The Destructiveness of Mechanistic-mystical Thinking in Psychiatry

In the lead article of the Review section, September 14-15 issue of The Wall Street Journal entitled, ‘Will Your Uploaded Mind Still Be You?’, the author, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University attempts to compare the natural science of psychiatry with the operation of a mechanical computer to provide an understanding of how the brain works. He postulates that structural causes in the brain are sufficient to explain biological functions and equates the structure of the brain with the human mind (a psychic function). As a neuroscientist, he is convinced that the brain is comparable to a computer and that “mind uploading,”…”preserving a persons consciousness in a digital afterlife,” will one day happen because “there are no laws of physics that stand in the way.” It just depends on technology that has not yet been invented.

This is an illustration of how the mechanistically oriented scientist resorts to mystical thinking to support his preformed mechanical hypothesis that requires an explanation: The neurons of the brain are “working parts” that are used over and over to “create complexity” …”Information” flows … through “vast connected networks in complex and unpredictable patterns, [somehow] creating the mind” (italics added).

The error of applying mechanistic-mystical thinking to biological functions has been a stumbling block in psychiatry for ages. It will continue until human beings are capable of thinking functionally. The error consists in believing that the structure of the brain determines its biological function. In fact, the reverse is true; biological function determines the brain’s organization. The persistence of this erroneous idea results in scientists remaining clueless about the fact that their armored way of thinking is itself a dead-end. The latest example of this mechanical thinking is that the functioning of the brain is compared to the operation of a machine-like computer.

Armored people will go to any to means to defend themselves from emotionally experiencing their biological roots even to the extent of identifying themselves with robotic computers. The destructive consequences of reducing human life to a machine passes by completely unnoticed.

September 16, 2019
Categories: American College of Orgonomy, Biological Sciences, computer science, psychiatry, Medical Sciences, Social Sciences . . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 6 Comments

Should Marijuana be Legalized?

The destructiveness of marijuana on human life requires a bio-psychiatric understanding of the distinction between emotions and sensations and the drug’s effect on them. Marijuana selectively blocks the perception of emotions but not the perception of sensations. This is how the drug puts the user in a chronic state of emotional cluelessness. As a result, the user is relieved of experiencing anxiety and other painfully disturbing emotions. This selective numbing effect of emotions gives rise to the popular misconception that marijuana a just a recreational drug and is not harmful to health. In fact, it’s effect is to eliminate the emotional life of the user and is exactly why it is so destructive to human life.
Popularizing the myth that marijuana is harmless sidesteps the underlying emotional and social consequences that centers around the universal disturbance of human sexuality,the conflict resulting from the adolescent’s sexual push meeting their armor in today’s anti-authoritarian social order. The conflict results in the widespread sexual dissatisfaction and social disruption that we are increasingly seeing in people today. It is the underlying reason that people resort to drugs including marijuana.
This combined with the widespread public misinformation in the world about the sexual function itself, it is not possible for any young person today to have any genuine guidance about the sexual problems in his personal life. This widespread ignorance on the part of the general public exacerbates people’s sexually based misery and contributes to their need to find ways on their own to alleviate their suffering. By deadening emotions, marijuana puts an end to the users sexual misery and provides him with a substitute existence that is free of emotional pain. But the drug does this at the cost of cutting the person off from having emotional contact with his biological core. This problem is the underlying, unstated reason that drives a large segment of the public and legislators to promote the legalization on marijuana. It is a manifestation of the emotional plague.
Evasion and ignorance of the sexual origin of the marijuana and other drug related problems keeps people from effectively addressing them. It turns marijuana into a political sideshow – another symptom of the emotional plague.
The exacerbation of the marijuana problem is another manifestation of our anti-authoritarian social order. The drug puts the user in a state of emotional cluelessness in his relationships with important people in his life including those in authority. It puts the user in an anxiety-free state of laid- back, complacency and renders him vulnerable when dangerous situations arise. Cut off from his emotions, and clueless about the many destructive events that are happening around him, he is left at the mercy of his intellect to survive.
To add to the confusion, the highly destructive medical and psychiatric side-effects of the drug are consistently ignored by the public and the media.
The forces of the emotional plague are actively agitating to have this highly destructive substance legalized so that it can be readily available to the public. A sure-fire indication that the emotional plague is operative in this battle on legalization of marijuana is that “you’re damned if you oppose it and you’re damned if you don’t.” No matter what decision is made about the marijuana problem, the person is left feeling stymied. If the drug is not legalized, a huge black market is created with all the potential social and criminal consequences. If it is legalized, a message is sent out that it is harmless and should be made available in the free market. In the former course, society is functioning in an authoritarian manner resulting in the predictable rebelliousness of leftist-indoctrinated young people. In the latter course, society is functioning in an anti-authoritarian manner and neglecting the rational guidance and education that people sorely need about the harmfulness of this substance.

