Opinion of TED Talks re Psychiatric Disorders

April 2, 2013:  I was just watching/listening to several lectures in a series of TED Talks on the internet having to do with the mind and psychiatric disorders.  I had seen two of the lectures before on TV.  Two of the others were of particular interest to me:  one lecturer (a journalist), Jon Ronson, spoke on psychopathology (“Strange answers to the psychopath test”, given August 15, 2012, TED Talks at www.Ted.com).  He’d interviewed two men, one had been incarcerated in England’s Broadmoor insane asylum; the other was an American business mogul.  After interviewing these two men, the journalist presents the idea that it was the latter rather than the former (the Broadmoor inmate) that fit the psychological profile of the psychopath.   The lecturing journalist made the very interesting (I thought) point that capitalism rewards the psychopathic personality.  Based on the checklist of indicators for psychopathology, he found that the business mogul to fit the profile — which are:  Glibness and superficial charm; grandiose sense of self-worth; pathological lying; cunning; manipulativeness; lack of empathy; lack of remorse; egocentric and shallow (short-lived) affect.  When questioned, these negative qualities were “reinterpreted” by the mogul as qualities of leadership and not allowing emotions and empathy to “get in the way” of his business decisions.  The implication by Ronson was that the “necessities” of capitalism completely turn human values on their head and are productive of and rewarding of psychopathic personality development or, to turn things around, that individuals with psychopathic tendencies are attracted to big business.

In a bizarre twist, the expression of real remorse by the condemned “psychopath” in Broadmoor was perceived by the psychiatric staff to be “precisely the cunning manipulativeness” that would be used by a psychopath.  Clearly, it was a "no win" situation for the inmate.  The putative psychopath had landed up in Broadmoor because at his trial he had feigned insanity to get a lighter sentence.  Had he simply confessed to the crime, he would have got 5 years rather than the 20 years he suffered in Broadmoor.  After the journalist spoke for him at his appeal, the man was eventually released and seemed to function very well (except for a one-month stay in jail for some infraction) on the outside amongst society.  Again, in the view of this commentator, the prevailing conglomerate view of the world turns human values (and accepted psychiatric diagnosis) completely on its head:  the condemned psychopath turns out to be sane and the much-exalted business mogul-type turns out to be the psychopath.

The other talk was presented by a neurologist/psychiatrist, Oliver Sacks, on hallucinations.  (“What hallucination reveals about our minds”, given July 29, 2010, TED Talks at www.ted.com.) It was interesting, but I kept coming round to the questions, “Why is there never a reference to the meaning and/or purpose of the images that percolate up into consciousness?  Why is all of the talk just about the brain instead of the mind?  Why is there no reference to or connection made with the collective imagination of humankind and the immense data repository of universal symbols and mythology?  Why is there no reference to the compensating function of the psyche?  Why does/did the doctor  not ask the question of why this image rather than another?”  He tried, rather lamely, to explain the latter (see below) by reference to brain structure.

It seemed to me obvious that the hallucinations that the 94-year-old woman, whom the psychiatrist described as completely sane and mentally functional although she was blind from macular degeneration, were on the one hand compensating for the fact that although she was physically blind that there is nevertheless still a more powerful inner vision that she still had available to her.  The psyche was showing her a powerful (and powerfully empowering) inner vision that could help her in her particular straits.  The hallucinatory images she described to the doctor were of Eastern women in veils moving up and down brightly colored staircases.  I instantly related it to visions/dreams that I and probably millions of others have had and especially to one of the seminal visions of the Old Testament, namely Jacob’s Ladder.  The Eastern women in veils represent the intuitive feminine mode of reality that was needed at this point in the 94-year-old woman’s life.  The staircase and movement up and down the staircase shows the potential for connecting all aspects of the psyche, upper and lower in a continuing conversation and dialogue. 

It was unfortunate that the psychiatrist missed an opportunity to help this woman understand her hallucination as a symbol pregnant with religious and spiritual meaning and significance.  As it was he merely allayed her fears of insanity (and the fears of staff members at the facility where the woman lived) by telling his client that she had a brain disorder, a particular “syndrome” (Charles Bonnet syndrome) caused by an overactive part of the visual cortex responding to deprivation of sensory input.  (I thought, “How nice!  By merely applying the appellation of “syndrome” to a soul problem we think we have said something and can dismiss it so completely!”)   I know I should not be so snarky, after all he is a neurologist and I am, well, just a ballet teacher with only an undergraduate degree in biology and psychology.  It’s not that I am not fascinated by brain science.  I am.  I just see some obvious (to me) limitations to a fixation on brain science without so much as a nod to ask the questions I have posed.  He (lamely, I thought) suggested that a particular part of the brain threw up images of cars.  Does another part of the brain (presumably) throw up images of staircases with Eastern women in veils?  Seriously?  That, to me, seems completely ludicrous and preposterous, and totally unscientific, so until and unless I see a massive scientific worldwide study that shows that all people everywhere come up with the same car image when a particular neuron is excited I will consider that idea rather questionable.