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Paranoia and the Externalised Perceptual Misalignment Hypothesis J
C Morrow The Shadow Programme, 318a Ravenhill Road
, Submitted June 2006 |
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Abstract Paranoia is traditionally viewed as being a delusional process based upon irrational beliefs and fears. This paper identifies rational explanations for a number of the primary paranoid ideas, based upon an hypothesis of sensory and/or perceptual misalignment. By providing a rational explanation of how belief systems may be temporarily or permanently distorted by paranoia and related processes, the externalised perceptual misalignment hypothesis provides a bridge via which those who have experienced such processes can integrate that previously unresolved experience with their normal belief systems, allowing them to recover more fully and reducing future risk. The mind has great difficulty both coping with and resolving irrationality. The externalised perceptual misalignment hypothesis has the potential to provide a powerful tool with which the mind can resolve and hence overcome experiences which have led to paranoia and other belief system distortions. Sensory-based, perception-based and cognition-based forms of paranoia are explored and discussed within a framework of indirect, mediated and direct misalignment modes, along with a discussion of how the mind/brain copes with deterioration due to ageing or disease processes of the sensory systems, the body and the brain itself, then several possible recalibration processes for sensory, perceptual and cognitive realignment are reviewed, before a number of conclusions are provided regarding how paranoia might be more effectively treated in the future. |
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The mind is a very powerful information analysis tool, which is highly adaptive and self-regulating; yet at the same time it has great difficulty in coping with and resolving irrationality. A basic tenet of the conventional model of paranoia is that it is a delusional process, based upon irrational fears and beliefs. Thus paranoia is often perceived as being an unreasoned and unreasonable world view - at best extrapolated from, but often divorced from, reality. In contrast, in this paper it is argued that, not only is the “just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that they’re not out to get you,” viewpoint often based upon evidence, but that even when no one is out to get you, sensory and/or perceptual misalignment processes can act to engender paranoia even in the seeming absence of specific appropriate external sources. The aim of this paper is first to identify the differences between and consequences thereof both internalised and externalised perceptual misalignment and then to examine how externalised sensory and/or perceptual misalignment processes can lead to various forms of paranoia. So what exactly is this hypothesis? The externalised perceptual misalignment hypothesis states that paranoia can result when perceptual or other misalignments between two sentient beings (usually humans) are mostly or wholly attributed to the actions or behaviour of the other, even when they may be due to changes in the self. If the internal changes that have contributed to paranoia are recognised and acknowledged it is possible to remove this paranoia though a recalibration process – much as one comes to terms with more obvious changes such as losing a limb, paralysis or losing a loved one (bereavement.) A key prediction based upon the externalised perceptual misalignment hypothesis is that causes of paranoia may be traced to a combination of changes in the perception and behaviour of the self and the other. Over the longer term, research based upon this hypothesis is expected to lead to a more complete and effective treatment for many types of paranoia. In the first part of this paper we will consider the relationship between internalised and externalised perceptual misalignment processes, and the main related ideations of such internal or externalisation. Externalisation is then related to recognised forms of paranoia such as sensory-based, perception-based and cognition-based, within a framework of indirect, mediated and direct misalignment modes. Based upon these forms of paranoia, a discussion is provided into how the mind/brain copes with deterioration due to ageing or disease processes of the sensory systems, the body and the brain itself. Next, what can happen when the mind/brain becomes aware that there is a “major systems failure” is discussed, and possible recalibration processes for sensory, perceptual and cognitive realignment are reviewed. Finally, a number of conclusions are provided regarding how paranoia might be more effectively treated in the future. |
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Internal Versus External Misalignment The mind is a very powerful information analysis tool, which is highly adaptive and self-regulating. In this modern world of rapid change such adaptability can be very valuable; however, it can also lead to sensory, perceptual and cognitive anomalies being externalised as symptoms of others intentions and behaviours. Whilst the mind can occasionally recognise change within one’s self and implicitly or explicitly internalise that as, for example, in the case of elation, depression, revelation or rebirth, a central tenet of the functioning of this powerful and complex system is to assume that self-regulation fully adapts to minimise or even totally negate any shifts in its operation, and hence that any perceived deviation in interactions with others is a consequence of their behaviour changing and not a reflection of changes in one’s own viewpoint or behaviour. One consequence of this
steady-state equilibrium theory is that anyone who internalises
perceptual or cognitive change to any significant extent is considered
to be at best slightly “unbalanced” and at worst to have “lost
their mind” or become “insane.”
It is relatively simple to appreciate that someone whose world
view has changed is likely to perceive many as different even when they
were in the same group before, and for virtually all those around to
view one as having changed: contrast this with an external change, where
interactions with most probably one or a few people have changed but
interaction in the general sense remains the same.
