficulty, when attempting to model complex systems. Cognitive modeling requires learning combinations of perceptual features and objects or events (Perlovsky 1994; 1997; 2001; 2002a,b; 2006b; 2007a).The aim of this article is to develop a realistic and scalable mathematical model of grounded symbols and formalization of PSS based on a new computational technique of dynamic logic, DL (Perlovsky 2006a,b). Although the developed mathematical formalism is quite general, here we first concentrate on just one example of PSS mechanism: a mathematical description of models and simulators for forming and enacting representations of situations (higher level symbols) from perceptions of objects (lower level symbols), and then we discuss its general applicability. In addition to simulators, we consider concepts, grounding, binding, dynamic aspect of PSS (DIPSS), abstract concepts, the mechanism of amodal symbols within PSS, and the role of logic.Section 2 considers past mathematical difficulties, relates it to classical logic, and introduces a new computational technique of dynamic logic (DL), which overcomes past computational limitations. Whereas classical logic is a static logic of statements (e.g., “if A then B”), DL describes a process capable of modeling the main components of PSS, including simulators. Section 3 illustrates the important properties of DL. Section 4 illustrates how DL models essential mechanisms of PSS considering an example of learning situations from objects (a difficult problem due to its inherent combinatorial complexity). Section 5 discusses DL as a general mechanism of interacting bottom-up and top-down signals, applicable to all levels of cognitive processing., We discuss the representation of abstract concepts, the role of language, and how it is relevant to modeling PSS. Section 6 continues this discussion concentrating specifically on DL modeling amodal vs. perceptual symbols. Section 7 discusses experimental evidence confirming DL predictions of the mind mechanism, and formulates further predictions that could be tested experimentally in the near future. Section 8 describes future theoretical research as well as proposed verifiable experimental predictions of DL.text/html2011-01-08T19:34:59+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Eugene P LublinerA Comparison Of The Vulnerability Of The Beck Depression Inventory And The Modified Stroop Procedure To Intentional Response Alteration
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/1366
The Beck Depression Inventory – Second Edition has been validated in numerous populations and is the most widely used depression assessment tool in research and in practice. The obvious nature of its items makes the instrument vulnerable to intentional efforts to distort one’s level of depression. The purpose of this study was to examine the relative resistance to intentional response distortion on the BDI-II in comparison to a modified Stroop procedure involving the color naming of depression relevant words. Mildly depressed and non-depressed participants were asked to present themselves as either depressed or non-depressed on each of the two instruments. Each participant was provided with a vignette that encouraged them to respond in a depressed or non-depressed manner. Thus, the study involved a 2 x 2 design with two levels of affect (depressed and non-depressed) and two levels of response distortion (in a depressed or non-depressed direction). Study results indicated that both depressed and non-depressed participants were able to intentionally alter their responses to appear more or less depressed on the BDI-II but were unable to do this on the modified Stroop.text/html2011-02-07T18:54:24+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Leonid PerlovskyMusic. Cognitive Function, Origin, And Evolution Of Musical Emotions
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/1494
Evolutionary musicologists agree that music is an enigma. Existing theories contradict each other, and cannot explain mechanisms or functions of musical emotions in workings of the mind, nor evolutionary reasons for music origins. Based on a synthesis of cognitive science and mathematical models of the mind this paper proposes a hypothesis of a fundamental role of music in cognition, and evolution of the mind, consciousness, and cultures. We consider a split in the vocalizations of proto-humans into two types: one less emotional and more concretely-semantic, evolving into language, and the other preserving emotional connections along with semantic ambiguity, evolving into music. The proposed hypothesis departs from other theories in considering specific mechanisms of the mind-brain, which required the evolution of music parallel with the evolution of cultures and languages. Arguments are presented that the evolution of language toward becoming the semantically powerful tool of today required emancipation from emotional encumbrances. The opposite, no less powerful mechanisms required a compensatory evolution of music toward more differentiated and refined emotionality. Fast differentiation of knowledge due to language created cognitive dissonances among knowledge and instincts. Differentiated emotions were needed for resolving these dissonances. Thus the need for refined music in the process of cultural evolution is grounded in fundamental mechanisms of the mind. This is why today’s human mind and cultures cannot exist without today’s music. The proposed hypothesis gives a basis for future analysis of why different evolutionary paths of languages were paralleled by different evolutionary paths of music. We consider empirical data on parallel evolution of cognition, consciousness, and music during the last three thousand years. Existing data on changes in consciousness and musical styles support the proposed hupothesis. We compare musical emotions to emotions of language prosody, and emotions of cognitive dissonances. Then we propose experimental approaches toward verification of this hypothesis in psychological and neuroimaging research.text/html2011-02-22T20:51:01+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Leonid PerlovskyLanguage, Emotions, And Cultures: Emotional Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/1580
An emotional version of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that differences in language emotionalities influence differences among cultures no less than conceptual differences. Conceptual contents of languages and cultures to significant extent are determined by words and their semantic differences; these could be borrowed among languages and exchanged among cultures. Emotional differences, as suggested in the paper, are related to grammar and mostly cannot be borrowed. Conceptual and emotional mechanisms of languages are considered here along with their functions in the mind and cultural evolution. A fundamental contradiction in human mind is considered: language evolution requires reduced emotionality, but “too low” emotionality makes language “irrelevant to life,” disconnected from sensory-motor experience. Neural mechanisms of these processes are suggested as well as their mathematical models: the knowledge instinct, the language instinct, the dual model connecting language and cognition, dynamic logic, neural modeling fields. Mathematical results are related to cognitive science, linguistics, and psychology. Experimental evidence and theoretical arguments are discussed. Approximate equations for evolution of human minds and cultures are obtained. Their solutions identify three types of cultures: "conceptual"-pragmatic cultures, in which emotionality of language is reduced and differentiation overtakes synthesis resulting in fast evolution at the price of uncertainty of values, self doubts, and internal crises; “traditional-emotional” cultures where differentiation lags behind synthesis, resulting in cultural stability at the price of stagnation; and “multi-cultural” societies combining fast cultural evolution and stability. Unsolved problems and future theoretical and experimental directions are discussed.text/html2011-02-24T21:20:55+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Leonid PerlovskyThe Grammatical Roots Of Jihadism: How Cognitive Science Can Help Us Understand The War On Terror
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/1581
Jihadism is psychologically connected to the grammar of Arabic languagetext/html2011-12-19T15:39:35+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Joseph O Prewitt DiazDr. Carlos Albizu Miranda: A Systemic Analysis
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/1212
There is an attempt to develop a holistic analysis of the life and contributions of Dr. Carlos Albizu Miranda to the history of Psychology of Puerto Rico, and what has been his legacy to the World. Most of the commentaries after his transition in 1984 focus on his interest to develop a “Psicología Puertorriqueña”. No human being acts as moved by the spirit or the psyche. The environment, and the person’s perception of that environment, has a direct bearing on the actions of that person. Such was the case with “Don Charlie” as many of us called him. I was blessed by the words of wisdom of this man, now it is my turn to share another perception of his work.
