Paul Nervy Notes
“Jokes, poems, stories, and a lot of philosophy, psychology, and sociology.”


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Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  .This section is about causes of psycho-pathology.  ---  1/24/2006


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Anything can go wrong with anyone's body at anytime.  Anything can go wrong with anyone's mind at anytime.  Its nobody's fault.  It's just life.  But both are medical emergencies.  ---  11/14/1998


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Causes of psychopathology.  (1) Environment.  Natural environment.  Man made environment.  (2) Other people.  Lack of good relationships (neglect).  Bad relationships (abuse).  (3) Self caused.  Self preventable.  (4) Issues of sleep, diet and exercise.  (5) Chronic vs. mild.  Acute vs. severe.  ---  6/12/2005


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Causes.  (1) The time and development factor.  Some things fester and grow worse.  (2) The chain effect.  Event screws up head, which causes another event, which screws up head worse, etc.  (3) The observer bias effect.  Observer notices problem and so acts cruel and exacerbates problem for individual instead of reducing it.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Decay through mental neglect occurs quickly and easily for some.  Others actually keep growing despite neglect.  ---  12/30/1995


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Development of neurosis in kids vs. adults; rich vs. poor; dumb vs. intelligent.  (1) Kids vs. adults.  One reason kids develop psychological problems is because kids are too stupid to fight back against what is wrong.  Also kids have little power to fight back against what is wrong.  Psychologists help us go back and see the injustice, re-evaluate it with an adult mind, re-fight it as adults, and vent our anger and sadness.  When we repress as adults we are suffering not from an inability to face, fight, and solve the problem (or injustice), and vent the just anger and sadness (like a child), but rather an unwillingness to.  The fight for justice leads to a healthy mind.  Don't repress.  And don't be stupid.  (2) Intelligent vs. stupid.  The intelligent mind generates more thoughts (and thus emotions) to repress, and thus can nuts from that.  But the stupid (and insensitive) mind does not have the brain power to recognize, figure out, and solve injustices in thought and action, and thus can go nuts from that.  The stupid mind cannot repress, only a smart mind can fool itself.  But the stupid mind can suffer mentally from injustices that it cannot fight due to its ignorance (like a child).  Get smart.  Be honest with yourself.  When you start lying to others, it becomes easier to start lying to yourself, and mental illness can start here as well.  (3) Rich vs. poor.  The rich are fearful of the masses.  The rich are fearful of losing what they have.  The rich are self-repressive in not wanting to offend and thus lose all they have.  The rich are self-repressive in their excessive manners.  The above factors contribute to repression and mental illness in the rich.  The poor just plain suffer from neglect and abuse.  The often have low self esteem from holding what society views as a low position.  They also have little access to education.  They often live in bad environments.  These factors contribute to mental illness in the poor.  ---  12/14/1988


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Environment and experience.  (1) Abuse.  (A) Physical abuse: hitting, grabbing, spanking.  (B) Verbal and emotional abuse: threats.  (2) Neglect: emotional neglect, intellectual neglect, and material neglect.  Having poor models.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  G made the mistake of thinking psycho-pathology was all hereditary and biochemical, and that prescription drugs were the answer.  Instead of realizing a big part is environmental.  (A) Like who you interact with.  Stay away from assholes, jerks, nuts, and dopes.  Don't be alone.  Find good, healthy, ethical, smart people.  (B) And how you behave.  Mental hygiene.  Devoting time to mental health work.  Brain work.  (C) And how you "mind".  Psychological therapies like cognitive therapy (how you view world), behavior therapy, and psychoanalysis (thinking about past and future).  ---  06/05/1997


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Learned: from culture vs. from specific personal instances.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Many people think (ha!) or feel (ha!) that most psycho-pathology has to do with problems with our ability to think and feel.  I here now suggest that these problems are actually caused by a defect in our ability to remember what we once thought or felt.  Memory is an important and often overlooked mental ability that is often involved in psycho-pathology.  (2) Problems that we think are caused by an inability to think and feel are often caused by an inability to remember thoughts and feelings.  So we should treat these problems by treating our ability to remember.  To improve the condition we should improve our memory, and also give people time to remember.  I am talking not just about Freudian repression as a problem of memory.  I am talking of biochemical states that impede memory.  ---  12/2/2001


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Organic, physical causes.  (1) Genetic: inherited vs. mutation.  (2) Developed: early or late, temporary vs. permanent.  (3) Caught: from environmental physical agents ingested.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Overbearing parents and sensitive artistic child.  It can be a parent that is overbearing, or some group in society, or the society in general.  The individual does not have to be an artist, they can be any fragile individual.  The effect is not only that of super-ego (norms and roles) on a fragile ego.  It is worse.  They are devaluing the individual, and destroying self identity and destroying the will.  ---  11/8/1998


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Poverty can contribute to psychological decay.  Uh oh.  ---  04/30/1993


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Seldom discussed causes of common minor pathological psychological states.  (1) No friends.  Or pathological friends.  (2) Lack of love.  (3) Disorganized ideas.  From not writing down notes.  (4) Forgetting.  Memory problems.  (5) Ignorance.  Lack of education (finding out).  (6) Neglecting philosophy and deep thinking (figuring out).  ---  11/1/1998