If one is not thinking in the same way as the majority, one is
considered to be other, and as the majority consider themselves to be
sane it therefore follows that one must be A common theme in applied genetics has been to view anyone who deviates or even potentially deviates significantly from the societal norms as a waste of space or useless eater. This was taken to its illogical extremes in Nazi Germany, with the ideology of a master race or monoculture to which few of those differentiating between “them and us” even belonged driving the extermination of all others. Apart from the fact that a lack of diversity has been shown to lead to vulnerability, weakness and rapid failure in nature, mankind’s seemingly unique capacity for abstraction has driven our relative success at dominating this planet, and it is often recognised that obstacles and challenges in life and the variation in perspective afforded those who do not conform to the norms can lead the mind to greater understanding and achievement, for the benefit of all. Life is a team sport, from microbes to mammals, and it is important that the rules of society reflect this. It is important to differentiate between physical, sensory, perceptual and cognitive deviations from the norms and, further, between those which have been present from before birth and those which have been acquired through time, illness or injury. For example, physical differences are usually obvious to both the individual concerned and to other people - as a result, they are typically accommodated by the individual and their family (they have to live with it) whilst others may also be accommodating if they or someone close to them is in a similar situation or otherwise may ignore or shun the person involved, as a reflection of the tacitly accepted societal norms of opinion and behaviour. Further, within the Eugenics movement, distinction was made between those who had sustained disability through injury – in particular, war heroes, those who had sustained disability through illness and those who had been disabled from birth. Yet it is often recognised that the experience of hardship, challenge or disability can increase the intellectual and emotional appreciation, heights, flexibility, resourcefulness, stamina and endurance of both an individual and the enriched society within which they live. With the development of conscious thought and the widespread adoption of symbolic thought processes by mankind, it is vital to recognise that the previously physical gene for survival has now been supplemented by a symbolic gene for survival, storing the best of our knowledge and understanding of this world so that we may best work through both our physical toils and our conceptual models for the survival of life on this earth and, when that is no longer sustainable, on other worlds. Until we fully develop and implement the technologies required to allow us to transport the diversity of life beyond this solar system, this earth and the life upon and within it is the ark we must maintain and protect as life’s only means of survival, and we must remember that life is a team event, with mankind but a single member of the team. <>()<> Within the context of externalisation, differentiation between the self and the other is a common theme in human life; whether in terms of sex, race, religion or disability. From a societal viewpoint, a particularly dangerous form of externalisation can be fanaticism – whether in following a particular team or person in sport, a cult, science or religion. Fanaticism is characterised by a particular form of simultaneous “us and them” internalisation and externalisation, in which, typically, ones own actions are regarded as “right,” “good” or “well-intentioned” whilst the actions of others are for “ulterior motives” and are regarded as “wrong,” “bad” or “mal-intentioned” – even when they may be essentially the same actions as yours. This irrational prejudice is recognised as such by the mind, but in order to cope with and continue to function within the presence of such irrationality, it builds a world of suspicions of mal-intent and action around the other’s behaviour, interpreting everything they do within this context and hence continually reinforcing the prejudice. Hence even when such a mind appears to be functioning normally, actions and responses are based upon a significantly distorted world view, and reasonable behaviour – in general but particularly in times of stress – cannot be guaranteed. A major issue with the presence of fanatics within public life and in positions of power is that their automatic tendency to do anything they need to in order to justify their prejudices and related actions acts against typical public sector equality of treatment and opportunity rules, leading to further internal stress and potentially more extreme behaviour. They may often seem to be making reasonable decisions when in fact they are simulating making those decisions, based upon what they think people would expect them to do. However, in times of pressure, or when out of the spotlight when nobody appears to be watching or listening, they can make very unusual and often dangerous or destructive choices. Even when some are watching, if the majority ignore these reports the fanatic can both get away with dangerous decisions and as a result this will further reinforce their distorted world view. The main paranoid-type ideations related to perceptual misalignment processes include: people or persons are deliberately mistreating me; people or persons are obsessed with me; food, drink or other substances related to me are being tampered with; material possessions and machines are being tampered with; traffic regulation systems are acting against me; secret agents are divulging personal information to others around me and people can inject thoughts into (write to) or read thoughts already contained within my mind. In the next section, the primary modes of misalignment processes: indirect, mediated and direct are introduced and each is then discussed in turn in the following sections, with examples provided of the types of paranoia that they can engender. Some potential recalibration processes for sensory, perceptual and cognitive realignment are then described and finally conclusions drawn regarding the potential benefits available though adopting treatment of paranoia and similar stress-related conditions using the externalised perceptual misalignment hypothesis. |
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Overview of the Primary Perceptual Misalignment Modes The dominant form of paranoia exhibited by an individual can vary considerably depending upon the primary mode through which perception is misaligned. Although all modes ultimately manifest themselves as sensory, perceptual or cognitive distortions of one sort or another, in general, a primary causal link may be identified between a particular mode and the resultant paranoia. Although some modes may be considered to consist, at least partially, of combinations of others, from a conceptual viewpoint it can make sense to treat them separately – this also appears to be how the mind treats them. The primary modes of perceptual misalignment are: indirect; mediated and direct. These are briefly introduced below, and each is discussed in turn in the following sections – along with examples of the types of paranoia that these can engender. Indirect Misalignment Most misalignment processes involve direct interaction between the individual concerned and others; however, indirect misalignment occurs when the characteristics of an inanimate object appear to have changed as a result of sensory, perceptual or cognitive misalignment. As the misalignment is externalised, it is assumed that this changed object behaviour is a reflection of a change in behaviour of others towards you; that is, the behaviour of the object has been intentionally altered by persons unknown in order to change the quality or type of interactions between you and the object. Although there is apparently just a single source (the original sensory, perceptual or cognitive disturbance which gave rise to the indirect misalignment with objects), it is likely that interactions with a number of objects will be affected. Without evidence