August 13, 2017
Categories: American College of Orgonomy, anti-authoritarian transformation, Biological Sciences, emotional health, emotional plague, marijuana legalization, Politics, social orgonomy, socio-political character . . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 2 Comments

The Function of the U.S. Constitution

The following excerpt is from my forthcoming book, “Clueless”

“The U.S. Constitution was written in 1787 by some of the finest minds that the world had to offer. It’s function was to protect the life of the American people against the destructive forces contained within them. Thus, even without knowledge of human armor,the writers were aware of the existence and the destructive consequences of the emotional plague. It was expected that future generations would retain and develop it’s fundamental principles when new understanding of human life became available.

However, the required knowledge of biological functions was not forthcoming until almost 200 years later with the sciences of biological and social orgonomy. Meanwhile, the gap in the Constitution’s understanding of human life functioned as a block. It’s interpretation and the meaning of it’s wisdom were placed in the hands of the general public. Based on differences in their character structure, their perspectives differed. Today, people still continue to be divided about the interpretation of the document when problems of governance arise that need to be settled. On one hand are the Originalists who interpret the Constitution verbatim as stable from the time of it’s enactment. On the other, are those who view it as a flexible document that can be interpreted differently depending on the whims of the individual and on social circumstances.

Now, for the first time in it’s history, the Constitution and the amendments to it in the Bill of Rights can be understood functionally from the perspective of social orgonomy (see chapter 3) Applying this knowledge to the Constitution helps to provide the document with a unified, natural scientific basis for governance.”

June 20, 2017
Categories: American College of Orgonomy, Biological Sciences, character structure, emotional health, emotional plague, Politics, social orgonomy, Social Sciences, socio-political character, Wilhelm Reich . Tags: , . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 7 Comments

The Natural Function of a Political Leader

A political leader such as The President of the United States is a person whose natural executive function is increasingly becoming unclear. This is because the rational, core function of politics which is the science of governing people, is being confused with irrational expectations and needs of a clueless, emotionally sick public.

Examples of rational, core executive functions include safeguarding people’s independence, freedom and responsibility. Examples of irrational, destructive executive functions include catering to the public’s pathological helplessness and dependency needs which,in effect, is a self-serving, “political” tactic. The political left has perfected the art of welfare politics. Having nothing better to offer, the right is quickly learning to playing catch up. The focus of looking for political solutions is the reason that politicians are losing people’s respect.

But politics can never be the answer. Knowledge of people’s underlying socio-political character structure is essential because it helps to distinguish between the primary, rational functions that people can expect from their political leaders versus their own irrational, secondary, destructive drives and need to be taken care of which they project onto them. This crucial distinction is obscured by the endless ideological battles between the political left and the right. This is a manifestation of social armor.

Without making this distinction, politics degenerates into “socio-politics,” a spectacle that we are witnessing in today’s election year. The cluelessness of the politician regarding his natural function as political leader is a symptom of the same cluelessness of the public that elects him.

In selecting a president, the key question becomes: Is there a candidate that protects the functions of independence, freedom, and responsibility of the American people?

February 28, 2016
Categories: accurate diagnosis, Biological Sciences, character structure, emotional plague, Politics, Social Sciences, socio-political character . Tags: , , , . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 5 Comments

How People Become Radicalized

To be radicalized the individual must shift from the social mainstream to the political extremes either to the left or the right. To understand how people become radicalized, knowledge of their character structure and of their emotional functions are essential.

In general, people who become radicalized to the political right are raised in strict authoritarian families which results in the repression of child’s sexual feelings during childhood and adolescence. The person’s loyalty and respect for the authoritarian father is absolute. In varying degrees, as a result of sexual repression, the child loses contact with his sexual feelings which are then misperceived in an otherworldly, mystical fashion. These are the young people who become Islamic fascists attracted to jihadism and the Islamic State.

