Cognitive Aspects of Language – conveyance of meaning

Phonemes and Morphemes

Consider this sentence: “The teacher praised the industrious student.” The sounds that we generate when saying this sentence must convey meaning in a constant manner so that listeners can understand our utterances. When we say the word “praised” the /p/ should not be mistaken for /b/. If /p/ is not properly pronounced the listener may hear: “The professor braised the industrious student.” The meaning of the sentence changes because the meaning of the word “braise” is ‘to cook in liquid’. /P/ and /B/ produce different sounds and different meanings in the above example.

Take another example: “He gave me a bill and asked to pay.” The words bill and pill have different meanings. If I don’t pronounce /b/ properly listener may hear “He gave me a pill and asked to pay.”  The words ‘bill’ and ‘pill’ have different meanings because they differ in their initial letters. There are two sound blocks in “pill”. These are /pi/ and /ill/. In the word “bill” also there are two sound blocks, viz. /bi/ and /ill/. The initial letters in both words are pronounced nearly identically. They differ only in that the vocal cords vibrate for /b/ but not for /p/. This difference, called voicing, is also seen between /s/ and /z/. You can feel the vibration of vocal cords when saying /z/ by placing fingers on the Adam’s apple.

The sound blocks in a word are called phonemes. The phonemes of a language are the building blocks of meaningful units called morphemes. The phonemes /pi/ and /ill/ combine together and form a morpheme /pill/. Like that /bi/ and /ill/ form the morpheme /bill/. In another example the phonemes /ki/ and /ill/ form the morpheme /kill/. In the given examples words themselves are morphemes. In longer words there may more than one morpheme. Prefixes and suffixes such as pre-, -es  and -ed are also morphemes. In the word ‘pills’ there are two morphemes, viz. /pill/ and /s/. The word kill convey the meaning that the action takes place at present. When we add the suffix –ed, which is another morpheme, to the morpheme kill the meaning changes. The word killed tells us that the action took place in the past.

Syntax

Another way of conveying meaning is observing certain rules of arranging words in a sentence or the grammatical rules. The rules that specify how words and other morphemes are arranged to yield acceptable sentences are called syntax. Consider the following three sentences:

1.      The scientist slept fitfully, dreaming new ideas.

2.      Fitfully the slept new, ideas dreaming scientist.

3.      The new ideas slept fitfully, dreaming a scientist.

The first is a sentence which conveys a meaning and is syntactically correct. The second one cannot be considered as a sentence because it violates syntactic rules. It is jumble of words. All of the elements of meaning are there, but they are without any order. So these words convey no meaning. The third assertion violates no syntactic rules, yet it fails to make any sense. Our mental representation of the noun “ideas” does not allow sleeping in any fashion, let alone to dream about scientist.

Functions of Language

The written or spoken language is embedded in a discourse community. Language is intended for and shaped by those who collectively listen, read, comprehend, interpret, and respond to our uses of language. Consider the following two utterances:

1.      It is hot in this room.

2.      Open the window!

The first sentence informs others about the how one feels about the room temperature. The second one commands someone to let cool air into the room. In a specific setting, the first sentence might be used to achieve the goal of the second in a polite way. Instead of commanding directly, one can achieve the same effect by merely informing someone standing next to window. This is called speech act. There are distinct kinds of speech acts. We command, inform, question, warn, thank, dare, request, and so on. These are the functions of language.

Cooperative Principle

When two people enter into a conversation, they enter into an implicit contractual agreement called cooperative principle. It means that the participants agree implicitly to say things that are appropriate to the conversation and to end the conversation at a mutually agreeable point. One may become aware of this implicit agreement when the participant stops conversation abruptly and uses misleading words. For example consider the following exchange:

Wilfred: Samson is going to New York with a woman.

Susan: Does his wife know about this?

Wilfred: Of course she does. The woman he is going with is his wife.

Here Wilfred misled Susan by failing to provide enough information in this use of the term “a woman.” Susan was forced to infer that the woman in question was someone other than Samson’s wife.

COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE

System of Symbols

Language is a system of symbols that are used to communicate information and concepts among two or more individuals. Language is also used for venting emotions, joke telling, and social greeting. Humans use language along with other images for thinking.

Language uses both mental and external representations and images of objects or events. An author communicates with a reader using the symbols of letters and words to get across ideas. In conversation, the speaker and listener exchange mental representations using spoken rather than written symbols. Languages share four rudimentary properties. 

1. A language could be learned by children. 

2. It must be able to be spoken and understood readily by adults.

3. It must capture the ideas that people normally communicate.

4. It must enable communication among groups of people in a social cultural context.

The Essence of Language

Reef Knot

Some factual knowledge is very difficult to convey with language. For example, try describing to a friend what a spiral is, without resorting to gestures or drawing a diagram. Or, try instructing someone, in words alone, how to tie a reef knot. 

Such visual-spatial knowledge is not easily conveyed in words alone. 

The essence of language is the use of symbols to convey meaning. Humans use words, or patterns of sound, to refer to objects, events, beliefs, desires, feelings, and intentions.  The words carry meanings. If our friend says he is happy, then you interpret this to mean something about his emotional state. If instead of speaking, your friend whistles a tune, than his behaviour may say something about his emotional state, but it is less meaningful. Your friend might whistle by habit or whistle when he is angry, sad, or happy. Unlike speech whistling is not specialized to convey a clear meaning.