text/html2011-12-19T15:39:03+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Joseph O Prewitt DiazUse of Non-verbal Tools to Express Self and Enhance Hope
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/1191
The purpose of this article is to introduce non-verbal tools as a way to initiate the psychosocial support response after a major disaster. The psychosocial interventions that follow the application of the Non Verbal Tool in its different configurations are based on the principle of fostering and strengthening the social and psychological attributes among the community members. The various psychosocial support techniques can be grouped into five categories according to the use of the Non Verbal Tool and frequency of usage. The article presents the development methods, cross cultural validation and the psychometric qualities of the original non-verbal tool. The article concludes that these type of intervention should be included in the repertoire of strategies used to develop and implement a psychosocial support program.
text/html2012-01-25T19:56:02+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Simon B ThompsonImproving Professional Practice in Clinical Psychology
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/2923
Places on clinical psychology training courses are increasingly over-subscribed. Enhancing applicant’s profiles have traditionally focused on gaining clinically relevant experience such as working as an assistant psychologist in a variety of clinical settings. However, even this type of experience may not be enough to secure a place. Therefore, the Masters level foundations programme was developed at Bournemouth University that offers both in-depth taught knowledge covering similar areas to the first year of a doctoral clinical psychology training programme but combined with a placement experience. The journey from development to delivery is outlined together with destinations of graduates from early years of the programme.text/html2012-12-21T10:51:50+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Diana S DimitrovaExperience of Fear of Childbirth Amongst Pregnant Women in Bulgaria
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/3905
Fear of childbirth is a universal human phenomenon but in acute form it can aggravate the course of pregnancy and childbirth. The goal of this research is to study experiences of anxiety and fear of childbirth amongst pregnant women in Bulgaria using methods that are comparable to European studies.text/html2013-01-15T18:37:45+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Diana S DimitrovaCharacteristics of Psychological Consulting During Pregnancy
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/3947
During pregnancy the woman takes a new social role, changes occur in her way of life, in her emotional and behavioral repertoire. The holistic approach in medicine gives new meaning to the set of health care which is provided to the future mother and her family. Psychological help, realized in the form of psychological consulting is an obligatory part of health care.
The goal of the current review is to point out the specifics of psychological consulting during the pregnancy period and the efficient ways for its implementation. Knowledge of the psychological aspects of the consulting process will allow medical specialists serving pregnancy to provide adequate, effective and well-timed health care.text/html2013-06-05T07:01:06+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Joseph O Prewitt DiazPsychosocial recovery after the Oklahoma City Tornadoes
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/4269
The purpose of this commentary is to introduce the importance of place after the tornadoes in Oklahoma and suggest next steps for the community of disaster survivors and the external stakeholders that willstep in to help in the recovery process. After defining place, the nimbleness of resilience and psychosocial support as a platform to alleviate suffering experienced by secondary stressors, the article processes six survivor centric strategies to accelerate recovery and enhance the disaster affected people to rebuild their natural and built places.text/html2013-08-12T05:20:04+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Joseph O Prewitt DiazFrom Short-term mental health and psychosocial support to client centered long-term recovery
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/4360
The purpose of this commentary is to reflect on a recent study that investigated the impacts of disasters and described the most appropriate mental health and psychosocial interventions for enhancing resilience amongst the most affected population. This study has suggested that two week “in-and-out” missions by mental health personnel provide no value for the disaster-affected people. In contrast, a client centered response is more desirable and is best obtained through longer term mental health personnel assignments throughout the recovery period. This longer term presence of mental health personnel can facilitate the transformation of community attitudes towards the ability to bounce back and the use of schools and faith-based communities by changing educational practices and community messaging.text/html2014-02-27T13:06:02+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Mr. Alexander J OvsichFoundations of Hedonistic Orientation/Choice Theory
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/4562
This paper presents a "Hedonistic Orientation/Choice Theory" (HOCHT) that will yield new, simple, closely integrated mathematical models of attitude, desire, need, attention, and will as facets of a process of orientation or choice governed by the hedonistic strive of pleasure maximizationKeywords: Attention, attitude, choice, desire, happiness, love, need, pleasure, willtext/html2014-04-11T04:58:23+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Mr. Donald B StouderJung, Ecopsychology, and the Person-Centered Approach: Seeking Wholeness in Counseling, Life Coaching, and Clinical Spiritual Care
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/4603
Everyone who does spiritual care, counseling, or life coaching for a living should have a theory; we are taught this early on and build on that central premise of our career journey even as we change and grow with time and experience. Many of us choose our training programs and mentors based on early theoretical assumptions. Hopefully, with experience and good peer supervision, we remain open to new learning even if it does not match our early theories.
