Introduction
This page provides three papers concerned with the interaction
between psychology and biology. They are too long and unusual in
their synthesis of the scientific and the commonsense for
journals to publish but are published here freely for those who are
interested.
The first on sexuality and the family was published in
1987 and has been distributed to many people, including all
Federal politicians prior to the election of that year, as well as a
number of prominent people in different fields including US Vice
President, Dan Quayle, Cardinal Ratzinger
(current Pope Benedict XVI) and actresses and models such as Helena
Bonham-Carter and Claudia Schiffer. This paper was written
before I was formally trained in psychology, biology and
neuroscience and I would like to thank Dr Joseph Rheinberger,
Vicar-General of the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and
Goulburn, and Dr Peter McCullagh of the John Curtin School of
Medical Research, both of whom reviewed this manuscript upon
completion and verified it was free from any obvious doctrinal and
technical errors, respectively. While my explanation would now be
more sophisticated, my conclusions are much the same - including the
claim that a men have natural authority over their wives and are
more creative because, while explicit
memory may be the same for both sexes and is dependent on the
adrenalin- noradrenalin, dopamine system, implicit memory is regulated by the sex hormones
and men have superior visual implicit memory in comparison to women
ie they are more in touch with "reality"- a claim that
can be demonstrated from the neuropsychological literature eg "Implicit Memory Varies Across the Menstrual Cycle", Maki et al, Neuropsychologia, 40
(2002), 518�529 (see further below) and it has
been retained in it's present form as it is more readable than
technical scientific papers.
One of the main tenets of this paper, that the 'two' become
'one' body, was confirmed in a paper published in New Scientist
magazine, in Australia, on 9/2/2002, called "Gentle Persuasion". It was reported that
persistent sex with the same man resulted in immune modulation
as a result of an
enzyme found in semen, called TGF-beta factor,
and that this prevented a woman's immune system from destroying
sperm cells and the sperm MHC proteins and that through the
woman's lymph system, these proteins were immunologically
accepted as part of her 'physical self '.
Later articles in New Scientist debunked the further speculation
included in this article, that the same process occurred outside
the vaginal environment (the rectum and mouth), on the
grounds that enzymes in the mouth and rectum rapidly
destroy sperm and it's proteins and their incorporation into
a woman's or indeed a man's body does not
occur. In addition the many hormones and other factors
which comprise semen have been shown to pass through the
squamous cell layer of the vagina into the blood stream. Either
effect could be responsible for the finding that intercourse
when condom's are used results in more depression in women. This confirms that the "myth" of a genetic basis to
homosexuality, based on differences in a number of hypothalamic nucleii,
is just that, a myth. The nucleii mentioned are
referred to as the collective interstitial nucleii of the anterior
hypothalamus(INAH) and the suprachiasmatic nucleus(SCN) and when
Simon Le Vay a NY neuroscientist discovered differences in these
nucleii associated with homosexuals the world jumped at this
biological difference as being the result of a genetic
difference. However even le Vay himself, some years ago, went
out of his was to state he had never said this was a genetic
effect and it may well be a behavioural effect They
are differentiated from the sexually dimorphic nucleus(SDN),
which differs in size according to levels of testosterone and
oestrogen, and, in a
general sense, is considered as a marker for the
masculinity-femininity axis. Increases in the size of
the INAH do appear to correlate with increased levels of
vasopressin output and this may cause subjective feelings
of psychological difference as well as the social
isolation noted in a number of animal studies. However, sodomy and
fellatio will always be recognised by the unconscious mind as an attack on
the body, as the immune modulation process is not completed as
it is in vaginal intercourse. Another New Scientist article refers to work by Stuart
Brody published in
(Biological Psychology, vol 71, p 214), which
demonstrates that penile-vaginal sex has stress protective
effects that last at least a week when compared to the very
brief effects of orgasm from non penile-vaginal sex eg
masturbation and fellatio.
I wrote to Dr Brody and referred this website for his scrutiny
after reading this article. A later paper by Brody in the
Journal Sexual Medicine 2010 Vol 7 :1336-1361, which reviews all
the peer reviewed articles on sexual practices, begins to
recognize the psychobiological effects of semen in the vagina
and the negative psychological and health effects of semen in
the rectum and alimentary canal. Similar negative effects are
noted for masturbation. This
again supports the accuracy of behavioural
observations made 15 years earlier in the paper below.
