Biopsychiatry Illuminated

THE CANDLELIGHT PROJECT
by Bob Collier

20 July 2003
Issue 51

This week, I take a look at what I believe is the "One Wrong Idea" behind the pseudo-science of biopsychiatry.

I discovered the concept of the "One Wrong Idea" in an article I read by a bloke called Frederick Mann. It's about how elaborate and internally consistent belief systems can be constructed from a single erroneous perception, and I've come to suspect that that's what's happened in the case of biopsychiatry.

Before I talk about how I think the concept of the "One Wrong Idea" applies to biopsychiatry, I'd like you to first consider the ideas presented here by Canadian naturopath Dr. Julie Pegg in her article "Mind-body Healing":

Mind-body Healing
by Julie Pegg ND, RPC

(Published in Insight Health magazine, October/November 1997 and Personal Success magazine, February 1999)

Many people separate the mind from the body but they are really one and the same. We think of our minds as being in our heads and our bodies beginning from the neck down. Therefore, when we get sick, we think that it has to do only with our body but not with our emotional state. We could not be further from the truth.

Research on stress and the location of the emotions

Many of us have heard about the negative effects of stress. For years now, scientists have been speaking about how stress lowers immunity and depletes our adrenal glands eventually resulting in illness. "Stress" is a general term for an emotional and physical response to an event. Thus, the mind-body research around stress is really applicable to any emotion. Other research indicates that emotions are felt in every cell of our bodies. Thus, when you are sad, the sadness is felt everywhere - in your heart, in your lungs, in your intestines... throughout your body. The same goes for other emotions such as anger, grief and joy.

Suppressing your feelings makes you sick

Many sources indicate that it is not the feeling of emotions that result in illness but rather the NOT feeling of emotions. In short, suppressing your feelings makes you sick. So, it is not the anger that makes us sick and gives us headaches and abdominal pains but rather, the not expressing the anger that does.

A lot of people are really uncomfortable with their feelings. The pain of this can be very overwhelming at times. Many of us have been brought up in homes where our feelings were not honoured and thus we now don't honour them in ourselves. When an emotion comes up, we'll talk ourselves out of it, distract ourselves with overwork, exercise, etc.

We don't feel it, we control it.

It takes an awful lot of energy to control our emotions. I often use the analogy of a volcano to describe this process. Imagine that a given emotion was like a volcano trying to erupt on you. A volcano has a lot of force and energy. In order to keep it down deep inside of you (suppression of the emotion) it takes a huge amount of counter-energy to push it down and hold it there inside of you. This is exhausting! It leaves you in a state of continual depletion. And the worst part about it is that it DOES come out. Not emotionally, but physically. It will speak through the body. Think of it as the volcanic energy needing somewhere to go. If it is stopped from coming out at the top (ie emotionally) it will come out somewhere else. It's just too big to keep down.

How to heal

Because our minds and bodies are one and the same, without addressing both aspects, full healing will not take place. We all know this intuitively. We have all the answers within us. We just need to learn to trust ourselves again. We are complete beings. We need our healing to be complete as well.

Copyright © 1997, Julie Pegg ND, RPC
Reprinted with permission.

Dr. Julie Pegg ND, RPC ©
Registered Counsellor, Naturopathic Doctor
http://www.juliepeggnd.com/

Here are a few more examples of the connection between mind and body:

"... whenever an emotion, such as fear or anger is triggered, a network of brain areas referred to as the limbic system (also called the emotional brain) generates a pattern of outputs, which cause a biologic response in the body. These responses are programmed, much like a computer program and expressed via the MindBodySpirit Communication systems of the central nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, and the neuropeptide chemical messenger systems. Facial expressions are an example of the expression of emotion in the body. All human beings produce similar expressions associated with emotions, such as fear, anger, and sadness. Other examples are tightening of the muscles associated with fear and slumping of the shoulders with sadness."

The Emotional Brain
http://www.parkviewpub.com/parksub/n5.html#pg0066

"There are many scientific experiments that demonstrate clearly that mental phenomena affect physiological phenomena. ... immune cells react to your internal dialogue, and that is one discovery in the field of medicine that emerged only in the past few decades. It's called psychoneuroimmunology.

... It has been estimated that the average human thinks about sixty thousand thoughts a day. We are bundles of conditioned reflexes that are triggered by people and circumstances into predictable outcomes of behaviour and also predictable biochemical reflexes."

- Deepak Chopra, M.D., and Leon Nacson, "How to Live in a World of Infinite Possibilities" (Rider, 1998), pp.46-47

"There are fascinating studies which show us that ageing is not a fixed phenomenon. Really, we all know it isn't. We all know people who seem 'old before their time', or sprightly older people who defy the ravages of time. But strictly controlled studies have demonstrated this very clearly. One of the most interesting studies was done at Harvard by Ellen Langer, a psychologist. In the mid-1980s, she advertised in a Boston newspaper for people over the age of 75 to participate in an experiment. These people were taken to a retreat where the environment was created to replicate that in 1959. The furniture was from this time, they watched movies from that period, and even the news from that period was provided. The reading material provided was from 1959 - there were 'Life' magazines, and so on. So all the sensory stimuli replicated those in the 1950s.