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Stress.  What kind of stress will drive a fragile person into what kind of pathological mental state and behavior?  For example, stresses like rejection by women, being dumped by a girlfriend, getting fired, death of a loved one, etc. can cause effects or reactions in psychologically fragile people like anxiety, depression, fear, suicide, drug addiction, mental shutdown, fetal position, stupid decisions, anti-social behavior, etc.  ---  11/30/1997


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Subconscious issues and questions depressing me in my youth (age 13 - 21).  (1) Can I get free from my parents?  Those well meaning neurotics (everyone being neurotic).  (2) Can I get a job I can live with (enjoy and make money)?  (3) Can I (A) Get away from the assholes, and (B) Find any cool people?  (4) Can I get good sex without having to put up with a bitchy woman (i.e. find a good woman)?  Can I get away from a grindstone of a system?  Can I survive without being degraded by the system (like school and work)?  ---  11/08/1993


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Tenents of pathological psychology.  (1) Small psychological problems can snowball into major pathological conditions.  (2) The small problems can be prevented, or nipped in the bud, thus avoiding major pathological conditions.  (3) Pathological conditions can be experientially or environmentally caused, by factors such as abuse, lack of development of social skills, and lack of development of coping skills.  Others wrongly believe that major and minor pathological psychology is 100% biochemically caused, and unavoidable or unpreventable.  ---  3/30/1998


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  The hope is that you will develop at a rate to keep up with the challenges you are faced with.  Not given too much too soon to handle.  ---  10/3/1998


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  The inability to clear minor psychological hurdles can kill people.  The lack of simple attitude improvements can be devastating.  Small hang-ups can throw one completely off kilter.  Lots of plates need to be kept spinning in a healthy individual.  ---  12/15/1997


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  The system and the people in it can drive you crazy without them realizing they are doing it, and without them intending to do it.  Do not let them.  Do not succumb to the garbage that gets thrown.  ---  10/30/1998


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Theories on causes of mental illness.  (1) Behavioral - bad habits, conditioning.  (2) Cognitive: you learned wrong ideas, and can't figure better.  (3) Freud: childhood or trauma or pain or thought repression.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Too many people look at pathological psychology with a sense of mystery and romance.  It is very easy to drive someone crazy.  The wartime brainwashers (psychological torturers) had an effective method.  Sleep deprivation, food deprivation, physical isolation, no human contact, no sensory stimulus, mind altering drugs.  The results can be a temporary nervous breakdown or long lasting impaired ability to function.  The point is that you can do the same thing to yourself.  You can drive yourself crazy.  It is easy.  So we must guard against it.  Mental hygiene.  ---  6/15/1998


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Traumatic experience: type, degree.  Anything can be traumatic to anyone unprepared or susceptible to it.  Every man has his breaking point.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Triggers: what experience sets off a period of pathological behavior?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Various predispositions to pathological psychology: environment, experience, genetic.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Various things can conspire to make adults remain childlike and passive.  (1) Their parents raise them as little servants, and to try to keep them controllable children.  (2) They can be seduced (promises, pleasures) or threatened into inaction (physical and mental).  (3) Religion can make and keep them meek, obeying, and unthinking.  (4) Consumer culture, which wants to cater to their needs by bringing everything to them, can create a comfort culture, which can turn them and keep them sheep-like, zombie-like.  (5) For various reasons they can become repressed, looking away from self and world.  Usually to avoid pain.  (5) Rarely do you find someone who "knows what they want, and knows how to get it".  People aren't active enough in degree, frequency, or duration.  They don't think and they don't act.  Laziness.  Mental permanent vacation.  Bread and circuses.  ---  06/20/1994


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  We avoid things out of pain, and out of fear (fear as the apprehension of pain).  Thus the sensitive and fearful go nuts.  The callous and brave do not go nuts?  The callous and brave commit atrocities, or even just callous acts, that drive the sensitive and fearful nuts.  ---  11/30/1997


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  When is pathological psychology most likely to flare up?  Stress of deprivation or opposition, of long duration and intensity.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  Why people go crazy today.  (1) Drugs are readily available.  (2) Increased pressure and stress.  Stress on the job, and pressure to succeed.  (3) More freedom than ever.  Many choices.  Bewildering and overwhelming to the small minded.  (4) Religion does not work.  Most people see through it.  (5) Information overload.  You need a lot of information to survive today.  Most people do not know how to gather, organize, and store the information efficiently.  As a result, they feel depressed and anxious knowing that they are falling behind.  ---  11/30/1997


Psychology, pathological, causes.  ---  You can be of low income and survive.  It is worse to be (1) Information deprived (starved), (2) Information resistant, or (3) Not have a proactive, exploring, learning attitude.  (4) It is also bad to be mentally blocked up and rigid.  This is different from being narrow minded.  (5) Also unhealthy to be lazy, hopeless and despondent, and a reluctant thinker.  ---  12/29/1997




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Paul Nervy Notes. Copyright 1988-2007 by Paul Nervy.