Theory on the Formation of Society, Sexuality and the Need for
Truth.
This paper argues that, while Christianity is about being in
union with God - in 'Spirit and Truth' - , the tenets of the
'natural' law, with regard to sexuality and personality, result from
our biological makeup and result in objective psychological
realities. These aspects of human nature are both universal
and independent of any particular religious framework but
would expected to be part of any accurate moral framework that is
based on truth and,while being independent of what we make, think or
construct intellectually, they are consistent with unconscious experience.
In particular the concept of 'Original Sin' reflects a flaw in human
bodies that results in pleasure and pain being inevitable, as the
soul no longer has perfect control over it's flawed body. Pain and
pleasure states reflect a departure from the innately desired
'truth' or 'good' of the body.
The
paper does not attempt to deal with the notion of "Original Sin" as,
in spite of some interpretations, it is primarily meant to
demonstrate natural law and to place that in a religious context.
Recent pronouncements by the Vatican abolishing the notion of
"limbo", which was merely a popular construct to deal with the
destiny of unbaptized babies, babies which Augustine had postulated would go to Hell, make this an ideal time to make some type of explanatory
comment.
Actually the Catholic Church has
always said
that the mercy
of God does not preclude the salvation of unbaptized babies. This
is clearly stated in the Catholic Catechism where it is noted that God is
not dependent on the Sacraments to grant salvation. I believe that
the Gospel of John clearly confirms this and rather it is the
understanding of Christ's words "One cannot see the Kingdom of
Heaven, except through water and the Holy Spirit" that individuals
misinterpret. So how should such an emphatic statement be
interpreted.
As stated in the
Book of Esdras, there are two eternal worlds, light and dark, heaven
and hell which are separate from the universe we experience. These
worlds are populated by angels and devils respectively, spiritual
beings who do not
have power over the world in the ordinary course of events but
can affect the souls of Men. The souls
of Men experience one or the other worlds when they are separated from the universe,
a universe
which reflects these spiritual worlds in some respect, but is
separate from them, a playground for men as it were, that also can
only be known accurately in faith, or mystical experience. The notion of an ethereal spirit of Wisdom which penetrates and
binds together all matter as one (found in the Book of Wisdom and
Proverbs 8:), or
the concept of the Anima Mundi or the 'ether' were rejected with the development of
Newtonian and then Einsteinian physics. Nonetheless many concepts in modern
physics, eg Bell's Interconnectedness Theorem and 'entanglement',
are consistent with the notion of an 'ether' and this
rejection has been turned around today
with a growing suspicion that some sort of 'ether' is the only way
in which quantum theory and relativity theory can actually be
unified. This world, which has a "material' and 'eternal' component
as it were, was consistent with the mind of God
and for Man to embrace this world in a spiritual faith sense was to
desire to be in Heaven.
As only those with free will can be
anything other than what they were designed to be, it was only the
first man that could sin or reject the truth of the universe and affect the actual nature of
the world in some manner so that it changed the form of the world in some permanent
sense.
When this happened, because the whole world is one, as described
above, it meant the whole world was no longer in harmony
with the mind of an eternal and unchanging God. As the
spiritual soul of Man optimally chooses the life of his flawed
body what he knows is no longer in union with Him and no longer in
harmony with Heaven. Then the soul of Man became subject to the
other spiritual world, that of darkness or Hell and Man is then is
forced to live in a world of spiritual darkness with the only light
coming from his own body and the world it experiences, which is now flawed.
As a result perfectly
'enlightened' conception of the next human body, which is not only a
natural process but effected by the soul of parents, is no
longer possible, without the intervention of God. This is not to say that human bodies are 'bad' but
rather flawed in form, corruptible and not perfectly what they were meant to be in the
mind of God. This flawed nature causes man to 'harden his heart' in
fear, as, when he opens his heart, he experiences a glimmer of Hell.
