prehistoric psychobabble

This will probably end up being a series that I'll check in on when the fancy strikes me. It's a freaking tome though.

I've been making my case, in reaction to a few other folks submissions, that the physiology, psychology and sociology have to be looked at as a whole. The idea being based on the principles that I have outlined for others in my argument for the infant mind in place of the more popular reptilian mind that is being referred to in most of the popular psyche stories in magazines ranging from Time to National Geographic to People.

The idea of the reptilian mind is easy and fun to grasp because of the popular terminology of someone being cold hearted, and other terms that would lean towards a cold blooded creature as the archetype to refer to someone as unfeeling or unemotional.

I prefer the use of the term, the infant mind. This allows us to refer to such selfishness as completely human and therefore opens the door to the fact that humans are animals at the base.

Even referring to many of the standards of psychology like "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs" and the works of B. F. Skinner, we can see the selfish aspects of our psyche.

Sociology is merely an expansion of psychology to include the herding mentality inherent in many creatures, most at their core I personally believe. This allows the mind to release levels of control and therefore to be led into situations that they would ordinarily shun, if not for having allowed themselves to be swept up into the group think. Mob mentality is an example of this, but only an extreme case of such. Such small instances as the social drinker reaction are part of the same core idea.

But all of these things originate in the self and that is what I want to start this series by focusing on.

Weakest link
Most English speaking individuals are familiar with the term weakest link which refers to the larger maxim of a chain only being as strong as it's weakest link. While this direct phrase may not translate directly, the idea translates in to almost every language.

This principal behind this can go in the reverse as well, allowing that a strong leader, or strong member of a group, can help shape the overall strength of the group. Would the Bulls have been as dominant without Michael Jordan, for example? These strong individuals can boost the level of contribution by those around them thereby affecting the overall power of the group. Jordan would not likely have been in so strong a position were it not for Scotty Pippen for instance.

This same principal applies to many instances of groups working toward a common goal. It can be seen in the everyday workplace and is often applied by educators when a grading curve is applied.

The powerful individual does risk leaving the group behind. Should they be too far above their peers, they may come to be resented. Likewise if a weak individual in an organization sets too visible a poor example, others may grow envious of the fact that the weaker individuals benefit from their toil and therefore seek to lower their standards in an attempt to profit in the same manner as the lowest common denominator.

This is the example I use to show why communism, like virtually all ism mentalities, is faulty. It fails to take into account sloth and envy. The seven deadly sins can wreak havoc on any system that humans are allowed to participate in and play into the infant mentality.


Infancy and mentality
The idea of the reptilian brain is a problem, in my mind, as it fails to recognize that we as humans are animals at our core.

Many of our actions are the same and instincts can be seen when we strip away the intellectual veneer that we like to apply to our actions. I lean toward the notion of an infant mentality as infants are unaware that all that is around them is living and has needs of their own. Stripped to the infant, we seek out the lowest level of Maslow's needs, food and well being.

That our mother's nipple be hurt is not a consideration, nor is the relative discomfort of the figure that we recognize mostly as the source of care. This is not to say that motherhood does not create a special bond with children, but it is at its root a biological connection. It is when the higher mind comes into play that Munchausen by Proxy, and other mental maladies, becomes a possibility.

But the higher mind is already beginning to form connections in the infant so that as the child's mental faculties grow so does the connection. Babies, at a very young age, emulate and react to their mother's emotions and physical well being. The pathways are being set at this point. To a certain extent I believe that this is happening in the later period in the womb as well and accounts for some children reacting to their mother's emotional discord. But usually such instances are only noted in cases of a strong emotional reaction, which usually elicits a physiological response. In this way, I believe the pathways to be set.

Likewise, infants begin to note that their mother is extremely protective of them and this begins to reciprocate, as the child grows older. It can be seen very early in troubled homes when the mother is in a threatened position, the child will often make use of what little facilities are available to it and cause whatever interaction with its surroundings that it can. Crying, excretions and gross body movements are all examples of this. But they are all instances of the higher mentality beginning to assert itself.