to the contrary this is often viewed as either one very determined and resourceful person focussing upon you or a number of people operating together in some form of conspiracy – often surrounded by a conspiracy of silence, as people are, in general, unwilling to consider or even entertain ideas which they find to be unlikely or unbelievable. Mediated Misalignment Mediated interactions with others via objects are distorted by sensory, perceptual or cognitive changes. As in the case of indirect misalignment processes, mediated misalignment may also have just a single root cause, but because interactions with a number of people are typically affected to a lesser or greater extent, the perception of the individual is that a number of people are acting differently towards them; again, the conspiracy theory. This misinterpretation is often further compounded by the fact that others may refuse to discuss what is wrong and may even talk about it openly between themselves but fall silent in one’s company. The mind/brain is highly adaptive, and as senses deteriorate over time – with age or abuse, for example – the mind/brain compensates and self-calibrates to an extent. However, because the sensory modes are altered, the flavour of interactions is often also changed – sometimes a little, at other times a lot. As a consequence, even though the mind/brain may have attempted to correct for the initial sensory deterioration, it hasn’t explicitly acknowledged either the need for re-calibration or the limitations of and artefacts inherent in that re-calibration process. “Carry on regardless” is a motto that might accurately summarise being in this state. Direct Misalignment Direct interactions with others are distorted by sensory, perceptual or cognitive changes. As in the case of indirect and mediated misalignment processes, direct misalignment may also have just a single root cause, but because interactions with a number of people are typically affected to a lesser or greater extent, the perception of the individual is that a number of people are acting differently towards them; again, the conspiracy theory. This misinterpretation is often further compounded by the fact that others may refuse to discuss what is wrong and may even talk about it openly between themselves but fall silent in one’s company. They may try to help; prompting with words, laughing at delusions, identifying and correcting mistakes in the belief that this will help the person to recover when often it simply adds to stress and confusion. The mind/brain is highly adaptive, and as sensory, perceptual and cognitive functions deteriorate over time – with age or abuse, for example – the mind/brain compensates and self-calibrates to an extent. However, because the sensory modes are altered, the flavour of interactions is often also changed – sometimes a little, at other times a lot. As a consequence, even though the mind/brain may have attempted to correct for the initial sensory deterioration, it hasn’t explicitly acknowledged either the need for re-calibration or the limitations of and artefacts inherent in that re-calibration process. Once again, “carry on regardless” is a motto that might accurately summarise being in this state. A central assumption of the working mind/brain is that it is operating normally – that any deviations in its performance are quantitative rather than qualitative. Following brain damage or injury, and faced with mounting evidence and the trauma of the realisation of potentially major and unrecoverable performance failure, the mind/brain may either decide to accept that life has changed forever or, in extreme circumstances and with evidence of major unbalanced malfunction, move itself into coma and then death. However, with many types of cognitive impairment such extreme action is not necessary, and with knowledge can come perspective and the ability to re-order previously unexplained, contentious and stressful events. In the following sections, examples from the primary modes of indirect; mediated and direct misalignment are presented and discussed in more detail, and for each one or more examples are provided of the type of paranoia that it can engender. This is followed by a discussion of how the mind/brain copes, in general, with deterioration due to ageing or disease processes of the sensory systems, the body and the brain itself. |
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Misalignment in Indirect Interaction via Misalignments in interactions with objects are normally based upon pre-existing stresses and increases in speed or sensitivity under stress. Increased speed or heightened sensitivity can be a useful thing – for example, when trying to win a race, pot a ball in snooker, etc., but in normal life - and particularly when experienced over a prolonged period of time, the mind/brain has time to adapt to the change whilst at the same time physical objects one comes into contact with are not so adapted. Normal physical objects are designed to interact with people in a “normal” state of mind, and operate best in such a situation. Even when designed to cater for different speeds and sensitivities – such as recognised the rate of mouse “double-clicks” within a computer, or the sensitivity of the mouse to movement, calibration is tacitly expected to be a “once in a long while” procedure at most, which isn’t expected to change over the lifetime of the computer – much less on a day to day or hour to hour basis. Adaptive processes are allowed in computers – such as changing the way you access menus adaptively depending upon your style of working – but not basic things such as mouse click speed and sensitivity – at least, not yet. Yet a computer is one of the most adaptive objects man uses. However, many other physical objects don’t accept significant variation at all, and are designed on a “one size fits all” basis. So what does it mean in practice when an object isn’t designed to interact at the rate or sensitivity at which one is currently operating? How does this failure manifest itself? Sensory Magnitude Misalignment In certain states of
high or prolonged stress the nervous system can reach a state of
heightened readiness in which the sensitivity to inputs is greatly
enhanced. For example, the
sense of smell can be greatly heightened, or taste, touch, hearing or
sight. At the same time,
high levels of stress can lead to a fight-or-flight
type response, in which even basic but in the short-term non-essential
functions such as If the fight-or-flight response is prolonged for any reason, breathing is
restored – although with the risk of hyperventilation, and if
digestion is still suspended the At the same time as foodstuffs ad drinks smelling and tasting differently from normal, the heightened senses make it likely that the chemical added to normal drinking water from the tap for health and hygiene reasons will become far more obvious, frequently leading to a belief that not only have foodstuffs been tampered with but also basic short-term survival necessities such as water – and not just on an individual basis but on a widespread basis through the local or wider area water system. Of course, if the individual has had work carried out at their house recently, they may link these changes to this, assuming that something has been added to their foodstuffs and their water supply, rather than there being a more general attack on the population at large. If hearing sensitivity has been increased by stress – possibly even by the stress of having workmen around if the work is not progressing as well as hoped – everything brought to attention will seem louder, more insistent and more deliberate – reflecting the individual’s stressed state. Children’s playful laughter might become an unnecessarily loud and jeering taunt; workmen making more noise than necessary or deliberately making noise at inopportune times; neighbours playing their music too loudly; planes passing overhead more closely than usual with their engines straining noisily; occupants of the neighbouring house or flat making strange creaking and activity noises late at night; signs of secret activity that others don’t appear to notice. Strange or unexplained noises may be linked to changes in smell or taste in the idea that someone has tampered with your water or food supply but that no-one else is aware of it. If the belief is in a more general attack on the population – such as poisoning the water supply then thoughts of terrorism may surface. Often, heightened sensitivity to tastes and smells can lead t a number of pointers to such a widespread attack – not least the common warnings of the potential for such things. It might seem that the