The light which man does experience, through the form of his body,
is a 'pale reflection of eternal light', a light that St Paul describes as
resulting from his experience of material being, as any material being
that has form at all
resembles God to some degree, as He is Being itself, and this is
sufficient to enable man to love the 'concept' of light and make a
choice for or against the light ie they can desire what is good,
which is to love, while ever they still have some experience of material
being.
It is only through Baptism, however, that an
individual can be reinstated in the Light, in this life although,
as St Paul points out in his letter to the Colossians, the whole
universe is reconciled to God through Christ's death.
This is what I believe Christ means when he says no one can enter
the Kingdom of God unless he is baptized (John : 3:4-6). Only then can an
individual open his heart and be free because fear of hell is no longer present
in spiritual sense (also in the Book of Esdras).
It could be stated of course that if a person really loved the light
he would want to embrace the Light, who is Christ, and he would seek
to get baptized.
Christ states this explicitly somewhere in the Gospels and in
particular John: Chapters 3-6. He also states that when someone is
baptized and believes in the Father ie has "fear of God" or faith,
which is the practical demonstration of wanting more light or
refusing to move away from the light, he has not only already passed
through Judgement but will never
die (John 8:35). This implies that slaves will
still face Judgement but some of the slaves, those who are still
subject to the darkness of Hell in this life, as they are unbaptized,
could be judged as innocent and just, if they have not had the
opportunity or Christ's spiritual invitation to baptism, before
death. If they genuinely desired the light from their limited experience of a
pale reflected light, they have not actually rejected Christ, and
when He comes to them at the hour of death they can still go to
Christ. This is consistent with many of the accounts of those who
undergo 'near death experiences'. Christ does, however, also
explicitly state that those who actually reject Him have already
been judged and this is what judgement is, the rejection of an
infinitely merciful God who is pure Love. Of course one is still
free to reject the light through mortal sin, a rejection which can
only be overcome through the Sacrament of Confession, but the child of God is
safe. As Christ states elsewhere, "the heir's place is guaranteed
but the slave's is not" and the final choice may not be made until
death. Of course only God knows true interior states and no amount
of external observance can fool Him. People are for Him or against
Him and acceptance or rejection of the Holy Spirit is an eternal
decision and final. Of course because God actually loves everyone
absolutely, in His wisdom it is reasonable to conjecture that He
would not invite someone to full union with Him on earth until the optimum
time that would enable them to remain obedient to the Holy Spirit in
this life, as other sins 'will be forgiven but not the sin against
the Holy Spirit'.
Hell is real in that, while it is a
spiritual darkness which is devoid of all good, it will also,
eventually, contain a fiery contracted material universe, a universe
that has been corrupted, as a result of the Original sin. Those who choose to reject God
will remain in Hell and this will include not only their souls but
also their corrupted material bodies, as God will
not destroy what He has created and this fiery conflagration will
last forever. Meanwhile a new creation in harmony with God
will also contain the recreated bodies of the faithful in the second
eternal world or Heaven, that like Hell was created with the material
world. (See Annette's Story)
This is why both the Jews, with their
God given law, and the Muslims, with their own laws, commit folly in
thinking that even adherence to material laws, including laws
regarding sexual
purity (eg laws indicating the invalidity of masturbation,
fornication and homosexual practices), a purity that has been largely rejected by many so
called Christians today, wrongly of course, can enable them to enter
the Kingdom of Heaven in this life and they remain slaves to fear
and darkness and must be judged at the hour of death, if they have
not already condemned themselves by rejecting Christ in a real
spiritual sense.
This is merely an attempt to put
these concepts in a light more consistent with modern understanding
and to concede that the world objectively contains a Heaven and a
Hell and God does everything to ensure we get to Heaven but not only
do we have free will but we will exercise it in a way that will
result in heaven
and or Hell despite of our intellectual intentions. This can of course still only be looked upon as a metaphor, as the
concepts of time and eternity and local being and non-local
being are not so easily separated and only the
Catholic Church has the Divine authority to make a definitive assertion on
this interpretation.