The infant, or fetal mentality, allows only the realization of self. After all, they encompass almost the entire known universe in the womb; it is a learned later that there is a world beyond their skin. Some never truly make this leap and usually fall into categories of dementia, or sociopathy. Although it should be noted that those are extreme examples and in the case of dementia, there are chemical markers to go along with it.

This infant mentality was created from our core and is thus a holdover from our primitive makeup.


Ice age bodies
The truth is, for all our arguments of how advanced we have become, our bodies have changed little since the ice age. This has been demonstrated by the feast/famine reaction that our bodies take to how much we eat. If we are eating multiple small meals throughout the day, our bodies assume it is a time of plenty and therefore don't bother storing food as fat. There is no reason for the expenditure of energy to maintain stocks after all. When we eat only one meal a day, our body assumes that we are in a time of famine and thus stores as much as possible.

The fact that such a system is still in place leans to the idea of our bodies changing little. Add to that the panic reaction and there is more proof.

Fight of flight is a regular reaction where our bodies respond to danger by secreting adrenaline in an attempt to help us flee of fight. The fact that tests show our intellectual capacity drops an average of 20% is further proof that our bodies are conserving resources for physical exertion. We are conserving a portion of the energies we would use to think, in order to help us move more efficiently.
But the panic mentality is different. It is a point at which we sacrifice our reasoning capabilities in favor of self-preservation. It is this sort of reaction that leads a herd of antelope into a stream filled with Nile crocodiles. The mind stops reasoning and looks for someone else to do the thinking instead. In the absence of such, instinct takes over. In the case of the antelope, herding is the standard reaction, relying on the strength in numbers.

But is there really a need for blind panic. The idea seems to have some level of merit, but wouldn't simple fight of flight make more sense in this day and age? Panic tends to lead to an inability to cope with a situation after all.

These physical forces and physiological reactions all play into the way that we think and therefore how we think in a group. Would we rationally imagine many of the terrors that have come to take their place in our minds?


Boogey men and weiners
Vagina dentata is one of the topics that prompted the start of this tome. The idea of a vagina with teeth to emasculate is a popular theme that goes back quite a ways and never seems to go away. Or am I the only one that was freaking out during Jedi? (Thanks for the reminder Phillip.)

It is, of course, an irrational fear but it is likely hardwired into our systems.
When studying to be a surgical technician (I never completed the training but did log a lot of clinical time) I studied the effects of impending surgery on patients' psyche. One fear surprised me in particular and applies here, although I didn't recall when responding to the aforementioned topic when first presented with it.
Boys, from the ages of 4 through their early teens, chief concern is that they'll awake from surgery with their penis removed.

The only other issue that registers in the neighborhood is if they're told they're going to be "put to sleep" for the surgery.

Many children have had a pet put euthanized or know someone who has, so the phrase holds the terror that they will never awaken. This tests across gender lines however, and is directly tied into a memory as the source of the fear so it is not a primordial fear aside from the fear of death. But that connection has to be made by the rational, and thus higher order, portion of the mind.

This means that the idea of emasculation is tied in with the male psyche from a young age. Furthermore, I think the inability to under stand the fairer, and in many ways stronger, sex has led to a great deal of evil being heaped upon women.

Hypocratis was convinced that women were inherently crazy and that it stemmed from their uterus. An example of such and thus an example of women as a source of fear, can be shown in a simple term.

Medical terminology is based on an elaborate system of prefixes and suffixes (largely laid out by Hyp himself) one tied to the other to create terms for afflictions. The prefix hyst- is tied to the uterus, hence hysterectomy (-ectomy being a suffix for removal) is the removal of the uterus.

The aforementioned connection, by Hypocratis, between the uterus and insanity is therefore demonstrated by a common term.

He named crazy, "hysteria."