water supply has been If the individual subsequently realises that the attacker was spreading the contaminant (paint) unintentionally, he or she might carry out some procedure that, in their confused state, they believe will help to protect the attacker from the contaminant – if the heightened sense through which the strong odour of the gloss paint was detected was the sense of smell, they might attempt to block that sense in the attacker in an effort to save them. Perceptual Speed Misalignment In certain states of high or prolonged stress the nervous system can reach a state of heightened readiness in which the speed of response is greatly enhanced. For example, the speed of thought and speech can be significantly increased, along with interactions with machines such as typewriters, calculators, computers, telephones, and telephone answering and dictation machines. Voice-related machine interaction tends to fall under mediated interaction, and will be discussed further in that section, however issue of how a range of man-machine-interfaces cope or fail to cope with significant changes in the responsivity of the individual are addressed here Machines are typically non-adaptive, and are designed to work well for the majority of people. If you have a problem with an interface and you don’t fall into a recognised group of users who need alternative input mechanisms, any complaints you may make are likely to be ignored. This is especially the case when one day you had no problem with the interface and another you do, and if someone else tries it out and has no apparent problem it is likely that you will be seen as a demanding perfectionist at best and a troublemaker who doesn’t want to work at worst. Even modern computers, which have the power to enable them to adapt to large changes in interaction speed if so designed, fail in this regard. So what happens with machines when one’s speed of interaction falls outside one’s normal range of rates and, indeed, outside the boundaries of accepted interaction rates? Most machinery does not exhibit “graceful degradation.” That is, it is not in general possible to slow down a little and get a cleaner response. In many cases either the machine interactions is successful or it is not successful, and few if any machines adaptively learn how to improve the success rate – in order to support effective interaction, it is up to the individual concerned to match themselves to the machine. Where normally the
individual has no significant problems with keypads, buttons, keyboards,
etc., suddenly a range of machines appear to fail to work properly –
as if they’ve been A maintenance technician comes to see your computer and sort out the problem; types upon it for a bit and says “it’s fine – you’re just a perfectionist,” yet within seconds of you resuming work it has once again lost your current piece of work – making constructive interaction and, in this modern world, work itself, impossible. This of course further adds to your stress levels – making you speed up even more. You urgently ask for a more stable machine, but as yours has been checked, any upgrade based upon a perceived “excuse” is at the very bottom of the queue, whether you think that you can do your work or whether you know that you can’t is immaterial. Having left work with the added stress of not being able to perform tasks which form a critical part of your job – write reports, proposals, letters, etc. – in your heightened state of stress you find that the traffic lights appear to be behaving oddly. You start off from lights, etc. more quickly than normal, and even if trying to control it, your speed is probably a few miles per hour higher than what you would usually do. Where you had been able to move easily from one set of lights through another, you tend to hit “reds” and even “greens” where you wouldn’t expect. Everything is disorientating, different; it feels as if someone has deliberately tampered with the traffic light system in order to stress you further – just when you want to get home and “wind down”. When you get home a settle down in front of your favourite TV programme you find the picture highly unstable and to be flickering wildly – so as to be almost unwatchable. Is there something wrong with the TV? Then you notice that the fluorescent light in the kitchen is also flickering unbearably, and those new energy save light bulbs you put in the hall and landing. It feels like some stroboscopic disco show – yet you’re just trying to walk upstairs. You feel sick, disorientated, confused - and even more stressed. Is there something wrong with the electricity supply now too? You can’t watch TV, you can’t stand fluorescent lights; your headache builds as you retire to bed exhausted. The clear sunlit morning comes as a welcome relief, but you dread having to interact with machines, and even friends are looking at you strangely now when you speak. Time is marching on, but those deadlines never do. You have no choice but to face work – but what are you going to be able to do when you get there? And how are you going to get anyone to listen? How are you going to fulfil your commitments? Why won’t anyone help me? I feel sick; I could do the work – I want to do the work, but the machines won’t let me. Why will no-one understand? What is happening to me? Why can nobody else see what is happening? Stress levels continue to rise inexorably. Perceptual speed
misalignment can be a very stressful and disorientating thing –
especially when it is clear that many around you have Cognitive Existence Misalignment Objects, whether animate
or inanimate, exist in both space and time, and the interactions between
objects take place within this framework.
Memory is the process the mind/brain uses to keep track of the
position and state of objects with which the With mild memory disruption, memories exist but are less distinct than normal and/or more difficult to access. The person may be pre-occupied, under a lot of stress, or physiological ageing processes may be reducing the efficiency of the memory tracking and recovery processes. One may view the person as “absent-minded,” “a bit forgetful,” “not quite himself/herself,” but at this stage the person concerned is often aware of some slight memory deficiency that was not there before. At the same time, they may harbour suspicions that a friend or relative is “playing tricks” on them too – moving and misplacing objects, either for amusement or in an attempt to identify what is wrong. Aside from major brain injury, most age or abuse related memory problems occur at the interface between short and long-term memory, and impact upon the way that memories are linked together by autographical memory creation and in the connections inherent in semantic memory. In extreme cases, the chain of autobiographical memory may be completely broken – so that no new autobiographical memories may be created and the person exists inside a combination of the past (prior to losing the ability to create autobiographical memories) and the present, as defined by short-term memory. Yet even though specific autobiographical memories cannot be created, new memories can be formed, in the context of a general “awareness” or there being something wrong or in the form of procedural memories, which are distributed between sensory, motor and cognitive areas of the brain (making the memory creation process more robust than others) which are often triggered (accessed) by relate sensory or motor activity. In extremis, the person only exists in the present and distant past, and the mind/brain, based upon the assumption that it is functioning normally, attempts to make a coherent while out of the past and present on an instant by instant basis, ignoring as much as possible anomalies that this might create, and drifting effortlessly between the distant past and the present as if events from many years previously were just yesterday, and people who meant a lot are raised from the dead. With the progressively further detachment in time between the last events remembered and the present state comes an ability to weave meaning in a comforting way out of memories of those loved and lost – a long-dead sister might be believed to have called earlier today or yesterday, because there is now no difference between hours, days and years in the past. With no recent past to cling on to, and only the distant past being a stable platform upon which to base consciousness, there is a tendency to live more and more in dreams of the past, and the present situation is explained in these terms. Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, a hospital ward can be a bar, a restaurant, a hotel, a snooker hall – whatever suits what is currently in the imagination. Objects adopt a purpose that is consistent with the current explanation at any particular moment in time. Not surprisingly, situations and objects can at times take on an almost magical quality in the eyes of the person with severe memory generation/retrieval problems. For someone whose memory
