2020 be gone!

 

This Epic Space Cloud Is Nicely Summing Up Our Farewell to 2020

Is Belief in God a Delusion?

 Is Belief in God a Delusion?

The problem with the idea is that delusions in the pathological sense are typically fearful and often involve irrational beliefs. For example believing one has supernatural powers. For a working definition think "Scientologist" and "Tom Cruise". The definition of delusion in the article is:

Delusion: A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly held despite what almost everyone else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not ordinarily accepted by other members of the person’s culture or subculture (i.e., it is not an article of religious faith).

My emphasis. 

There is no incontrovertible evidence for or against the existence of God. 

There is incontrovertible evidence that Dawkins is not a student of human perception and cognition so he is deluded when he rants about faith in god being a delusion. He has confused belief in God with religious belief. Freeman Dyson believed in God and he was regarded as the smartest man in the world. Many people from all walks of life believe in God but do not have religious beliefs. 

One could argue that many economists suffer from the delusion that they are scientists. 🤣

If sustaining a belief impairs your daily functioning and disrupts your social relationships, then your belief is more likely to count as a delusion.

That is the critical issue about delusions. Religious belief reinforces social relationships within the group however religious belief can also break social relationship beyond the group. Belief in God, which is a separate question from religious belief, does not intrinsically disrupt social relationships and does not impair daily functioning. 

 

Problematic Psychiatric Diagnosis

 As both a psychiatrist and a patient, I know how slippery a diagnosis can be

At the outset I must make this perfectly clear. Psychiatric disorders exist, have as yet an undiscovered physical substrate which may have a genetic and environmental components, typically a result of the gene and environmental interaction. Psychiatric drugs have made huge improvements to society and individuals. My focus on this post is where psychiatry and psychology needs to change. 

 The controversies surrounding psychiatric diagnosis are decades old. Thomas Szasz is the seminal figure on the issue and his work, "The Myth of Mental Illness"(1961), began a debate that continues today. Today the problem is worse. The above article is another example of how psychiatry as a profession and our culture needs to seriously reevaluate how psychiatric diagnoses are made and how psychiatric conditions are treated. 

Evolution is Depressing.

 

New Antidepressants Can Lift Depression and Suicidal Thoughts Fast, but Don’t Expect Magic Cures

Ketamine is an NMDA antagonist. I've long had concerns about using it for depression treatment because the NMDA receptors play a cardinal role in activating the CREB pathway which in turns is important for synaptic consolidation. So the long term use of ketamine, which will be required because the effect only lasts a few days, raises troubling questions about synaptic density. 

Motorcycling Macho Millennials

A Youtube channel I occasional watch is Max Wrist. The name says it all. He is a motorcyclist who likes to twist the throttle to the red line. Max Wrist is an excellent rider but he takes some dangerous risks. So it was inevitable that his recent video has been posted. He's lucky though, while his leg is smashed up the other riders involved in the accident have fared much worse, one with dangerous brain swelling that will most probably result in brain damage. 

The Removal of Dead Neurons

A remarkable video of how dead neurons are removed from the brain.

For The First Time, Scientists Have Captured Video of Brains Clearing Out Dead Neurons

A Mix of Antioxidants is Best for the Brain.

Antioxidant cocktail key to preventing Alzheimer's

No surprises here and the study linked below provides good details on how to optimise our nutrient and especially antioxidant intake to protect the brain. If it protects the brain it will confer benefits to the whole body. 

Full Text at link:

Role of antioxidants and a nutrient rich diet in Alzheimer's disease

Transcend

Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization  By Scott Barry Kaufman

SBK was a Facebook friend. I have long left Facebook. SBK was at Pennsylvania University where he lectured in Positive Psychology. He was also the founder of the Imagination Institute. So it is not surprising he is still firmly in the humanistic psychology tradition because Positive Psychology is the logical extension of many themes in humanistic psychology. 

Scott Barry Kaufman is the dream psychologist for left wingers. Jordan Peterson is the dream psychologist for right wingers. Both have enjoyed huge popular support and are regarded by their respective fans are supremely intelligent and world leading psychologists. Fans are often stupid like that. 

Free Speech is a Double Edged Sword

Singleton High School teacher apologises after racist classroom rant

The two disturbing words in this headline are "apologises" and "racist". 

It's alleged the teacher made comments about Indigenous Australians living in state housing and taking money from the government.

In this sentence the word "alleged" is used probably to protect the publisher but it is incongruous with the use of the word "racist" in the headline. If you're going to call someone a racist I can't see why the qualification "alleged" is necessary.  

"Then the teacher's turned around and said the best thing to happen to Aboriginal people is the European colonisation," Ms Franks said.

Exercise and the Endocannabinoid Network

Waking up at 3.15am and realising trying to get back to sleep is a dream I wake up and decide to see if I can wake up the brain. It woke me up with this strange idea: exercise elevates the endocannabinoid network which is one avenue by which exercise inhibits inflammation. So off to pubmed and the available data supports my intuition but the data is very limited. Only in recent years has there been renewed interest in the endocannabinoid network. Because of government prohibitions and the typical knee jerk response to anything associated with marijuana until recently the research community has been prevented from deeper investigations; the result being we have neglected one of most important networks in modulating inflammation associated with aging and especially in the brain. That is now changing but in my country Australia the government persists with a perspective that based on ignorance and arrogance. Too many stupid politicians in Australia but of course on that matter the country is not exceptional.