We
had a fascinating lengthy discussion on Dissociative Identity
Disorder last night in class. Coming from both a psychological and a
theological perspective I've been trying to understand the
symptomatic difference between this and classical demonic possession.
One thing which stands out is that DID doesn't develop after age
nine. Another thing is that, like with the subject last night, the
alternate identities may attempt to protect and seek help for the
host identity. And in reports of classical DP there are elements
of abilities such as superhuman strength or knowledge displayed which
the host body could not have been capable of. Further, in DID the
average number of alters is 15, whereas in DP the average is one.
Furthermore, DP can occur without any prior history of severe,
extreme trauma, whereas this is necessary for the formation of DID.
And DP can occur without warning. The key difference appears to be
the supernatural element however. Also
in classical DP as described in the New Testament and Ante-Nicene Fathers the host appears to exert no control over the body's
voice and actions, where in DID the host is one of several identities
that are displayed.
It
seems to me that the problem occurs when you diagnose as only DID
"or" DP and don't allow for the existence of both. The
other problem occurs in that there have been so many misdiagnosed by
pastors and priests as DP that were actually DID (or other mental
illnesses) that there hasn't been enough viable observation of the
differences to truly recognize DP when you see it, except perhaps for
the aforementioned obvious supernatural or superhuman symptoms.
We
were talking about Conversion Disorder the other night in class. This
is where a person may lose the use of their eyes, a limb, or other
physical ability for no explainable neural or medical condition. An
example might be a woman who walks in on her husband cheating on her
with the maid and the next morning wakes up blind. She isn't faking
it, she really can't see even though there's nothing physically wrong
with her eyes or neural circuitry. While there were a number of
students who didn't understand how that was possible, what kept
coming to my mind (from my electronics background) was a "driver
malfunction". A "device driver" is the piece of
software which allows the operating system to communicate with and
use "devices" like video cards, printers, mice, network
cards, etc. If it malfunctions, even if there's nothing physically
wrong with the hardware or the connections, the device will not work.
Driver malfunctions happen when either the driver software itself is
corrupted, or when another piece of software or coding interferes
with its regular function and it can't get past it. Conversion
Disorder sounded to me a lot like a driver malfunction in the human
brain. This then got me to thinking more about this idea. The
traditional model of how the brain works tends to be all "hardware"
based, that is, certain parts of the brain control certain functions
of the body. But the human nervous system is essentially one enormous
organic processor (neurons essentially being advanced organic
transistors and functioning roughly the same way with the added
chemical component for emotional response). And one thing about
coding is that, any function you can achieve with digital hardware
you can replicate with lines of code and a processor to run it
through. This is the reason why modern computers can function as DVD
players, CD players, radios, word processors, gaming machines, etc.
All of these functions which would otherwise be achieved through a
hard electronic circuit are achieved via lines of code. What if the
function of the human body through the nervous system is more
"software" controlled than hardware? What if there is
organic "coding" controlling the various devices and
systems of the body rather than it being all hard controller based?
This would explain a great deal as to how psychologically traumatic
events could physically affect the function of parts of the body with
no medical or neurological reason. The traumatic event acts like new
coding that interferes with the drivers and other software
responsible for the normal operation of the system. Just some
thoughts from Abnormal Psych class.
Continuing
my train of thought from my previous post... Computer code breaks
down essentially to 1s and 0s. 1 represents a switch turned on and 0
represents a switch turned off. Or another way to say it is 1
represents a single electrical pulse and 0 represents no electrical
pulse. When computer code is written, it is written in human readable
language and then that language is converted to what is called a
binary. That is, it is converted to 1s and 0s that the processor
can then use. The sensory inputs of the human body (eyes, ears,
nose, taste buds, and of course nerve endings that transmit touch
sensations) all feed directly into structures which convert those
sensations into the electro-chemical impulses which the brain can
then use and apparently stores for future use as memories. In short,
from the time those senses are brought online, the brain is being
coded on the fly and continues to be coded (programmed) throughout
the lifespan of the individual person.
In
my abnormal psych class, part of what I've been learning is the
multidimensionality of psychopathology. That is, a psychological
disorder has more than one cause. There can be several contributing
factors including biological, environmental, and psychological. As I
was finishing up Romans seven this morning, what stood out to me was
Paul's insistence that the fatal flaw clearly has a biological cause
and not a psychological one. He repeats it several times and in
several different ways that the fatal flaw resides within the
biological part of the human psyche (sarx) and not the mental
component (noos). In other words, it is genetically inherited and
doesn't skip generations.
Continuing
my thoughts from earlier, if the fatal flaw is biological in nature,
and hereditary, as St. Paul describes it in Romans 7, then it is
genetic, passed down from parent to offspring and appears to be
unique to the human species as no other animal life appears to
display its symptoms. Furthermore, if it is biological and affects
human thought, emotions, and behavior, then the fatal flaw is somehow
physiologically centered in the human central nervous system and
primarily the brain as it is the brain which regulates and directs
behavior, thought, and emotions. The question that then comes up is
what about the human brain is so very different from other animal
species? The natural answer would be the size of the frontal lobes
and the cerebral cortex in particular (as opposed to our nearest
genetic relatives, the bonobo and chimpanzee). However, dolphins
appear to have a larger cerebral cortex than we do and do not
apparently share the same fatal flaw or predisposition to
psychopathology. Among other regions, one of the more primitive
portions of the brain that is important in the role of
decision-making, motivations, and emotional control as well as the
creation of short term and long term memories is the limbic system.
Another thing we covered in abnormal psych was the ability of the
environment to change genetics through epigenetics. That the
environment of an organism can actually interfere with genetic
"switches". Putting all this together, the thought occurs
to me that whatever occurred, either the literal story of Adam and
Eve's fall regarding eating from the wrong tree, or taking this as a
metaphor for something else equally damaging, that it affected the
human genetics surrounding the limbic system of the brain which was
then passed down to all human descendants thereafter.