construction and retrieval systems are severely and permanently
affected, attempts to correct their |
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Misalignment in Mediated Interaction via Objects As with interactions with objects, misalignment in mediated interactions with others is normally based upon pre-existing stresses and increases in speed or sensitivity under stress. Increased speed or heightened sensitivity can be a useful thing, but in normal life - and particularly when experienced over a prolonged period of time - the mind/brain has time to adapt to the change whilst at the same time others one comes into contact with are not so adapted – in fact the stress that the abnormal interaction places upon them can lead to their responding or appearing to respond in the opposite direction, with the consequence of making interaction even more difficult. Mediated interaction can
be very tightly coupled in time but not space – such as in the case of
a live conversation via a telephone or videophone, less tightly coupled,
such as a message on an answering machine or voicemail, Sensory Magnitude Misalignment In certain states of high or prolonged stress the nervous system can reach a state of heightened readiness in which the sensitivity to inputs is greatly enhanced. Hypersensitivity can range from hearing things as too loud and distorted after having had too much to drink – along with a headache, a hangover and bad-temper, to being able to hear things that do exist but that no-one else there is aware of – such as trains passing several hundred yards away, cars in another street, etc.. Conversely, deterioration in sensory performance over time or through abuse is relatively common, leading to the frequently used term “hard of hearing paranoia.” The hearing of a person in late middle age might begin to gradually deteriorate but, because human beings are highly adaptable, the person involved doesn’t notice the loss, until it reaches a stage at which the behaviour of others seems to change. Volume controls on radios and televisions are gradually turned up, but except for the occasional complaint that “that is too loud,” with the consequent lowering of volume for a period of time, and the perception that the person who spoke up is over-sensitive, acceptance of the need for hearing assistance is infrequent until the hearing loss is considerable. With interaction mediated via objects – such as the telephone, for example - because he or she has difficulty hearing them, the person concerned perceives that the party on the other end of the line is speaking too quietly, and so speaks more loudly in an attempt to get them to speak up too. Meanwhile, the third party, hearing the first party talking too loudly, speaks more softly and often more slowly in an attempt to get them to calm down (talking loudly is often perceived as a sign of stress.) This only serves to make the person concerned speak even more loudly, until within a few seconds person one is virtually shouting and the other is whispering. A Telephone answering machines are often less of a problem, because the message is recorded and they often have an automatic level control – so if you speak loudly or softly the recorded level will still be roughly similar. However, digital current answering machines employ significant “lossy” compression in order to get the sound to fit on small amounts of memory, and at lower sound levels the system can easily be swamped as it tries to encode both the quiet voice and surrounding extraneous noise which would normally be almost inaudible behind the (dominant) voice. The same can apply, of course, to dictation machines. With solid-state memory prices becoming much lower and capacities ever rising, the limitations imposed by using in-band lossy compression technologies and heavy compression are likely to be avoided in future. Perceptual Speed Misalignment In certain states of high or prolonged stress the nervous system can reach a state of heightened readiness in which the speed of response is greatly enhanced. As already mentioned, the speed of thought and speech can be significantly increased, along with interactions with machines such as typewriters, calculators, computers, telephones, and telephone answering and dictation machines. As with most machinery, voice and other communication–related machines are typically non-adaptive, and are designed to work well for the majority of people. When recording voice across time for dictation or across space and time for telephone-answering purposes, automatic level control may be included - allowing a wider range of vocal amplitudes to be accommodated than is normally the case - but that is about all. If one speaks too slowly, however, the amplitude can vary alarmingly from word to word, whilst of one speaks too quickly not only might the person listening to your message be unable to understand it, but heavily compressed (lossy) audio systems (typically current digital audio systems when used in telephony and dictation) may not contain the information carrying capacity to record what is said sufficiently well enough for it to be understood, and even if slowed down on playback – as is possible with many office dictation machines – some parts may remain incomprehensible. With interaction mediated via objects such as the telephone, for example - because one is speaking quickly, the sound quality of the telephone system is designed for people speaking at a normal volume and a normal rate, the person on the other end of the line may experience “pressure of speech” and might ask the speaker to slow down as they can’t make out what they’re saying. This might place additional stress on the person, making slowing down even more difficult for them. The person on the other end of the line may automatically speed up in an attempt to keep up or may deliberately slow down, in an attempt to calm the other person – who is perceived as being stressed – down. In the case of telephone answering machines, it is not possible to get the person to slow down, although one might decide to telephone them in order to ascertain exactly what they said. For important situations, it is possible to repeat playing the recording over and over until most of the words are understood, but it is not generally possible to slow the sound down as an aid to compensability – a technique often available in dictation. In dictation, one can repeat the message, play it more slowly, etc., so that generally one has no need to approach the speaker about it. With computer-based dictation, it may also be possible to adjust the frequency response to make speech sounds clearer, and even to adjust the speed without changing the pitch (or vice-versa.) With a dictation machine – especially one that is computer-based, time can be much more malleable, but this is not available in real time during one to one interactions between individuals. Significant deviations from normal speaking rates can be a cause for much hilarity and ridicule, but they can also make communication extremely difficult and inefficient. With more flexible, adaptive technology, people that find