System Belief

We have thus far focused on the biological factors that affect drug responses but recovery from illness often takes place in the context of interactions among individuals. In these interactions, both patient and clinician bring their own knowledge, predispositions, values, priorities, modes of thinking, and belief systems into play. Within this transaction, issues such as patient compliance, expectation effect ... 

Introduces a Variety of Western Esoteric Belief Systems, Such As Gnosticism, Alchemy, and Theosophy, and the Cults That Practice These Belief Systems. Focuses on Witchcraft Activities and Their Prevalence in Western Society From the 13th Century to the Present. Concludes with a Discussion of Methodological and Theoretical Approaches to the Study of the Occult and the Causes for Its Recent Resurgence in the United States and Europe... 

Naranjo, P. (1979) Hallucinogenic plant use and related indigenous belief systems in the Ecuadorian Amazon. J Ethnopharmacol., 1 121-145. 

Attitude toward sustainable agriculture Religious and spiritual values, quality of life, access to information, personal characteristics, and attitudes of reference group are the factors, which influence farmers belief system and contribute toward formation of sustainable agricultural beliefs. The framework assumes that religious and spiritual beliefs contribute to farmers attitudes toward sustainability, or... 

The experience of losing control often described by people with drug problems must be taken seriously. Assessing those situations in which people report a loss of control may provide clues to whether overuse is related to perceptual impairment, to cravings, or to a person s belief system. Interventions to prevent loss of control will described more fully in Chapter 5. 

Many drug users without antisocial features will feel some degree of guilt as a result of their drug use and associated behaviors. Frequently, clients will have behaved while under the influence of drugs in ways that may have violated their principles, or may have taken advantage of others. Clients may have hurt other people, conned other people, violated their own belief systems, or violated the... 

Delusions, on the other hand, are persistent beliefs or belief systems that are not based in reality and often cause the person experiencing them to be anxious or paranoid. Many of these delusions have a theme (a common thread), which frequendy involves feelings of threat, concerns about being personally targeted by a conspiracy, obsessive thoughts, or inordinate concerns about ill health. If a person has both hallucinations and delusions, these experiences tend to feed off one another and confirm one another s content. Hallucinations tend to support the delusional beliefs, and the delusions usually are related to the hallucinations. However, you can have the experience of one without the experience of the other, meaning that some people have delusions without hallucinations and some have hallucinations without delusions. 

Foucault, like his French predecessor and mentor, Gaston Bachelard, paid particular attention to the primacy in history of discursive breaks and ruptures in knowledge or belief systems.3 In this and in Foucault s emphasis on the relative coercion that disciplines exercised on their practitioners, he made arguments already familiar to Anglo-American scholars acquainted with Kuhn s characterizations of "normal science" and the reasons for a scientific community s coherent outlook. However, unlike Kuhn, Foucault declined to dissect the so-called hard sciences as objects of inquiry, restricting himself to discourses and power relationships in the medical, biological, and social sciences.4 However, Foucault did see the potential in the application of his method for the destruction of the demarcation between scientific and nonscientific spheres of action and belief. 

Throughout this book, we will take a look at the character traits of successful people, such as the three popular heroes below. I will also reveal to you the belief systems and thought processes typical of such influential individuals. 

Changing Belief Systems - Creating new beliefs that empower you to be the person you choose to be... 

This is the most important personality trait in the entire book. Your belief system about what you can accomplish, who you are, and what you are worth is the single most important aspect of success and happiness. Because our thoughts create our reality, doubt and insecurity simply hold us back from taking action toward our goals. Your sense of self dictates the minimum acceptable level of "crapola" you will tolerate in your life. 

Now this may sound obvious, but if you lack self-confidence -your lack of belief in yourself is your worst enemy. If you lack the belief system that you can achieve what you want, you sabotage any future effort. Confidence and self-esteem are closely related but actually different terms. In handwriting terms, I am guilty of lumping them together and referring to the trait interchangeably. 

Despite the eventual failure of the medication, Mike s taste of drug success solidified his commitment to a biomedical view of his illness. His experience was profound enough to foster his belief in what the sociologist Allan Horwitz has called diagnostic psychiatry, with its unflinching commitment to biochemical solutions. Such a belief system is nearly always the backdrop for years of experimentation with a series of medications. ... 

As with the adoption of any belief system, commitment to a medical explanation for emotional distress evolves over time. Most people don t suddenly embrace the notion that they suffer from faulty brain chemistry and... 

In shared psychotic disorder (e.g., folie a deux), a close friend or relative passively accepts the delusional belief system of the more dominant member. Thus, the symptoms may not necessarily be truly delusional, and often remit when the individual is separated from the inducer or primary case. ... 

Treating people with addictive problems often provokes confrontations with the morals, values, and belief systems of therapists themselves. Addicts to legal and illegal drugs often do things that a therapist personally disapproves of. 

Without wishing to challenge the belief systems of transcendental meditation adepts, it is possible to propose a mechanistic explanation along the same lines as those used to analyze hypnotic phenomena and lucid dreaming. In the case of transcendental meditation, the subject wishes to remain awake—or at least remain aware—but to be free of directed thoughts, organized precepts, and internal language. 

Examples of pseudoscience abound. Astrology is an ancient belief system that supposes there is a mystical correspondence between individuals and the universe—that human affairs are so special that they are influenced by the positions and movements of planets and other celestial bodies. When astrologers use up-to-date astronomical information and computers that chart the movements of heavenly bodies, they are operating in the realm of science. 

If OOBEs were nothing more than psychologically powerful experiences that strongly affected belief systems about survival after death, they would demand scientific study. This would be the case even if you thought that the experience was an illusion (i.e., that there was no something or soul that actually left the body) that it was just some sort of altered state in which the OOBE was vividly hallucinated. 

Experience defines value and belief systems in all aspects of the learning process through which concepts are formed. These values and beliefs form the yardstick by which an in-... 

For those clinicians who have in their possession early editions of this book, I invite you to compare your copy to the 4th edition as validation for the assertions made in this Foreword. We have not compromised the comprehensive nature of this volume in favor of a simpler approach to understanding pharmacology. We believe that the topic, by its very nature and from the implications inherent in its knowledge base, requires a comprehensive, yet user-friendly, delivery. This belief system remains unhindered in this latest edition yet the problem-solving and evidence-based nature of the content is preserved and enhanced. 

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