As this essay will show, I have been most influenced by gentle grandfather figures, perhaps because I never had one. The central thinking that I wish to present as my personal theory, tested with nearly 40 years of health care experience, is my basic trust for other persons. I trust that there is a constructive directional flow toward the realization of each person’s full potential. I trust that this flow works with, and not against, their temperament and experience. I trust that individuals and groups can set their own goals and monitor their progress toward these goals. I experience this abiding trust because I experience the universe, as articulated in the creation centered traditions, as having complete trust in the cycles of creation.text/html2014-04-21T07:07:09+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Maya MaorThe Psychological Flexibility Questionnaire (PFQ): Development, Reliability and Validity
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/4606
The article presents the development of the Psychological Flexibility Questionnaire (PFQ) on the basis of two studies. Reliability was demonstrated by a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.918. Convergent validity was confirmed by the findings of a positive correlation between the PFQ and three other related questionnaires.text/html2014-11-24T11:11:31+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Timothy R TestThe biopsychosocial model, stress, and the efficacy of mindfulness therapy
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/4765
A thorough review of the Biopsychosocial Model, stress, and the efficacy of mindfulness therapy is warranted and would provide a theoretical foundation upon which to uncover methods of treating stress. While the biomedical model of health has dominated the thinking and actions of healthcare practitioners for the past 300 years (Slife & Wendt, 2006), it tends to reduce illness to what Taylor (2009) calls “low-level processes,” placing emphasis on the biological processes such as disordered cells and chemical imbalances rather than psychological or environmental processes. In addition, this model only takes into consideration one factor for illness. An examination will be made into the Biopsychosocial Model, stress, and the efficacy of Mindfulness Therapy in treating stress. Understanding how the body reacts to stress, and the way Mindfulness affects perceived stress will pave the way for future studies and understanding of the variables that affect cortisol levels and inflammation in the body.text/html2015-10-29T14:17:37+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Joseph O Prewitt DiazThe Social Psychology of religion in Puerto Rico: A Commentary
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/4999
Social psychology looks at the interaction of people in Puerto Rico and the influence of religion as the core influencer of behavior. Rev. Dr. Samuel Silva Gotay is the foremost scholar in this field, and as such, we have reviewed his written works to get a feel for the meaning of religion of the social psychology of the Puerto Rican people.
Puerto Rico has been a colony since 1492. At first, Spanish and Catholic religious influences emerged with the appointment of Don Alejo de Arizmendi as the Archbishop of the island; since the U.S. invasion in 1898, the United States and the Protestant religion have had an impact on the island (Silva Gotay, 2005).
The early activity of the Church was directed explicitly toward administering sacraments and implicitly in support of the colonial regime of Spain. The dominant policy of the Church was to acknowledge Spain as a generous nation that was helping to improve the lives of the natives on the island (Silva Gotay, 2005). During the 20th century, eight bishops were appointed by Rome to offices in Puerto Rico. All of the bishops appointed to Puerto Rico were American until 1964. The American bishops were clearly supportive of U.S. policies toward Puerto Rico in a manner similar to past practices of bishops supporting the policies of Spain.
Protestantism was virtually non-existent in Puerto Rico. After the U.S. invasion of Puerto Rico in 1898 and the transfer of control over the island from Spanish to American hands, Protestantism began to flourish. Protestant clergy arrived as chaplains with the invading U.S. Army. The Evangelical Churches of the United States soon followed the army. In 1899, the Secretaries of the Boards of the Presbyterian, American Baptist, Congregational, and Methodist-Episcopal churches met and decided to divide the island into four sections for evangelistic purposes. In 1905, the American Baptist, Congregational-Christian, Disciples of Christ, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches created the Federation of Evangelical Churches (Silva Gotay, 2005).
The Pentecostal Church emerged in the 1930s. Silva Gotay (1994) noted that the rapid growth of the Pentecostal movement and the charisma of its mission included psychosocial issues, such as:
It is a church of the people
The movement empowered the poor
Lay people exerted leadership
Evangelism moved from urban slums to rural areas, thereby generating a sense of hope and
Its functions are more indigenously linked to the island.
Religion became not only the escape from a harsh unempowering reality but a way of regaining hope through atonement. A simple way of life and poverty is a Christ-like behavior that will bring salvation.