To return to the real subject
of the paper, physiological pleasure is deceptive in that
momentarily more being or energy is created during physiological
stimulation or arousal but this may be at the cost of damaging the
body's 'structure' or form, causing 'pain'. This is evidenced by the massive
flood of endorphins, the bodies natural opiates, ie a pain response, that results when orgasm
occurs confirming that orgasm effects the body in a negative way and
is only a necessary side effect of sex not the desired end. Thus
desire for physiological sexual pleasure is
masochistic but addictive in a psychological sense (NB: seeking to
stop sexual pleasure of course would lead to dysfunctional sex,
purely from a physiological view, and it would be better seen as a
necessary side effect of functional sexuality).
The underlying processes of sexual stimulation and orgasm are
not expounded in the paper but orgasm should not be seen as an
aspiration any more than drug addiction should be seen as an
aspiration and orgasm is actually an 'unwanted' side effect of
intercourse, resulting from the flawed bodies of those subject
to the effects of Original sin, and sex is really about the
process of depositing sperm in the vagina, for both unitive and
procreative effects. While many of the complex physiological and
chemical interactions underlying orgasm are not fully understood
I will outline a simplified but plausible physiological model
that demonstrates that there are innate biological differences
between individuals in terms of orgasmic response and seeking to
change one's individual response or feeling the need to have a
bigger or better orgasm is really folly. It is clear that many
women are already aware of this when the speak of the difference
between making love and having sex. Although this is of course a
false dichotomy ( men do not separate the two in a real sense
because for men ejaculation and orgasm, while involving
different processes as shown below, are usually simultaneous),
women clearly identify the 'selfish' nature of pursuing pleasure
and orgasm (sex) and the increased sense of communication,
emotional well-being and love that results when orgasm is not
the focus (making love). For some women orgasm, due to highly
reactive neurophysiology, is an explosive event easily achieved
but still really a distraction to their experience of and desire
for love. For most women orgasm is largely a non-event due to
the more passive nature of their nervous systems and the various
exhortations to the 'Big O" are not only unachievable but
unnecessary for complete sexual satisfaction. Putting such
pressure on women, especially to fake orgasms, so as to meet
'expectations', leads to increasing resistance to sex and making
love (which are the same thing of course but orgasm results in
shutting out some aspects of bodily awareness as a result of endorphins and not
having an
orgasm also enables bodily awareness of a partners sperm which is
experienced as love and communication). In this women are of
course their own worst enemies, craving pleasure and needing
love, they are seduced into thinking they are separate, both
good and independently attainable. So how does this occur?
Orgasm appears to result
from the inability to contain the increased temperature within
the precapillary vascular network around the genitals. While it is
true that the level of arousal in the
central nervous system is related to potency,
eg excess serotonin in the brain prevents erection,
and other sexual functions, the
machinery for
the
orgasmic response appears to be peripheral. While increased
genital blood flow results from acetylcholinestic effects on
blood vessels, increased temperature or arousal resulting from
sympathetic or pudendal adrenergic effects is caused by the
intense stimulation of the genitals and the most intense
stimulation, in the case of men, occurs when ejaculate passes
through the ejaculatory duct. The ejaculation process also
appears to be enhanced by sympathetic nervous
system stimulation but orgasm and
ejaculation are in fact two independent processes. This model also addresses current concerns
about the concept of female ejaculation, as differentiated from
the vaginal lubrication process that occurs with arousal. Pornography has glorified this process, as a means of providing
a clear visual response for the cameras, often via input of fluid
to the vagina offscreen, forced urination or involuntary stress
induced incontinence. This is mainly a substitute for the lack
of visual effects that the weak orgasmic response that most
women, including many of
the women who are involved in pornography, experience.
This is not to say that
there is no female "ejaculation" however. Only about
5% of ejaculate in men comes from the testicles and the rest
from the seminal vesicles and the prostate gland. These
secretions also contain TGF- beta factor (from above) and other
factors which enhance the viability and motility of sperm. There
are three possible explanations for the clear feelings of ejaculation
experienced by some females.
Firstly it appears that the vestigial prostate gland
called the para-urethral
or Skene's glands in women, are a homologues of the
male prostate gland, as the clitoris is a homologue of the penis.