themselves outside the norms of society for short or even extended periods of time could find means of expression that allow them to be much more productive and efficient and find themselves once again valued within society. The recognised advantages of alacrity of thought that high levels of stress can bring in the short-term can be exploited to address real issues in a professional and mature manner; dealing with the stress via the stressors rather than making it a separate issue, divorced from the stressors that lie at its foundations, and as a consequence leading to a long-term solution rather than a short-term fix. Cognitive Existence Misalignment Object-mediated interactions such as answering and dictation machines, voice mail and email allow individuals to interact from different points in space and time. The potential delay between the message and the response allows those who are thinking more slowly time to construct a suitable return message. Real-time interaction across space – the first telepresence systems – were with drums and fire and smoke, but it was with the invention and adoption of the telegraph that messages could suddenly be sent to and received from thousands of miles away virtually instantaneously. With each electrical impulse sent down the wire at around a third of the speed of light, a message could be sent a thousand miles in less than twenty milliseconds, so that to those in communication it felt as if they were together occupying the same virtual reality – neither in one’s reality nor the others. The telephone extended this to form a primitive form of Acoustic Holodeck in sound, in which the two participants perceived themselves as being both in their own single environments and in their joint acoustic environment. If one is relaxing at home or in a busy shop whilst the other is driving a car, the cognitive mismatches can lead to a significant deterioration in the driving performance of the driver, and significantly increased risk of crashing or causing an accident. However, what does all this talk of virtual reality and telepresence have to do with communicating via telephones and videophones with people who are experiencing slight or severe memory problems? Well, the sense of detachment that the acoustic telepresence of a telephone allows assists a person with slight memory problems in accepting the attempts at prompting or the reminders that friends and relatives might give them, both to help them and to convince them that they are not as capable as they once were. Similarly, although both parties may be in the same virtual reality acoustically, a person who, owing to severe autobiographical memory creation difficulties is living mostly in their memory, can focus on the conversation and their own reality system without being faced with constant cues that their internal reality is not correct – the person has aged beyond what the currently being relived memory would indicate, for example. Through the simple act of divorcing the voice from the physical presence and the cognitive threat that it represents, it is possible to have a more powerful and meaningful interaction with the individual than would normally be the case in person. This allows both space and tome to be much more malleable than normal - along with life and death, real and memory, past and present, yesterday and today, so that the person who can no longer form real yesterdays can live more comfortably and with more reassurance in the past, with that little bit of present that does exist being used to allow them to be as free from worry and insecurity as possible. Telephones are not the way to explain to them what is happening to them – if there ever is a way. Where unusual interactions with objects can product paranoid ideations that a number of people are working against you some manner, when interacting on a one on one basis through telephone, voicemail, etc., the general conspiracy theory finds less support. Ironically, it is often when interacting with a number of friends or relatives directly that the conspiracy theories common to interaction with objects resurface – largely because, just as you appear to act strangely in their eyes, they begin to act strangely in response towards you. |
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Misalignment in Direct Interaction with Others As in other cases, misalignment in direct interactions with others is normally based upon pre-existing stresses and increases in speed or sensitivity under stress. When speed changes are experienced over a prolonged period of time, the mind/brain has time to adapt to the change whilst at the same time others that one comes into contact with are not so adapted. Similarly others are not so adapted for any increased or decreased sensitivity. Sensory Magnitude Misalignment The most common form of sensory magnitude misalignment in direct interaction with others is when hearing begins to deteriorate – most often in late middle age – and one begins to have difficulty making out what other people are saying in social situations. One to one conversations in relatively quiet environments are still normally ok, but problems occur when trying to converse with groups of people in more noisy social environments such as restaurants and bars. The tendency to speak more loudly in social situations as one’s hearing sensitivity falls may be perceived as one being “loud” and “obnoxious,” whilst others may appear to be whispering in front of you, as they happily converse with other around them but their efforts to converse with you are reduced. “Hard of hearing paranoia” sets in when you begin to assume that they are talking about you and leaving you out of proceedings. With you talking too loudly, your friends will often appear slightly annoyed each time that you try to make conversation, making it seem that they don’t want to hear what you have to say, whilst in fact they are most likely finding the loudness of your speech annoying. It is also likely that, as you haven’t been fully engaged in discussions, your comments are at least a little behind and out of sync. with the current topic of conversation, so that when they do make the effort to listen to what you have to say they often find it either obvious or just a repetition of what has been already said - making them even less likely to listen to you in future. Although they may be your friends, few people like to tell someone that they think that there is something wrong with their hearing – even if it is a simple matter of having their ears syringed… To the person at the centre of the perceptual misalignment, friends and acquaintances are treating them differently, and whispering in front of them, glaring at them, but nobody will tell them why. In contrast, if someone explained to them what seemed to be happening they would then have the opportunity to think about this alternative explanation and have their hearing checked out by a doctor or audiologist. Perceptual Speed Misalignment It can be very stressful and tiring to be in the company of someone who is thinking and talking much more quickly than normal. Whilst, for short periods of time, it might seem enjoyable and invigorating, one soon grows tired of the effort required to keep up. Medical terms for the subjective nature of mania and hypomania include “racing thoughts,” “pressure of speech” and “flight of ideas.” Issues which seem clearly and obviously connected to the person in a state of heightened awareness and speed of thought may seem very loosely connected - if at all – to others in a more normal level of consciousness. At this stage, patronising comments only serve to add further stress and so exacerbate the problem. Stress management does not need to be patronising - the most effective stress management process is to use rational thought and to identify and deal with the underlying stressor that has placed the individual under such a large amount of stress in the first place. Often this may be deeply buried, but in trying to address the symptoms of high stress levels without also tackling the cause, although it might seem to be the easiest way forward, a feeling of helplessness is engendered in the individual, and of the situation being out of their control. Although easier in the short–term from the doctor’s