An indigenous sect called “Mita” best exemplifies this idea. The members run neighborhood coops in food stores, restaurants, drug stores, bakeries, furniture stores, credit (banking), and clothing, farming, and musical groups. Mita leaders claim that members of the early Christian church lived together with everything held cooperatively. While the coops themselves are said to operate democratically, higher decisions are made based on the spiritual direction of the Church elders.text/html2016-04-28T11:48:07+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Kevin VolkanPersonality Disorders: A Review of the Current State of Knowledge
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/5089
Personality disorders are the most common serious mental illness. People suffering from these disorders tend to exhibit emotional patterns and behaviors that seem troubling to the majority of people and are not necessarily explicable by immediate environmental stimuli. Nevertheless, many clinicians are unfamiliar with the most recent research on these disorders and the latest approaches to treatment. This study will review the current diagnostic conceptualization of personality disorders, their clinical treatment, and their relationship to cultural characteristics and culture-specific disorders.text/html2017-10-24T06:55:40+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Joseph O Prewitt DiazPlace-based psychosocial interventions in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/5333
Hurricane Maria impacted the island of Puerto Rico with winds exceeding 155 miles per hour. The heavy winds and floods and mud slides caused cause destruction to natural and built environment. The island was deprived of drinking water, electricity, communications, access to medical facilities or obtain life saving medication. The article discusses how place-based psychosocial support activities can serve as a conduit to re-establishing place, defines place based interventions, encourages critical thinking exercises and community led dialogues to address their needs, and suggests that the community members were ultimately the architects of their own recovery. It concludes that place-based interventions facilitate the recovery of the disaster affected people.text/html2019-02-05T09:19:37+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Deepak GuptaFUN IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FOOD: India-Based Anesthesiologist and America-Based Anesthesiologist Siblings\' Dialogue Series
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/5530
Question: Why Don’t We Enjoy Our Jobs Which Put Food On Our Tables? Answer: May Be Our Souls Are Searching For Fun Rather Than Food.text/html2020-01-18T09:00:45+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Deepak GuptaSubtraction of Attraction for Saner Workplaces
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/5598
Occupational health practitioners may acknowledge attraction as natural and innate instinct but must regulate it when difficulty in separating personal and professional lives is endangering sanity and survival of modern workplaces.text/html2021-07-30T05:00:20+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Deepak GuptaSimplest definition of \"CAGE\" abuse: Whenever freedom to quit is absent, abuse is happening
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/5732
Perception of abuse in human terms happens when a human wants to quit and move away from a situation but cannot quit and move away [1]. Perpetuation of violence in human terms happens when a human must quit and move away from the abusive situation but does not quit and move away from that abusive situation. The core thing is the conscious or subconscious perception within the human mind about the absence of freedom to quit [2]. Sometimes the situation is just an abusive person, or an abusive system, or an abusive gene, or an abusive matrix forcing the abused humans to go on existing in the abusive situations and preventing them from freely choosing to quit and cease existing in those abusive situations. Metaphorically, the CAGE questionnaire which was initially designed as a screening questionnaire to detect alcohol abuse and which in due course of time has expanded to detect almost any substance or non-substance abuse can now be evolved to screen for any situation that can be perceived as abuse and thus a "CAGE" for the perceiving human mind [3-8]. Although the innovative minds can even apply CAGE questionnaire to mandatory education or mandatory taxation when being mandatory denies the "CAGED" humans any freedom to quit, we will provide the example of CAGE questionnaire for domestic abuse, or intimate partner abuse, or elderly abuse, or child abuse [9-17].
• Have you ever felt that you should CUT DOWN your interaction with a particular person although you cannot control how often you interact with that particular person?
• Have people ever ANNOYED a particular person by criticizing how that particular person interacts with you although that particular person cannot control how that particular person interacts with you?
• Has a particular person ever felt bad or GUILTY about how that particular person interacts with you although that particular person cannot control how that particular person interacts with you?
• Have you ever recognized that avoiding interaction with a particular person is the first thing on your mind in the morning (your EYE-OPENER) although you cannot avoid interacting with that particular person as day moves along?
(as adapted from Ewing’s CAGE questionnaire [3] being in public domain [4])
In the above modification of CAGE questionnaire, "a/that particular person" can be replaced with "your intimate partner living in the same household" to detect domestic abuse, with "your intimate partner NOT living in the same household" to detect intimate partner abuse, with "your children/caregivers/caretakers" to detect elderly abuse, and with "your parents/caregivers/caretakers" to detect child abuse. Similarly, for ingenuous innovative minds, "a/that particular person" can be replaced with "a/that particular situation" to explore "mandatory education" and/or "mandatory taxation" and/or other system-based situations being detected as abuse by those ingenuous innovative minds. Although scoring four out of four on these CAGE questions may detect the strength of abuse consciously or subconsciously perceived by the abused human minds, even scoring one out of four may provide insight into the early stages of detectable abuse being perceived by the abused human minds.
To further delve into the thinking process of married people (n=100; 60% males; 59% aged 30-44 years) in India, these personally bought targeted responses [18] with SurveyMonkey audience were ironically completed by married people in India between 0300-0530 hours (late at night or toward morning) on a weekday for the following questions:
1. In your view, is domestic abuse an umbrella that covers intimate partner abuse, elderly abuse and child abuse? Yes/No
2. In your view, what all behaviors represent domestic abuse?
3. In your view, what all behaviors represent intimate partner abuse?
4. In your view, what all behaviors represent elderly abuse?
5. In your view, what all behaviors represent child abuse?
6. In your view, how does domestic abuse differ from intimate partner abuse, elderly abuse and child abuse?
7. In your view, what is the most important cause for any form of abuse?
Only 13% said that domestic abuse does NOT cover intimate partner abuse, elderly abuse and child abuse but only 5% reported somewhat understanding of how domestic abuse differ from intimate partner abuse, elderly abuse and child abuse. Only 7% said that domestic abuse happens at home/household while only 15% said that domestic abuse happens between partners. As many as 24%, 16% and 15% seemed disinterested to the survey questions by inappropriately responding to what behaviors constitutes intimate partner abuse, elderly abuse and child abuse respectively. However, none of the respondents said that the cause of abuse is the inability of the abused to call it quits on the abusive person or the abusive situation.