These glands vary in size in individual women and, as an enlarged
clitoris is found is found in women with increased testosterone
levels from adrenal hyperplasia, the size may be dependent on
testosterone. These
glands may still be active and the source
of ejaculate from the urethra, especially in women with high
sympathetic nervous system reactivity or at least the feeling of
ejaculation when the threshold of the neural process for
ejaculation is is reached. This response, as in men, is affected
by levels of testosterone and sympathetic reactivity and may be
suppressed in some women who believe it is urination .
Whether the amount of ejaculate is substantial or negligible,
the feeling of ejaculation would be real and may trigger orgasm
as it does in men although orgasm is a separate process. A simple test would be to
sample any ejaculate for the prostate specific antigen (PSA), a simple pathology
test. New Scientist magazine of 30 May 2009 claims this has been
demonstrated and that the ejaculate also consists of bacteriocidal factors that would protect against urinary tract
infections.
Secondly the work by Professor
Erik Odeblad, who
is an eminent scientist with 50 years of experience in female
fertility and cervical mucus, work which can be found on the
Billings Ovulation Method website manged by Dr John Smith from
Canberra,
gives great detail on
the potential for the slow release of four types of cervical mucus at various
stages of the female cycle. Briefly the amounts of mucus
corresponds to the levels of estrogen or progesterone in the
blood at different stages of the cycle but levels vary only
slowly as a result of genetic transcription rates. They are
stored in glands or crypts and while they are gradually
disseminated into the cervix at various stages of the cycle they
may be expelled almost
instantaneously as a result of activation by noradrenaline from
the sympathetic nervous system also giving an ejaculatory
experience into the vagina. S
mucus also contains TGF beta factor which, as mentioned
earlier, enhances the immune system acceptance of sperm MHC proteins, is
produced and released into the cervix at the peak fertile period
of a woman's cycle and those with high estrogen levels produce
more of this mucus and thus are more likely to fall pregnant. G
mucus is released before and after the fertile period and is
dependent on progesterone levels and prevents sperm and other
microbiological organisms from entering the cervix. Excessive
sympathetic reactivity and high oestrogen levels and an "ejaculation" from the
S mucus gland, rather than slow seepage, is also likely to produce more S mucus at the
right time i.e. during sexual intercourse. As in men this
ejaculation while not dependent on orgasm may also result in orgasm,
the strength of which is again modulated by various factors as
noted below and the focus of the woman on achieving orgasm.
Thirdly the lubrication processes
in the vagina occur when the capillary beds in the walls of the
vagina all begin to increase in blood flow and transudation of
plasma fluids enter the vagina. As arousal increases this
lubrication increases and when the blood flow to the capillary
beds is maximised prior to peak arousal or orgasm ie when the
resistance of arteriorolar valves is least, a feeling of fluid
expulsion may also occur.
Thus we have three processes that
could possibly be subjectively interpreted as female ejaculation
although only the first process described would correlate with
male ejaculation.
This variability in
intensity of response probably results from genetic differences
in the rate and levels of autonomic arousal with higher
levels showing more sensory responsiveness but
the interaction with thyroid hormone levels also mediates the
type of response as this effects skeletal muscle reactivity,
smooth muscle dilation in blood vessels and the genetic
expression of α and β-adrenoreceptors for instance. Apart from
these basic genetic differences in arousal, which can be the same in men
and women, orgasmic responses appear to be positively correlated
with the testosterone levels of individuals.
Women
with higher levels of testosterone have more physically intense
orgasms and enduring physical responses to clitoral stimulation
given that all else is equal, which of course it rarely is, eg
women with higher oestrogen levels ie more feminine women - who
men view as more desirable at a subconscious level - are more
sexually receptive due to increased vaginal and cervical
lubrication levels but less likely to have the intensity
necessary for an explosive orgasm. In summary there are a small
group of people men and women who have heightened responses to
sexual stimulation resulting from genetic differences. Most
people are sexually functional but not as overtly responsive.
The level of responsivity appears to positively correlate with
sympathetic effects on the vascular system which are moderated
by oestrogen and enhanced by testosterone. Peak intensity of response is at about the age of 20
but declines thereafter in both genders.