The hypothesis was that the same sensory stimulation might create the same flux of neurotransmitters and hormones as the original experience. This was based on the simple observation that we do get physical responses from imagination: if you imagine that you are eating a lemon, you'll get a flow of saliva in your mouth. And have you ever recalled an embarrassing or stressful past experience? If so, you will know that you get a surge of adrenaline through your system, or that you feel your heart pounding faster. The results in this experiment were remarkable. Within a week, several of the biomarkers that were studied had reversed. People regained flexibility in their fingers, had improved eyesight and so on. Because they were younger in 1959, and they were receiving the same mental information that they had at that time, their bodies responded accordingly."

- Deepak Chopra, M.D., and Leon Nacson, "How to Live in a World of Infinite Possibilities" (Rider, 1998), pp.59-60

This example is from the book I used as my 'parenting guide' after my daughter was born in 1985:

"Folk phrases expressing feelings in body terms are literally true." ... "People who are "on their toes", that is, alert and striving, tend to have their body weight far forward on their feet. People who do not "lose their heads", that is, who strive to stay calm, rational, and in control, tend to have tight neck muscles." ... "The widespread, accurate use of these body phrases is an indication of the unaware understanding we have of the relation between the emotional and the body levels. This relation is not mysterious. It is obvious. Most people know the connection. They simply do not realize that they know."

- Will Schutz, PhD., "Profound Simplicity" (Bantam Books, 1979), p.22

Frankly, I could continue listing examples of the reality of the mind-body connection for the next several hours - but, I think you probably already understand what this is all about.

Holism.

Holism is defined by the 2002 edition of The Penguin English Dictionary as "a view of the universe, and especially living nature, as being composed of interacting wholes that are more than simply the sum of their parts".

Here's what Will Schutz says about holism:

"One principle that is widely known and sparsely believed, is the principle that each one of us is a unified, integral organism. I am an organism who manifests through thinking, feeling, sensing and moving and who has a spiritual aspect. These are not unrelated functions. My feelings influence my thinking, my sensitivity to sensations influences my movement. Illness, too, is a manifestation of my whole being. I have integrity both in the sense of being whole and in the sense of being truthful."

- Will Schutz, PhD., "Profound Simplicity" (Bantam Books, 1979), p.17

So, how does all of this relate to biopsychiatry? I'll tell you.

While I've been exploring the subject of 'ADHD' throughout this year, I've often wondered what it is exactly that the proponents of 'ADHD' believe that I don't. When they look at the same evidence concerning the nature, development and behaviour of children as I do, what is it that causes them to interpret that evidence completely differently to the way I interpret it?

As I mentioned last week, I was on holiday in Queensland recently. While I was there, I picked up a book to read and, in that book, I just happened to discover the answer to my question.

The book is called 'The MindBody Prescription' and it was written in 1998 by John E. Sarno, M.D., a Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine.

In 'The MindBody Prescription', Dr. Sarno explains "how emotions including guilt, anxiety, depression, and low self- esteem can stimulate the brain to manufacture physical symptoms including fibromyalgia, repetitive strain injuries, migraine headaches, hay fever, colitis, ulcers, and even acne."

Dr. Sarno specializes in treating people for back pains which he believes are caused by repressed anger. Outside of his personal experiences and particular methodology, there was nothing especially new about his book. Its underlying philosophy was entirely in accordance with everything I've learned and experienced myself over the past 25 years.

However, what caught my eye, when reading the book, was that it mentioned the 'DSM-IV'.

Now, if you've read The Parental Intelligence Report on 'ADHD', you'll know about the DSM-IV (and what some people think of it!), but, if you don't know, the DSM-IV - often referred to as the 'bible' of psychiatry - is a book of descriptions, those descriptions being allegedly the symptoms of 'mental illnesses'. This 'bible' (a very apt term for it, in my opinion) was produced by the American Psychiatric Association, a body that seems to have appointed itself the 'judge and jury' of what constitutes 'normal' behaviour and what doesn't. Don't ask me why. Maybe I'll look at that some other time.

Anyway, in The MindBody Prescription, Dr. Sarno remarks upon the fact that the DSM-IV does not include the use of the word 'psychosomatic'.

'Psychosomatic' means "the production of physical symptoms or disorders by mental processes or psychological factors such as stress". It doesn't mean that an illness is imaginary or 'all in the mind', as many people seem to believe - it means that the physical illness is an 'effect' of a mental 'cause'.

Why is there no use of the word 'psychosomatic' in the DSM-IV? According to Dr. Sarno, it's because the American Psychiatric Association believes that there is no connection between emotions and illness.

That the mind and the body are separate entities.

And the most interesting thing I've discovered about all this is that psychiatry has, it seems, steadfastly maintained that idea of the separateness of mind and body for over a hundred years with no hard scientific evidence to support it, while scientific discoveries that refute the idea, in any case, have continued to proliferate and accumulate.

I wonder what the DSM-IV says about such irrational behaviour!

More next week, when I'll be taking a look at the similarities between biopsychiatry and paleontology, and - speaking of dinosaurs - at what I call the "Loch Ness Monster Argument"!

ADHD-Report.com: The concerned parents' guide to childrens' attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD/ADD)

Contact
Resources