Summarily, unless the general population understands that the abuse originates when the abused feels “CAGED” because they cannot call it quits on the abusive person/situation, the abused populations will continue to suffer knowingly or unknowingly at the hands of abusive populations/systems.text/html2021-09-15T07:30:45+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Deepak GuptaTattoo Story Is Like Hair Story: Restoration Of Self-Identity In The Anonymizing World
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/5741
Just like the hair story [1], the tattoo story [2-3] may be about searching a safe place within to create an identity while opponents may be trying to obliterate the creation of that identity. It does not mean that opponents may not create any identity because even being hair-less or tattoo-less is an identity in itself. So why do humans seek identity and identifiable characteristics therein [4-5]? Compared to animals who may induce or suppress odor-producing chemicals as their signature to identify their kin, humans may be more likely to create visually identifiable ornaments to differentiate who their kin are from who are not because human eyes may have become differentially more developed than human noses with human sight and sound reaching far greater distances in the modern digitalized and globalized world than the distances over which animal odor and sound [6-7] has ever been perceived. Interestingly, beauty being in beholder's eyes may be uniquely present among humans only with beauty potentially being limited to beholder's nose among non-humans. Our identity crisis may lie with humans' genetic need to survive by appearing uniquely "beautiful" so as to create comparative advantage over those possessing non-unique "beauty" when being judged in terms of siring the progeny. Additionally, as this personal ability to sire the future generations is enhanced by ensuring and advancing personal ability of next-of-kin in siring progeny because of higher number of common genes shared by next-of-kin, the visually identifiable characteristics whether natural like facial features or artificial like ornamental tattoos may ensure that it is primarily next-of-kin with common shared genes whose survival and reproductive success is getting advanced over the others with unidentifiable innate or external characteristics in terms of kinship.
To explore what adults think about tattoo phenomenon in the United States, SurveyMonkey respondents’ responses (n=504) were bought [8] as targeted audiences (52% females; 48% males) who responded to the following questions:
In your view, what is tattoo phenomenon?
It is an ancient phenomenon that has gotten revived recently.
It is a modern phenomenon that has gotten created recently.
It has been an eternal phenomenon that has always fluctuated.
None of the above
In your view, what is the SINGLE-MOST common reason for some people ALWAYS getting tattoos?
In your view, what is the SINGLE-MOST common reason for some people NEVER getting tattoos?
Regarding tattoo phenomenon being ancient or modern or eternal phenomenon, the audiences were equally divided in their opinions (25%, 29% and 29% respectively). Even though 13% suggested tattoos being expression of something, only 2% expressly said that tattoos are expression of identity. However, 14% expressly suggested tattoos’ permanence preventing tattoos’ acceptance which may mean that humans may want their expressed identity to be flexible/fluid and not rigid/permanent.
The fluidity wanted in the identity may become clearer once it is recognized that the fluidity is needed in the identity so as to create uniqueness in the evolutionary terms wherein uniqueness itself becomes attractive enough to improve comparative advantage in terms of reproductive success that forces one to strive for more and more uniqueness over the generations until uniqueness creates diverse populations of completely unrelated organisms with no shared genes thus risking the loss of warranted group cohesion to survive which thereafter limits the uniqueness from being overdone. Therefore/thereafter, “opposites attract” becomes “birds of a feather flock together” [9-10]. The similar phenomenon may be envisaged when gender identity and sexual orientation might have historically devolved into survivable binary forms in the absence of naturally survivable non-binary generations to eventually evolve back into the survivable spectrum with the advent of modern scientific enlightenment making gender reassignment interventions and assisted reproductive technologies possible for the human genes constantly treading in search of survivable identities without losing survivable generations during the natural selection of evolution.