viewpoint, this leads to longer-term and more deeply rooted problems than addressing the primary cause and the resultant symptoms together from the outset. The mind/brain has great difficulty in dealing with irrationality, and if it is introduced into the treatment regime early on the consequences are likely to be long-term. Cognitive Existence Misalignment With severe memory problems, objects can take on magical properties, and telephone conversations ca easily be placed within an alternate reality that best fits with the needs of a mind struggling to cope with major underlying memory problems. However, in direct one-to one conversation within a room or hospital setting, for example, those who try to get someone to remember things which just aren’t there any more, or those who try to hold conversations as normal, who aren’t experiencing the same are such severe memory problems, can lead to great difficulty for the mind/brain trying to make sense of the world without having to come to terms with the fact that its performance has been greatly damaged by the failure of a unit vital to normal functioning. The very normality and reality of the situation stands against the thoughts that the mind/brain generates in an attempt to explain how the situation is perceived without acknowledging the hole in memory between past and present that grows bigger and bigger day by day, yet the very hole within which others around you learn facts about you and your past which no-one could have told them but yourself – therefore they must be secret agents, who have got hold of all your secret documents and can somehow see inside your very thoughts. Such thoughts must pass by when one speaks of the past in conversation to those around you and then minutes later they repeat most secret things which you never remember having told anyone. More and more instances must appear almost magical, but at a deeper level the mind/brain begins to realise that it has suffered a major, permanent and catastrophic failure. Being in the company of others who have other, generally less major cognitive difficulties leads to a clear trail of evidence of one’s own problems which the mind/brain can gradually piece together through memory processes even though new autobiographical memories cannot be formed – otherwise, without any memory function at all, there would be no reason for awareness to change from day to day, week to week, month to month. Many seemingly lost cognitive functions can be recovered - even relearned to an extent - and less major ones can be circumvented using mnemonics and other aide memoir such as lists, notepads, diaries, etc... With these, the resilient mind/brain can find purpose to continue. However, if enough functioning is lost, or if the overall functioning is catastrophically affected, and the mind/brain becomes aware of this, it may decide, upon recognising the extent of the trauma, to shut down, in which instance the person typically falls into a coma and then death. These are extreme circumstances, however, and if some or all function can be returned the motivation of this is often enough to lead the person towards regaining a relatively full and active life. |
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Recalibration Processes for Sensory, Perceptual & Cognitive
Realignment As the human body grows, develops and ages, the mind/brain, sensory and nervous systems have to continually adapt to this changing environment. At the same time, the world outside the body changes day by day and, once again the human being adapts. As the muscles and sensors age, along with central nervous system, the mind/brain continually finds new ways to allow its overall performance to remain relatively undiminished. The mind/brain is therefore a highly flexible, highly adaptive control system, which can maximise the efficiency of the body and sensors in times of emergency in order to obtain and process the most information possible. Recalibration processes are continually taking place as the mind and body adapts to changes of circumstance and with age. Short-term, focused stresses and stressors can be handled and dispatched efficiently and with ease. However, stressors which are longer-term in nature and which have not been resolved can leave the body in a state of readiness to which the mind, unable to resolve the situation, has become adapted. It is precisely because the state is non-resolvable that the mind elects to ignore it until further information becomes available. So the peripheral nervous system and the sensors (sense organs) are in a fight or flight mode whilst the central nervous system is in a state of denial (a coping strategy.) How does this mismatch manifest itself? First, the mind/brain carries on regardless, assuming that everything is normal. However, the sensory, perceptual and cognitive inputs are not normal, and so they invoke a “mismatch” signals in the mind/brain, indicating that there is something strange about the situation. The over-sensitive systems, still waiting for a fight or flight response, stream far more information than they normally would to the mind/brain which, because it is trying to ignore the un-resolvable stressor, attributes the sense of strangeness to the actions of others – as already discussed in some detail previously. The mind/brain lacks a solution; either to the original stressor or to the new issues that the externally attributed perceptual misalignment processes present it with. These new issues act as further stressors, causing the largely unacknowledged stress response to heighten further and hence the perceptual misalignment process to form a wider gulf between thought processes and reality. The fact that these thoughts might be unlikely is not lost, but simply adds to the stress, with no other more reasonable explanation being made available. In the absence of information, and when adapted to ignore an issue that it believes it can’t currently resolve, the analytical power of the mind/brain can form a powerful weapon against itself which, in the wrong situation, can lead to extremes of stress and confused and extremely paranoid behaviour within days. The solution, as almost always, is to find a reason for perceptions to have become so distorted, to identify the root cause – that is, the underlying stress (whether it can be removed yet or not) and to discuss how the heightened experiences it engenders can lead to the perceptual distortions experienced – that there is a rational explanation for how you feel, not that you are going mad but that you are experiencing a perceptual misalignment process which is having the consequence of placing you under ever greater amounts of stress. Note that the initial stressor may appear quite trivial, but the important issue is not how major it is but whether rational processes from the viewpoint of the person experiencing the stress can fully resolve it, or whether the mind/brain is forced to bury it with the intention of subsequently analysing it when more information is available. Over time the stressor is separated from the stress it has generated and perceptual misalignment results. Once the mind/brain has been shown a rational explanation for what it has experienced, it typically locks on to it extremely quickly, and much of the paranoia disappears. It is also, of course, important to begin to address the underlying stressors, but often much of the stress experienced by this stage has been induced by the overlying perceptual misalignment process, and the underlying stressor may even be resolved to an extent by the very act of directly addressing the perceptual misalignment process. However, if the mind/brain has itself suffered a major cognitive failure – such as the inability to store new autobiographical memories – it is not unusual that the mind/brain may decide to shut down if it realises what the problem is and that the situation is irrecoverable, so very careful management is required of people who are suffering certain types of severe and permanent brain damage. |