To simplify our understanding
we can use a system using an archetype of body shapes to
demonstrate the point. Steroid sex hormones tend to make men and
women heavier in skeletal frame and body. High levels of thyroid
hormones (which occur in about 5% of people) make skeletal
frames lighter and more slender. Higher testosterone levels
result in shorter legs and longer bodies and higher oestrogen
levels result in narrower waists and wider hips. These are
permanent skeletal differences that occurred throughout
development and neither obesity nor starvation changes this
underlying reality. So women with long legs, short bodies, broad
hips, moderately slender frames and ample flesh are usually
viewed as most desirable by men and men with short legs, long
bodies, moderately slender frames and heavy musculature are most
desirable to women. This is of course at an instinctive level
but we have a level of rational control and what we really seek
is someone who complements and matches us as individuals in
other ways as well, particularly intelligence. Attempts by women
to appear attractive with dieting to get thin, wearing high
heels and body sculpting plastic surgery or men using steroids
for instance will making it more difficult to get a matching
partner as they are concealing their true personality and this
may have a cascading effect for thinking and behaviour among all
of us as a result of this misperception.
A woman with low thyroid and
adrenal activity, high oestrogen and low testosterone (heavy
frame, long legs, short body, narrow waist and wide hips) will
have a low orgasmic response but be very sexually receptive and
ideally be suited to a man with low thyroid and adrenal
activity, high testosterone and low oestrogen (Heavy frame,
short legs, long body, wide waist and narrow hips) who will
always be potent but moderate in orgasmic response. This is an
example of how physiological responses and mental approach to
sex differ in a predictable way according to biology. Other
examples can also be extrapolated from this model.
Although ejaculation is
pleasurable, it is not in itself synonymous with orgasm, as many
think, as they both involve different neural processes, but
ejaculation will occur with sufficient stimulation of
noradrenergic nerves and it is only an inability to resist the
stimulating effect of ejaculation by maintaining closure of the
precapillary arteriolar valves and/or limiting venal outflow that triggers orgasmic
contractions, greater in those with more responsive sympathetic
nervous systems.
From this we can conclude that the primary reason for
stimulation of the penis and the clitoris (indirectly via
intercourse) is not pleasure or orgasm (which results from a
lack of perfect control of the body) but ejaculation, thus
enhancing the possibility of conception during the fertile
period.
The sympathetic nervous
system activation is also necessary to prevent retrograde
ejaculation and the efficacy of sympathetic stimulation in
shutting the arteriolar valves is also directly enhanced by
testosterone and moderated by oestrogens. Those with higher
levels of plasma testosterone or higher baseline sympathetic
arousal are more easily able to contain increased arousal
temperatures in the short term, as well as preventing retrograde
ejaculation. However, the increased vascular resistance is
eventually overcome and the abrupt total opening of the arteriolar
valves and cessation of venule reistance causes an orgasm, the more initial resistance, the more
intense the orgasm. This may result from a number of factors but
the hypothalamus has separate nucleii for increasing and
decreasing blood pressure via these valves in order to maintain
body temperature. While generally the autonomic nervous system
is automatic individuals can learn to exercise some control and
this is why a virgin female who has never masturbated would find
it very difficult to have an orgasm although she may well
ejaculate cervical mucus. As elevated thyroid hormones increases
the expression of adrenoreceptors and the velocity of muscle
contraction it would be expected that those with high
testosterone, low oestrogen, high adrenergic output and high
thyroid output would have the most explosive orgasmic response.
This causes 'damage' to the body resulting in a massive
endorphin response. This in turn shuts out the somatic
experience of the 'flawed' body, as with all opiates, and the
addictive cycle of acceptance and denial is set in place. In
particular the association between the good of sex, which is not
pleasure, and pleasure, which is a side effect of functional sex
resulting from 'flawed' bodies, is so powerful that many people
believe that pleasure is the good of sex. From
this they conclude that pleasure is a generic good, a good
that should be obtained in any manner possible when actually,
pleasure(orgasm) is perceived by the unconscious as an assault on the
body. This assault is accepted because the actual good ,the
bonding and knowing of each other, resulting from the deposition
of sperm in the vagina, is a greater good, and it also results
in conception. People with a higher capacity for arousal, from
above, are more likely to have pathological outcomes from
indulging in aberrant sexual practices which are still
pleasurable but as a counterbalance are also likely to bond more
strongly and also produce more children.