Essentially, tattoos (or even tattoo-less bodies) are just an innate human quest to create unique identity in a global community called humanity to improve its genetic survival, individually in the present as well as evolutionarily in the future. It may be safely envisaged that “Tattoo: Me, My Gene, My Identity” may be indicative of “my” survival strategy aiming for all “my” genes surviving with “me” surviving until “my” death followed by some of “my” genes surviving through “my” progeny after “my” death while some of “my” identity surviving among “my” fellow living beings even in the absence of “my” genetically related descendants.text/html2021-12-20T05:04:05+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Deepak GuptaNova Neoteny
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/5750
Although neoteny is persistence of pre-mature forms like childhood well into the periods of mature forms’ stages like adulthood, age and its corresponding maturity level is just a number doing a number on evolved humans whereby presumption of maturity per age is obviating the need to mature before age. Counterintuitively, neoteny [1-8] may be the in-thing for modern humanity allowing the modern human brains to keep developing at record paces across their entire lifetimes as compared to ancient times when such paces historically might have been seen only during childhood among the ancient humans. The question is whether modern humans are keeping their childhoods alive till their deaths or whether they are reviving their childhoods during their old ages [9] assuming that their childhoods got abandoned or lost or buried during their adulthoods when they were busy rearing their own children. Does that mean that those who forgo siring progeny by being celibate or child-free during their adulthoods are more likely to maintain their childhoods and its potential effects as continual brain developments across their lifetimes [10]? Should so-called “immaturity” among so-called “adults” be celebrated rather than shamed assuming that so-called childish behavior on the outside may be reflecting so-called elasticity of those so-called “immature” persons’ brains inside? Are those choosing to be child-free becoming dependent on others in the societal systems for a lot many essential needs of their bodies while their minds and brains are becoming freer to grow further and further to indirectly contribute in escalating modern human growth despite their own unconceived and unborn genetic descendants missing the fruits of such exponential growth? Essentially, once one’s own child is conceived and born, child rearing takes over which heralds childhood being over whereby one’s own mind and brain growth may need to slow down or shut down to accommodate the needs of one’s own child in whose childhood one’s mind and brain must get invested in to ensure the survival of child for passing the baton of one’s genes’ immortality. This may not be the case when one is literally or figuratively just a germ-cell donor who moves on without investing in child rearing of one’s own biological child. The question arises whether this abandoned or lost or buried childhood is the reason why parents fight with their children [11-16] wherein parents’ abandoned or lost or buried childhoods become too big a cost for parents to consciously or subconsciously ignore or overlook while getting drawn voluntarily or involuntarily into contributing for genetic immortality by investing in rearing their own biological children. This dormant neoteny may be further instigating parents when they are rearing their children in so-called “nuclear” families which may be decaying and disintegrating just like their “nuclear” names unlike extended joint families and communities wherein once in a while parents may get to live and relive their own childhoods allowing their dormant neoteny to have a sigh of relief and a breath of fresh air once in a while secondary to respite child rearing offered and ensured by family and community support persons. Counterintuitively, one may worry whether we may be prolonging helplessness by prolonging childhood; however, prolonging elastic brain development potentially associated with neoteny may nullify some of those concerns; moreover, if grandparents forgo grandchild rearing completely, responsibility of child rearing falls primarily on the shoulders of mothers and their fellow generation women which once-again bind women to child-rearing households thus increasing their grieving periods for abandoning or losing or burying their own childhoods and corresponding neoteny with brain development [17-22]. It may be interesting to explore whether persistence of childhood as active or activated neoteny has allowed the conception and creation of next-age species like artificially intelligent robotics with boundless brains by elastic “childhood” human brains and their neurological/psychological neoteny. Interestingly, ancient humans envisioned themselves living for a full hundred year [23] when almost all of them were dying much earlier than that unless ancient humans might have observed some centenarians among themselves wherein centenarians’ life-histories exemplified nova neoteny with sustained childhoods and corresponding elastic brain developments across their full hundred year-long lifetimes.text/html2022-05-06T07:31:01+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Deepak GuptaCAGED PARENTS RAVAGED CHILDREN: Time To Inquire About Technology Driven Workaholism While Scoring ACEs/BRFSS
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/5774
Among the eleven questions of Module 21 related to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in 2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) questionnaire by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [1], three questions are related to sexual transgression while two questions each are related to aggression and addiction, and one question each is related to depression, incarceration, separation and condemnation. Although questions overtly related to neglect during childhood are missing in the most recent BRFSS questionnaire, ACEs questions pertaining to addiction are covertly related to neglect primarily and aggression secondarily. Now, the concern worth raising is that cohabitants’ addiction has not remained limited to alcohol, illegal street drugs and prescription medications in technology driven post-pandemic world. Although technology has been creating a wedge between quality time offered by care-givers and quality time sought by care-seekers well before the onset of pandemic, the pandemic has just blown the wedge wide-open that may never get sealed. Therefore, technology driven workaholism among cohabitants should be included in Module 21 related to ACEs in future BRFSS questionnaires because caregivers’ workaholism transgressing into odd-hours and after-hours due to inescapable reach of all-pervasive technology is the new normal and therefore, its impact on ACEs is a given. Moreover, as envisaged in Universal CAGE-WANT Questionnaire adapted from Ewing’s CAGE Questionnaire [2], “caging” may happen not only with alcohol, illegal street drugs and prescription medications but also with technology and workaholism. Now the unborn newborns potentially prone to facing ACEs in their future question whether they should have been conceived by “caged” parents in the first place.
To explain, I am now wandering off into ancient mythology [3]. Despite being an ardent follower of Lord Krishna since ever, I have wondered about the plight of His six elder brothers who as newborns were lost to infanticide at the hands of Kansa, His mother’s cousin. As the story goes, Kansa had caged His mother and His father who both despite knowing the infanticidal intentions of Kansa conceived a total of eight children while being caged. Although their youngest two sons got saved by antenatal surrogate motherhood and postnatal foster parenting respectively, the larger question remains how the caged parents could conceive while being caged despite knowing the blighted future awaiting their newborns. The simplest answer could be that to remove Kansa’s shackles from His caged parents, Lord Krishna needed to be conceived as His parents’ eighth child. However, Lord Krishna needed to be raised by foster parents till after the age of eleven when He could free His biological parents from Kansa.