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One of the most common underlying themes in discussing paranoia is that it is at best an excessive response to a known stressor and at worst an out of control response to an imagined stressor. This paper has aimed to show that even the most extreme forms of paranoia may have a rational explanation and thus may be open to rational discussion, using the externalised perceptual misalignment hypothesis. The human body, controlled by the central and peripheral nervous systems, forms a highly adaptive and delicate balance between the central and peripheral nervous systems, the sensory-motor organs and the rest of the human body. Sometimes, owing to a physical or mental disability or syndrome, these are out of balance from before or within a few years after birth, due to misalignments between this structure and the requirements of the modern world. Yet with time and appropriate assistance from others the difficulties such issues can produce can lead these individuals to rare insights and sensitivity. Other balance issues can arise during the transition into thinking in language and the later completion of this transition when the adolescent is required to move into adulthood. Although help is available early in this process, by late adolescence the mental structures of the central nervous system are almost fully formed, and so it is very difficult to accommodate major shifts in perception without undergoing major and highly traumatic psychological experiences. Until recent history, human beings did not often live beyond fifty years of age. As a consequence, one would expect that physical shifts through ageing and extended use within the sensory-motor systems and physical structure of the body would lead to more general cause of physical deterioration-related paranoia, yet it is also the case that for many, the harsh working lives of a century ago meant that they took on what for us would be the appearance of seventy-year-olds in their early fifties. It has also been shown that, although typist’s sight and speed of response might be poorer in their sixties than those of a teenager, they can normally exploit their greater experience to read ahead and plan their movements better – allowing them to keep up. In a sense, humans being very often seem to leave something in reserve. However, it is also true that as a particular sense continues to deteriorate; a stage is reached at which new strategies can no longer be found to reliably overcome the deficiencies without acknowledging the failing sense. Approaching this point, an offset can be reached between the conscious mind - which believes that the sense is still working well and experiences it as such - and the rest of the nervous system, which is fighting hard to maintain performance. The conscious mind is being asked to accept a major jump for that sense from “working normally” to “severely degraded performance.” In the case of the sense of hearing, for example, the demand might be to learn to, or to acknowledge that you have been to some extent, lip-reading, for example. Going from apparently excellent to significantly degraded hearing in a single step without any obvious cause is very difficult for the mind/brain to accept – certainly when people around seen to be behaving differently – whispering, giving you annoyed looks, etc. – something is going on, but you don’t know what, and there’s a secret that they are sharing that they won’t tell you. Without reason, everything is unreasonable; people are behaving unreasonably; why would one suspect one’s hearing when it has apparently been working well right up to this point? It doesn’t make sense. Another area of modern life in which the mind/brain has to cope with conditions which are significantly different from those of our distant ancestors is in the field of information content, quality and consistency. In the past, a lot of reliable information was available, but much wasn’t relevant to the situation at hand and so could be ignored. With the development of sophisticated language and symbolic communication skills more and more information came to be available, but often with little if any relevance to a particular situation of interest. The more recent widespread development of information technology to display and transmit even more information more rapidly and efficiently than ever before has led to the situation in which the mind/brain is being forced to routinely disregard more and more, less relevant, information than ever before. That is, there is a vast amount of typically non-relevant information pouring into our minds which must be efficiently processed and dealt with. Being forced to process signals which often have a high information content but which are normally not of great relevance makes the mind/brain efficient but it also runs the risk that significant unresolved inputs can lead to high levels of unresolved an typically unresolvable stress. Unresolved stress can lead to a dichotomous situation in which the mind/brain has become acclimatised to the level of stress and is consciously ignoring it but the peripheral nervous system and the rest of the body are still experiencing the high and prolonged level of stress. This leads to a divergence between what the mind/brain is experiencing and what the peripheral nervous system and the rest of the body are reporting back to the mind/brain, with the consequence that the resultant mismatch is externalised, leading to further sensory, perceptual or cognitive errors and secondary stressors. Secondary stressors, whilst they may be treated are, by definition, not resolvable until the causes of the primary stressors are addressed. Therefore, prolonged unresolved stress can lead to stress propagating across a range of sensory, perceptual and cognitive systems until the individual is under extremely high levels of stress and, with no clear view of the cause, no easy and rational way to resolve the situation. Sensory and peripheral nervous systems can be pushed to the limits of their sensitivity in an attempt to make sense, leading to cognitive disturbances and, ultimately, delusions, hallucinations and a form of sensory, perceptual, cognitive overload known as breakdown. Still with no rational explanation, though, so that any recovery is never complete but always ignoring the very things that led to that situation in the first place. Instead, if it proves possible to identify what has happened and to explain it in rational, reasonable terms, point by point, stage by stage, then it should be possible to teach a person who has experienced such trauma that there was a reasonable explanation for their actions, that there are techniques which can be applied to avoid suffering the same outcome in the future, and that often it is fear of the unknown that is the most terrifying thing. Instead of continuing to be afraid and simply avoiding similar situations, a new approach of addressing these issues head on and recognising and dealing with related situations early on is applied, empowering the individual and, over the longer term, further empowering society. The externalised perceptual misalignment hypothesis forms a framework within which that which has previously been considered unreasonable and irrational may be explained and understood, and a method through which previously unresolved stresses and traumas may be addressed and primarily treated in a reasoned, measured fashion, rather than being treated exclusively via limited secondary processes such as relaxation, mediation, massage and exercise – all good things in themselves for coping with stress, but not actually focusing upon the cause of the stress – the stressor – itself. With more extensive experience of applying the externalised perceptual misalignment hypothesis will come ever better and more effective treatments, and with effective treatment comes increased impetus for early diagnosis and treatment. A combination of effective treatment and the previous rebalancing processes which served as the only treatments available is likely to help prevent any recurrence, and if there is any, the new focussed support that this will provide should allow sufferers to recover quickly and completely. It is possible that in this modern information-filled world related pro-active schools’ programmes will become available to prevent such stress-related illnesses from even happening in the first place – but this is probably in the longer term. |
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