When the authoritarian Muslim families and their society are torn apart as in times of war in the Middle East, many children are often left fatherless and adrift. They are the ones likely to fall prey to Imams and jihadist ideologues who begin their indoctrination process by befriending and comforting them. By taking on the role of substitute fathers, these emotional plague characters provide young people with the guidance and love that they long for. Once they have gained the young people’s trust, they are in a position to inculcate mystical ideas of happiness in the afterlife by doing Allah’s wishes and joining a holy war against the hated non-believers.

Another source of potential jihadists are the endless supply of sexually dissatisfied wayward people from anti-authoritarian Western families who seek revenge on the world for their personal misfortunes by joining the Islamic State.

In the Fort Hood Army base and the San Bernardino massacres, some of the Muslims were raised in the free world and in their youth despite their religious upbringing seemed to be impervious to jihadist ideology. In later life, their latent, mystical feelings surfaced and took hold of them turning them into mass killers. Most likely, they were paranoid schizophrenic characters who had unrecognized homicidal tendencies.

It does not matter if the terrorists are imported or home grown.
What matters is that young people’s underlying, pent-up sexual energy is a powerful force that leads them to seek jihadism as a solution to their personal emotional problems. This central fact must first be acknowledged and addressed before worldwide jihadism can be contained and eradicated.

December 12, 2015
Categories: accurate diagnosis, Biological Sciences, emotional plague, Politics, socio-political character . Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 5 Comments

What Happened to the Middle East?

As recently as 50 years ago, the Middle East consisted of a number of stable countries controlled by authoritarian dictators where Arabs and non-Arabs generally lived peacefully together. Today, many of these countries are losing their identity as separate nations. The entire area is becoming enveloped in chaos and much of the population is fleeing into Europe and beyond as radical Islamic terrorists are murdering anyone who stands in their way.
Current attempts to understand the reason for this disaster are inadequate because people have no knowledge of the underlying forces at work. The explanations only recognize what is happening on the social surface not on a bio-social, core level. An example of such an attempt at understanding given recently is to blame “civilization’s failure either to overcome or to accommodate the forces of modernity.”
Let us begin by asking another question: What happened to the so-called Arab Spring movement that was supposed to bring democracy to the Middle East and elsewhere? While it may have ended the regimes of secular strongmen in those countries it did not result in expected democratization in any of them. In fact, there has been more violence, chaos and less democracy than there was before the start of the Arab Spring.
Largely unrecognized is that the widespread destructiveness that is happening in the Middle East and Africa today is the direct result of the breakdown of the authoritarian structure of society into anti-authoritarianism that began in the West around 1960 and has spread like wildfire throughout the entire world including the Middle East.
A related question is the following: How can the Arab population in the Middle East who have lived under extreme authoritarian, often tribal conditions for centuries and who belong politically to the far right of center be realistically expected to function overnight in a way similar to people living in a modern, Western-style liberal democracy? This question which goes to the heart of the Arab Spring problem stems from the liberal’s mystical belief in the perfectibility of man through social and political intervention. It is mystical because what is expected is totally unrealistic. This is the belief of liberalism, a secularized version of the idea of salvation through divine intervention that is held by religious mystics on the political right. But from what has happened in the Middle East this form of mystical thinking is clearly far more socially destructive when it comes from the left.

November 11, 2015
Categories: Biological Sciences, emotional plague, Politics, Social Sciences, socio-political character . Tags: , , . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: Leave a comment

What is Functional Thinking?

Q. What is functional thinking?
A. Functional thinking is thinking according to the way nature functions.
Q. Who discovered functional thinking?
A. Functional thinking was discovered by Wilhelm Reich M.D.
Q. What is the importance of functional thinking?
A, Functional thinking provides a way to integrate all the natural sciences into a unified body of knowledge.
Q. What is the difference between functional thinking and ordinary thinking?
A. Ordinary thinking is either mechanistic or mystical.
Q. What is mechanistic thinking?
A. Mechanistic thinking is thinking about nature as if it were a machine.
Q. What is mystical thinking?
A. Mystical thinking is thinking as if there was a purpose to nature.
Q. What’s wrong with thinking mechanistically and mystically about nature?
A. Since nature does not operate like a machine and since it has no purpose, mechanistic/mystical thinking cannot provide a satisfactory understanding of how nature operates. Furthermore, erroneous mechanistic/mystical thinking often has destructive consequences.
Q. How does mechanistic/mystical thinking work?
A. When mechanistic thinking fails to provide a satisfactory understanding of nature, mystical thinking enters to provide a purpose to what is left to be understood.
Q. What is an example of mechanistic/mystical thinking?
A. An example is the statement: The heart pumps blood in order to bring oxygen to the tissues of The body. First, the heart is compared to a mechanical pump. Then, a purpose is given to explain why the heart pumps blood.
Q. What is the functional understanding of this example?
A. The function of biological pulsation defines the goal of bringing oxygen to the tissues.
Q. Where can I learn more about functional thinking?
A. The American College of Orgonomy gives a course on functional thinking to qualified students.