Henceforth, as pertaining to “Absent Parents Lost Children” in the times of immature-parent/adult/peer-orientated children of yesteryears growing up to raise technology-orientated children of their own who may themselves grow up as caged parents of future unless they are timely freed from their displaced and yet invariably strong attachments to existentially non-essential substitutes/surrogates so that the vicious cycle of mature-parent/adult-orientated children’s dwindling numbers may be reversed where-after the freed children may even work to free their own caged parents [4], conductors of ACEs/BRFSS questionnaires can consider from among the following templates of questions as the twelfth question:
Did you live with workaholic parents? Yes/No/Don’t Know/Not Sure/Refused
Did you live with anyone who was workaholic? Yes/No/Don’t Know/Not Sure/Refused
Did your parents work more than 2080 hours annually? Never/Once/More Than Once/Don’t Know/Not Sure/Refused
How often did your parents work more than eight hours in a day during weekdays? Never/Rarely/Sometimes/Often/Always/Don’t Know/Not Sure/Refused
How often did your parents work during odd-hours, after-hours, weekends and holidays? Never/Rarely/Sometimes/Often/Always/Don’t Know/Not Sure/Refused
How often did your parents’ work preclude them from being mentally present with you? Never/Rarely/Sometimes/Often/Always/Don’t Know/Not Sure/Refused
The bottom-line is that although conception of future children is a natural birthright, caged parents may need foster parents permanently to nurture their children until the caged parents’ children can grow mature enough to free their biological parents from their cages unless the biological parents need only temporary collaborative support from foster parents to help them raise their biological children while the biological parents are breaking away from their cages on their own [5]. Every child needs an anchor and if both biological parents are flying high on the technology driven workaholism due to innate/peer/societal/modern pressures, fostering anchors their biological children till the biological children themselves become the anchors needed for their caged biological parents considering that the modern times of dizzying expectations do not offer respite to caged parents unlike the historical times of manageable expectations ensuring buffering support from nurturing tribes to successfully raise nurtured progeny of highly fertile parents.text/html2022-06-01T04:57:48+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Deepak GuptaMini-Thesis: Shakti The Bollywood Movie And ACEs The Childhood Adversity
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/5782
Ever since reading research about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) [1], a Bollywood movie titled Shakti (1982) [2] has been revisited and re-experienced multiple times. Even though the movie deserves a full-thesis, this is the mini-thesis dedicated to it for exploring effects of ACEs to the T well before the world awakened to scientifically decipher effects of ACEs. This mini-thesis is in the format of questions raised by the movie so that current parents of children as well as parents of future children can review them before revisiting and re-experiencing the movie because reading the ACEs study and research may not evoke as intense emotional understanding about ACEs as watching the movie from the lens of this mini-thesis.
• When grandfather tells his story of his son to his grandson, is it always about watching through the lens of agony in working father (parents) being tested while balancing his (their) work's needs and his (their) ward's interests?
• When a child enters the family of only two adults (parents), where is the needed village to support those two adults (parents) in raising the child and to guide those two adults (parents) if they are not able to raise the child appropriately?
• When the child is caught in the crossfire due to father's (parents') work, should the child be saved or sacrificed instead of father's (parents') work?
• When the child is too immature to understand father's (parents') words and decisions, should the child be left to his/her own devices instead of seeking professional help to overcome child's misinterpretations of life-events so as to understand better and mature sooner to maybe forgive father (parents) well before it becomes too late?
• When the child is being lost and work is raising the barrier between father (parents) and child, whose responsibility is it, immature child's or mature father's (parents') [3], to see through and thence overcome the barrier being erected by father's (parents') work behind which child is getting lost and left out?
• However noble and upstanding the work of father (parents) is [4], should the child suffer because father (parents) is (are) too proud to recuse from work and transfer the work to other co-workers when conflicts of interest is precluding father (parents) to fulfill twin roles of noble and upstanding worker as well as understanding and supportive father (parents) concurrently considering that policeperson, physicians, attorneys and similarly others are expected to recuse themselves from professionally managing their kin as their professional clients so as to avoid making critical and catastrophic errors in judgment and decision [5-6]?
• Even though mother (non-working parent) becomes the confidante of the child and yet still stands by father (working parent) rather than the child, does mother (non-working parent) have to get torn apart, suffer, sacrifice and eventually die when neither child nor father (working parent) understands mother's (non-working parent's) plight and yet expects mother (non-working parent) to be the rock for either of them to fall back on and to even forgive both of them for mother (non-working parent) being torn apart, suffering, sacrificing and even dying due to their relentless conflict?
• When the lost child seemingly willingly walks away from non-understanding father (parents), why doesn't (don't) father (parents) recognize and then overcome the mishaps in family lives leading to child walking away rather than brooding that child is walking away into uncharted/unwanted waters antagonist to father's (parents') work/way whether it is into the world of crime in fiction or into the world of addiction in reality [7-9]?
• When the father shoots down his son who is outrunning him to escape, is it because the working father doesn't want the blame for overlooking his work in favor of taking care of his child and hence overdoes the work which his other co-worker may not have overdone if the working father had recused himself from his work to stand by his child without standing for what his child may be standing for?
• When father (parents) is (are) deciding to choose work even if noble over ward, why is (are) father (parents) bewildering to see child choosing work even if abominable over father (parents)?
• When child does not hear and feel what the child wants to hear and feel, how is (are) father (parents) claiming that father (parents) has (have) said and showed umpteenth times what the child should have heard and felt [10]?
• When every child needs an anchor, why does (do) father (parents) get astonished that child is looking up to someone else as the anchor when father (parents) has (have) failed to provide himself (themselves) as the anchor that the child needs and wants?
• While living with workaholic father (parents), when if ever does the child feel as if living and dealing with father (parents) rather than just living and dealing with workers who have turned even parenting into just another work though an unwanted one interfering and interrupting the primary one [11]?
• Although father (parents) complains (complain) that child does not listen to what is being said, does father (parents) ever realize that the child never forgets what is being said while the crucial point of contention missing is if and how either of them learns to forgive each other [12-14]?