An important feature to note
that using the contraceptive pill appears to interfere with
natural feedback systems and rather that enhancing sexual
responsiveness and many of the processes above interferes
significantly. These effects are outlined in great detail on the
female fertility site from above but consist of:
-
decreased labial sensitivity
and lubrication
-
faster ageing of the cervix
-
decreased fertility
-
selection of immunologically
unappealing partner
An interesting point emerges in that this explanation of
sexuality confirms the Catholic Church's teaching on marriage
and their claim that the union of a man and a woman in marriage
is the one gift from God that was not lost by Original sin. The
innate biological differences in men and women are also
reflected in psychological reality and the recognition of this
is especially important in regard to sexuality and intellectual
differences that result in men having authority over their wives.
Thomas Aquinas, while not understanding what the differences
were, openly acknowledged that from observation and consistent
with Scripture women must have a level of intellectual
inferiority at some level, in spite of their capacity for
Spiritual equality. One indicator of difference can be found in
the paper
Implicit memory across the menstrual cycle
which demonstrates the superiority of priming or implicit visual
memory in men. The other aspect is that while women, as a group, have
superior working memory and fluency, men have superior long-term
memory and attentional stamina and thus creativity. This
consistent with the model of "Fast and Slow Thinking" by Daniel
Kahneman with women relying on the faster more automatic
thinking at he cost of more mistakes and men more dependent on
the slower mode with less mistakes.
I also suggest that
this model of incorporation of sperm into the female body
supports the pioneering psychologist William James' little ditty 'hogamus higamus men are
polygamous and higamus hogamus women are monogamous'. This is a
reflection of the 'natural' law ie a biological and thus
objective psychological reality and women psychologically
terminate their relationships by adultery whether they wish to
or not. There is not the same biological
imperative for men, however, as while they experience
ownership of the bodies of women they have sex with, through
fornication and the rejection of their sexual partners they
experience a self willed rejection of themselves and through
adultery the theft of what belongs to them in an unconscious
sense.
While there is a spiritual imperative in seeing justice
done for women and adultery on the part of a man a very
serious sin, it is not terminal to the relationship in a
psycho-biological sense. Christianity with it's spiritual
transcendence of, but not denial of, biology affirms the equal
dignity of women and men by insisting on dual monogamy. While initially this view was based on
behavioural observations, as mentioned above, some years after
the initial publication of this view I came across a passage
from scripture that appears to confirm this and my concerns for
the ramifications of this statement were in some measure put to
rest by the passages in Deuteronomy 24:1-4. and Jeremiah 3:1.
Consciousness
The second paper is an essay that started out as a discussion about
the symbolic nature of mind. It digresses somewhat into
neurobiology and it's relation to thinking and claims that what the
mind knows ie the 'form' of conscious thoughts are purely a result
of neurological encoding. In this respect Fodor claims that symbolic
representations and the relationship between them are all that is
required to explain behaviour independently of whether the world
exists or not. He notes the view of a distinction between rational
psychology and natural psychology. I attribute this split to the
differing roles of frontal processing and posterior processing in
the brain. Frontal processing is involved in rationally constructing
from the encoded representations that were consciously and
naturally experienced in 'real time' ie sensory experience that is
encoded into long-term explicit memory and then used for
construction at any time. There are therefore two levels
of symbolism. A posterior neural correlate with the world which
would not be solipsistic in the sense of which Fodor speaks but
frontal processing is solipsistic in that it allows construction of conscious
thoughts from representations that may have no relation to what is
actually happening in the world ie 'methodological' solipsism.
By demonstrating that 'ideas' are the result of a neural state I am
saying this may well be true if the mind knows only the body. This
is consistent with the preliminary statements in my earlier paper
and in a non pathological state this is true. After death and in an
unconscious state the mind may well experience a different reality
and indeed I believe it does but in a normal state conscious ideas
are based on neural representations and may or may not represent the
world. Indeed I believe it is only the formless 'voice' of the
unconscious which can attest to reality.
