The Psychologists sit in their universities, and classrooms, and they ponder the machine that is themselves. They poke and prod at this unknown beast, much grander it is on the inside, than the outside. How does a 1.4kg ovaloid, contained within 1260cm, produce visions of vast entities and scapes? How is it able to simulate travel through spacetime, without changing spacetime itself? With access to a thrown together system of levers, pulleys, and ball joints, this thing can maneuver itself through spacetime, and uses these tools to prolong its own existence.
Yet, to most people, this thing remains uncontrollable for the most part. Truly, most do not acknowledge its presents outside of the classroom, and do not grok that this mass of proteins and lipids, is them.
With practice, some are able to obtain a small amount of control over their minds, and can defuse in themselves, desired states; or as some claim, a lack of desire all together. Others are able to stare at light sources, and burn images into their retina, that they manipulate into dazzling displays, only for their own exploration and curiosity.
And this is the hardware; or wetware, if you’re prefer to be accurate. We come into a world with software buzzing around us, and begin downloading and installing, the moment the photons of our mother’s face hit our first lit eyes.
Language is the installation of packages we will use to decode. Some think of language as a finger that points; they are wrong. Language-the words that make up language-are keys that unlock, and a wave that transmits the software of culture, and memes.
We can become infected by these memes, and the physical properties of our brains are changed. This change, initiated only by the transmitting of information from one being to another, from nature, the universe, an animal, and into you. You act on the world, and the world acts on you, and that cycle spins up and up, or down and down, and we have more or less control the further the spiral is allowed to travel.
Which brings us to the disorders. When the mind is spun down, and down, and is infected, or broken, we can feel pain. A disorder is a difference in the mind, that causes harm to an individual, or those around them. Some disorders are mal-defined, such as depression, a state of... well, it is hard to say; since we count so many things as depression. When in reality, depression is likely a branch of mind diseases, with causes that span from chemical input into the body, to memetic input, to genetic input.
Anorexia Nervosa; a disease of the mind, that attacks the body. We have no definite cause of the disease. We know that genetics play a role. “Twin studies have shown a heritability rate of 28–58%”. But also, “Persistent exposure to media that presents thin ideals may constitute a risk factor for body dysmorphia, leading to the development of anorexia nervosa.”. and it seems clear that some other memetic element also present. I have heard multiple anecdotal reports, of people viewing anti-anorexia educational documentaries, at home, or at school; and after realizing that starvation was a way to lose weight, developed anorexia as a result.
This illustrated the difficulty of the of job a psychologist is. A documentary made to discourage a behaviour, may cause that behaviour. We are a long way, from perfecting the art of persuasion.
