Mental illness consciousness

LeDoux, Joseph. Synaptic Self How Our Brains Become Who We Are. New York Penguin, 2003. LeDoux, a researcher at New York University, examines some of the most fundamental issues of brain science, such as consciousness. LeDoux is a fine writer, and included in the discussion is his interesting perspective on the biology and chemistry of mental illness. 

Three of the reasons for our restless experimentalism are clear. In the first place, normal consciousness is not always pleasant. In mental illness, the impulse to alter consciousness via drugs that reduce hallucinations or elevate mood is easy to understand and to accept. Short of that, many of us feel entitled to those holidays from conscientious consciousness that a martini, a glass of wine, or a can of beer affords. 

During the first half of the twentieth century, subjective experience— both natural and drug-induced—was declared off limits to psychology. The 1953 discovery of REM sleep opened the door to a reconsideration of dreaming and other naturally altered states of consciousness that occurred in mental illness. This discovery coincided with a rise in amateur experimentation with drugs that altered waking consciousness. 

Most of us deal with this disagreement by simply assuming that those who disagree with us are wrong, that our own perceptions and consciousness are the standard of normality and rightness, and that other people cannot observe or think well and/or are lying, evil, or mentally ill. 

There is considerable controversy among experts as to what causes LSD psychosis. Various theories are that the LSD itself somehow damages the brain (although there are no physical signs of brain damage in people who have taken LSD) that a bad trip (like any traumatic experience) brings out mental illness in people who were already susceptible and/or that LSD breaks down the barriers between the conscious and unconscious mind at the same time that it blocks people s normal inhibitions, thus creating a very vulnerable state. 

An 18-year-old woman took an unknown quantity of ecstasy and the next day became confused and had seizures, loss of consciousness, and respiratory arrest. At autopsy, no cause of death was found. There were no specific findings on histology except visceral hyperemia. MDMA, moclobemide, and some alcohol were found in the blood. There was no history of mental illness or evidence of prescription drugs. 

But why would anyone want to cultivate the symptoms of mental illness The answers to that question are directly related to the narrow definition of Altered States of Consciousness (ASC) that arose in the psychedelic era of the 1960s. The era s radicalism was only a recrndescence of the age-old hankering for transcendence, and it is this mystical yearning that... 

Sigmund Freud, an Austrian physician who began his career in the 1890s, focused on psychological disorders that he felt were caused by memory disturbances. Freud felt mental illness occurs when unpleasant childhood memories are repressed, or kept from consciousness. His highly influential theory of psychoanalysis is in fact based on the concept that memories can be repressed, and he developed psychoanalytic therapy to uncover those memories and cure the patient. 

The success of these classifications is a direct result of the adoption of a descriptive approach to the definition of mental disorders, more or less consciously emulating the scientific basis of disease classification in physical medicine.If mental illnesses are physical diseases, why is there a need to emulate the scientific basis of disease classification in physical medicine The need to emulate isprima facie evidence that mental illnesses are not diseases. Nevertheless, Fulford maintains Once illness and disease are clearly distinguished, however, it becomes possible to compare like with like, mental illness ... 

Heat Stroke or Sunstroke This illness is primarily a failure of the thermal regulatory mechanism in the body. A characteristic of heat stroke is termination of sweating. The skin becomes hot and dry. The body temperature rises and mental confusion, loss of consciousness, convulsions, or coma may result. Victims need immediate and rapid cooling. Delays in treatment can be fatal. 

Fever and malaria can induce a psychosis, but in this case, fever was an unlikely cause, as fever-induced psychosis is usually polymorphic and associated with some alteration of consciousness and orientation, which were absent there was also no past history of an altered mental state after febrile illnesses. Falciparum malaria leading to psychiatric sequelae usually presents with cerebral malaria, which has well-defined neurological signs. Antimalarial drugs such as chloroquine, mefloquine, and quinine can cause psychoses, and given substantial evidence of neurotoxicity after exposure to artemisinin compounds. 

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