The current prevailing theories of mind are largely materialist
theories but they are based on the description of certain
intellectual and psychological operations, including
propositions 'masquerading' as free will. While I agree that
these operations appear to be neurologically based this does not
preclude a spiritual component, eg Descartes' "ghost in
the machine" or soul, and the capacity for free will that is
contained in this component of mind.
The clearest indicator supporting this position is the fact that
only humans, of all the animals, 'choose' to kill to themselves as
any ecologist will confirm ie they freely choose to reject their
most innate biological 'truth', their own body.
It is this interpretation that enables both the 'automatism'
associated with a materialist perspective and the free will that
is associated with Christian theology to be harmonised. The
materialist view is consistent with the view that God the Father
created a material world complete and meant to be unchanging.
This includes human bodies and brains and thus capacity for
action is predetermined but individuals can freely reject the
material or biological truth that is their body or encoded on
their brain and to do so is 'sin'.
Theologically it is also taught that individuals can win merit
and according to the above would appear that this is so only in
a negative sense ie refusing to reject the material reality
experienced by sinning. Thomas Aquinas goes beyond this however
and states that in fact we can only win merit through the agency
of angels, myriad in number when compared to humans, who are
messengers of God ie grace. For Christians who are in union with
God direct access through the Holy Spirit is again experienced
through the unconscious by having "Fear of God". While of course
God can do anything, this would, in the normal course of events,
be in an unconscious sense ie conscience is the voice of truth,
reflecting both material and spiritual reality, and obedience to
the formless voice of conscience is the only truly meritorious
aspiration individuals can have. This understanding is very
important in theoretical political considerations as to
how society and the resources of society are to be distributed.
Schizophrenia and Attention: Cognitive and Neurobiological Aspects
The third paper on schizophrenia was written during a
postgraduate course in applied psychology and is more a
collection of information that I have not had time to edit and
refine but the various references may be of use to some
researchers. The thrust of this article is to explain that the
while there are 'abnormalities' in cognition and attention in
schizophrenia, the underlying neurobiological
differences are not necessarily pathological or inferior.
Instead many problems occur because the resultant
differences in cognitive skills and information processing
create friction between a small minority of the population and
the vast majority including many clinicians.
This failure to
consider individual differences leads to both treatment failures and
behavioural psychopathology. These result from either extreme
arousal levels maintaining frontal-temporal control of
information processing, even when hippocampal transfer is
impaired, and the resultant delusions and hallucinations or
deliberate refusal to use frontal processing as a self treatment
option, which results in passivity and faulty reasoning.
Antipsychotic drugs cause neural damage and other treatment
possibilities need to be examined. It appears that one method of
inactivating the ventral stream of visual processing and
frontal-temporal control is cerebral vasodilation and/or the genetic down
regulation of adrenal gland production using blood
pressure medications like Micardis. The downregulation of the neurotransmitters that drive hippocampal processing
and cause vasoconstriction, especially in the hippocampus, may have
the same effect that the recent mice studies of simulated psychosis
have shown. This approach fully repaired damaged pathways with
physical and mental exercise programs and these also increase the
limited cerebral blood flow found in many of those with
schizophrenia. Micardis may therefore be useful in
dealing with the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and
post-traumatic stress, without causing cerebral neural damage.
I have also heard of a trial using
the amino acid glycine, a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in
the central nervous system. The increased inhibition
caused by glycine would be likely to ensure that the threshold
for a distortion of hippocampal processing due to sensory
overload is less likely to occur although glycine is also indicated
in increasing NMDA activation in the hippocampus, a process
essential to memory creation.
Cognitive Behaviour therapy for psychosis, consistent with
the idea that many of the symptoms associated with
schizophrenia are on the extreme of a continuum of normal
information processing, rather than resulting from a biological
pathogen, is also increasingly being utilised and studied as a
treatment for psychosis.
Personal Profile
- Name: Philip Robert
Pocock
- DOB : 27.2.56
- Eldest of 12 children
-
Education: Bachelor of Science(ANU) - 1996, Graduate Diploma
in Applied Psychology - 1998.
- Profession:
Psychotherapist (Former Registered Psychologist)
- Canberra ACT, 2600. Australia
- Phone : 04990035000
|