September 24, 2015
Categories: Biological Sciences, emotional plague, Medical Sciences, Orgonometry, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, Uncategorized, Wilhelm Reich . Tags: , , , , , . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 1 Comment

Sexual Role Reversals in Anti-authoritarian Society

The morality of the past authoritarian society was based on the absolute distinction of right and wrong. The morality of today’s anti-authoritarian society is relative to social conditions. What is right and wrong for one person is not the same for everyone.This is the morality of political correctness.
Based on the morality of politically correctness that is endemic in our anti-authoritarian society, the traditional sexual roles of men and women have been turned upside down. Spearheaded by the anti-authoritarian, “gay” movements, the role reversal was accomplished by feminizing the social roles of men and masculinizing the social roles of women.
The function of the cultural role reversal is to deny once and for all the existence of biological differences between the sexes and, by so doing, to deaden the sexual excitement between them. It is a form of psychic castration in the social realm and another manifestation of the emotional plague of armored humans.
The last step in the politically correct agenda of the leftist ideologues is to legitimize the transgender movement by eradicating the primary role played by genital heterosexuality in determining human life.

August 17, 2015
Categories: Biological Sciences, emotional plague, Politics, Social Sciences . Tags: , , , , , . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 5 Comments

Ebola and ISIS

According to conventional thinking, Ebola and ISIS are entirely different pathological conditions that exist in different realms of nature. Although they operate in different realms, Ebola in the biological realm and ISIS in the social realm, they have a great deal in common. They are both highly destructive to life, they are highly invasive, they are infectious, they operate from a place of hiding, their victims are highly vulnerable to the pathogen, and lastly, the only treatment is sequestration of the pathogen and/or the carrier.
Thanks to advances in virology the pathogenic agent responsible for the Ebola virus has been identified. Therefore, an antiviral drug will hopefully become available soon. Unfortunately, the pathological condition responsible for the disease, ISIS, still remains to be identified by the medical establishment. Since it is not known how the disease arises, there is currently no known treatment except by destroying the organization. But this will not prevent other ISIS’s from sprouting up at any time.
This is because the disease, ISIS, is endemic in everyone, particularly in the hordes of displaced, sexually repressed Muslim youth who have no other outlet for their frustrated emotions than to turn their hatred outward against the world and murder innocent people.
The disease, ISIS, is just another manifestation of a condition that Wilhelm Reich identified as the emotional plague of mankind. Like Ebola, ISIS is a highly malignant, invasive disease that is carried by infected humans. Like Ebola, it must be recognized and addressed as such before it can be contained.

October 25, 2014
Categories: Biological Sciences, emotional plague, Medical Sciences . Tags: , , . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: Leave a comment

The Development of Ocular Armor in Infants

In an article published in the October 6 issue of Biological Psychiatry, researchers found that infants who had poor eye contact with the mother had higher “callous-emotional” traits. “These traits include problems recognizing emotions of others,impairment in responding to distress of others, and impaired guilt or empathy.” These traits are hypothesized to be precursors of anti-social behavior found in psychopathic adults.

We know from medical orgonomy that the syndrome of callous-emotional traits described by the authors is a result of disturbances of mother-infant eye contact.
Clinical experience with patients in Medical Orgone Therapy shows that disturbances in eye contact at this early stage of development are one of many consequences of ocular armor that can develop at that time and that these can have destructive behavioral and social effects not only in infancy and childhood but throughout the individual’s life.

October 13, 2014
Categories: Biological Sciences, Medical Sciences, Social Sciences, socio-political character . Tags: , , , , , . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 1 Comment

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