• When there is an unresolvable conflict, should the child be left alone to their own devices rather than the oversight that the child actually needs and wants but is not realized by father (parents) when letting the lost and vulnerable child leave the house and deal with the world all alone?
• When grandson decides to follow in his grandfather's footsteps, is it not ironic that the lost child is not understood by not only his/her father (parents) but also his own son (progeny) because work being noble supersedes love being abominable?
• When the father vows to stand by the rules of work, is the child asking too much when expecting father (parents) to stand by the rules of parenting as well?
• When neither the child nor the father (parents) ever stops loving each other despite their relentless conflict, why are they not able to feel each other's love unless father's (parents') work obstructs their mutual ability to realize, understand and feel their love?
• When the child begins to resent father's work so much because of how father works, how can father (parents) expect to set an example about nobility in work for the child to follow when workaholic father (parents) is (are) losing the battle well before the first shots are fired?
In a nutshell, the more one reads about ACEs, the more one re-experiences Shakti because more new questions get raised for the well-being of children and their parents and more new answers get sought for the well-being of parents and their children when parental workaholism or even work-engagement may be creating populations of children lost to addiction (substance use disorder) and crime (anti-social behavior). Hereafter, modern-day working parents irrespective of their gender and sexual orientation may have to realize that while choosing work they maybe loosing ward unless modern-day mature workaholic adults are expecting understanding and absolution from their immature unsatiated children in case it is proven in the future that helplessly inescapable chemical and structural changes in workaholics' brains may have been induced by modern-day workaholism as similar to changes induced in brain by modern-day alcoholism and modern-day pathological gambling [15-16]. text/html2022-12-05T00:39:36+01:00http://www.webmedcentral.com/Dr. Deepak GuptaDo Education, Research And Advocacy Warrant Spectral Concordance For Species Identity, Gender Identity And Sexual Orientation?
http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/5806
Effects of racial, ethnic and language concordance on patient-physician encounters have been investigated [1-12]. Correspondingly, it may be time to investigate spectral concordance as pertaining to species identity, gender identity and sexual orientation of patients and their physicians. When presuming each other’s characteristics as self-evident, both patients and their physicians can be deemed guilty of their unconscious presumptuousness because race, ethnicity, language, species identity, gender identity and sexual orientation are components of self-identity [13-16] and thus may have to be self-disclosed by both patients and their physicians wherein by beginning their encounters with self-disclosures, they intend to potentially dilute/attenuate the effects if any of spectral concordance unless the self-disclosures themselves may potentially concentrate/accentuate those effects if any of spectral concordance.
Before taking this discussion beyond patient-physician encounters and into the realms of education, research and advocacy, the society has to understand that every component of self-identity may be spread over a spectrum with some colors in the spectrum becoming more abundant and thus more prominent than other colors in the spectrum due to natural selection during evolution. However, it does not mean that less abundant and thus less prominent colors in the spectrum can be presumed to be non-existent even when they have yet not been self-disclosed by those whose self-identities they may represent. In my limited understanding, the spectrum of species identity may span from and around privileged majority cis-species to and around marginalized minority trans-species; the spectrum of gender identity may span from and around privileged majority cis-gender to and around marginalized minority trans-gender; and the spectrum of sexual orientation may span from and around privileged majority trans-orientation to and around marginalized minority cis-orientation with sexual attraction therein overlapping within the span of androphilia-gynephilia to and around andro-gynephilia/gyno-androphilia. Some may say that although cis-trans nomenclature [17] may homogenize color identities across the three spectrums, confusion may arise as use of trans-prefix is currently limited to gender identity’s spectrum [18-22].
For our current discussion, we may neither explore why some became privileged and others got marginalized by natural selection during evolution of species identity, gender identity and sexual orientation [23-26] nor explore why the marginalized remained underrecognized until now unless population dynamics was awaiting ecological stability with current and futuristic technological advancements [27-39] to evolve while analogously and metaphorically [40-49] overcoming oddity, dilution and confusion effects on their outlasting survival. Hereafter, those who became privileged must try to understand the aftermath of marginalization on those who got marginalized during evolution. However, the question is whether the privileged ones will ever be able to complete understand [50] and accept the marginalized ones unless and until reversal of fortune happens and the privileged ones begin evolving as the marginalized ones but by then the marginalized ones may have become the privileged ones in the zero-sum game [51-52]. Some may question how self-identity can be zero-sum game when self-identity is private and personal; however, our existence is social and communal with achieved, acquired and accrued privileges limited by availability and accessibility to finite and dwindling resources flailing in fulfilling our needs which are outgrowing over and above our growing global population.
The existential question to investigate is whether spectral concordance for the sake of diversity, equitability and inclusivity among educators, researchers and advocates may be needed to educate population better with personal knowhow, innovate science with faster turnover time and advocate issues closer to their hearts as pertaining to marginalized populations. However, for achieving spectral concordance that may first need sufficient numbers so as to reach significant levels in effect, some among the privileged populations may have to first jump ship metaphorically with enhanced understanding and expedited acceptance about the whole spectrums of species identity, gender identity and sexual orientation which have remained hidden in broad daylight thus often bringing their very real and natural existence into question even when the fluidity of species identity, gender identity and sexual orientation may potentially evolve to futuristically span on a much wider spectrum of colors among our descendants [53] as compared to what has been historically presumed and potentially mistakenly assumed among our forebears.