Words Are Arbitrary

The words used by humans lack any connection between the symbols and the meaning they carry and so differ across languages. “Uno”, “ein”, “onnu” and “one” are arbitrary sounds referring to the same numerical concept. A single scratch in the dirt or mark on a clay tablet would be a nonarbitrary way of referring to the number one.  Ten such marks would nonarbitrarily refer to ten. But the use of nonarbitrary symbols can get very cumbersome. For example to convey the number 100 one hundred scratches have to be marked.  The invention of Arabic numerals for representing numerical qualities vastly simplified the task of representing, say, 543 cups of tea. Another specialism of the language is that by putting together strings of words in different orders, one can express a very large number of different meanings.

Origins of Language

Linguists have restructured early languages by studying the relationships among the written records of ancient languages dating back about 5000 years. It is presumed that the early languages existed 10,000 years ago. A long debated idea on the origin of language claims that it developed from gestures. Jean Aitchison, Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Oxford, says that language and gestures may well have evolved together.  When our ancestors first began to communicate their thoughts to other individuals, they needed a way to refer to specific objects and to relate those objects. It is known that gestures are synchronized in time with oral statements to convey meaning. Spoken words and gestures are synchronized even in congenitally blind individuals who have never seen anyone gesturing.  It could that gestural and spoken output developed in tandem.

Another argument is that language evolved as a consequence of the larger brain of humans. This is tying the horse behind the cart.  A plausible alternative is that language and large brain emerged more or less simultaneously.  As our ancestors lived together in increasingly larger groups, the degree of social interaction increased. Deception possibly became more important, in order to gain an advantage in getting the food, water, and shelter needed for survival. These kinds of social forces may have selected for slightly larger brain but at the same time selected for increased means of communication. Thus, language and brain size may have fed off each other in evolution. Increasingly sophisticated means of communication demanded increasingly complex brain structures. Internet may bring about subtle changes in the human brain. 

Overpower anxiety without taking medicines

Six months back Mr. M., aged 58 years, working as news editor in a Malayalam news channel, came to me for consultation. He admitted that he was taking daily 5 or 6 tablets of alprazolam, an anti-anxiety drug, for the last 12 years! He narrated the story how he became dependent on or rather addicted to the sedative drug. Twelve years ago he approached a physician to get a prescription for the relief of his mental tension and sleeplessness which he experienced frequently for some time. The physician prescribed alprazolam 0.25 mg to be taken at bed time. After using it for about 6 months he couldn’t get sufficient sleep with just one tablet. Therefore he increased the dose to two tablets.  A few months after increasing the dose to two tablets Mr. M. started taking three and then four. When he came for consultation he was taking 6 tablets daily at bed time to get sufficient sleep and one or two in day time to avoid tension and to get “some satisfaction”. If he didn’t take 5 or 6 tablets daily he became jittery and sleepless. Now he is very much worried about his drug addiction and wanted to get rid of the drug and overpower his mental tension.

He described his psychological problem. He experiences mental tension on silly matters. For example when he is entrusted with covering a program by the news channel he gets tensed. Sometimes all of a sudden he becomes jittery and feels hot flush on face and chest and butterflies in the stomach. He wanted to get rid of this psychological disorder without taking any medicine.

In fact he was suffering from two problems, viz. General Anxiety Disorder [GAD] and drug addiction or Substance Use Disorder [SUD]. So he should get rid of GAD and SUD simultaneously. The first step in overpowering anxiety without medicine is to understand what anxiety is. So I started a psycho-education process.

The anxiety response

The anxiety response is a normal, vital reaction to threat. When we perceive danger our bodies rapidly produce adrenaline that pimes us to respond to dangerous situations. The classic responses are ‘fight’ which means challenging the threat directly or flight, that is, escaping from or avoiding the threat. When faced with perceived threat, we feel fear and the mind and the body get ready to deal with it. The mind considers the worst-case-scenario, and the body prepares to tackle it. The responses reflect on all the four systems: emotional, cognitive, physiological and behavioural.  Consider the following responses:

A mother is standing at the side of the road close to her son. A bus is heading towards them. The mother has a fleeting image of her son stepping into the road in front of the bus. She feels fear. Her adrenaline rises, she becomes tense, focused and primed for action. Swiftly, she takes son’s arm, despite his protestations, and hold him close to her as the bus passes them safely.

Thus, the anxiety response is normal and largely unconscious process that regularly occurs in each of us. Anxiety only becomes a problem when the normal response is exaggerated or occurs in the absence of real threat. Mr. M. frequently thought his work as a journalist is not satisfactory and the news channel may fire him. Occasionally when these thoughts came to his mind he had panic attacks.

Every journalist may doubt whether his performance is satisfactory or not. In this case fear is exaggerated and Mr. M. developed an anxiety disorder. Two individuals can be in precisely the same situation but anticipate different consequences and, therefore, react in different ways.

Characteristics of anxiety and anxiety disorders

In normal individuals the psychological process dealing with anxiety is linear as shown below:

Trigger à perceived threat à anxiety response à successful coping reaction à resolution of anxiety.

Example:

A driver sees a child run out in front of a car à production of adrenaline à this promotes quick and focused thinking which enables the driver to brake and swerve in time à resolution of anxiety.

In persons with anxiety disorder the psychological process is circular as shown below:

 Trigger à perceived threat à Exaggerated anxiety response à unhelpful coping reaction àunresolved problem à perceived threat (the cycle goes on) (See the figure)

The Cycle of Anxiety in GAD

Example: An anxious student learns of an impending oral assessment à he finds this threatening and experiences high levels of anxiety à his thinking becomes overly focused on the exam and he becomes tense that she cannot study effectively à he does not perform well in the assessment; this promotes his belief that he is incapable, and he remains a highly anxious student.

The ultimate fear cycle is ‘fear of fear’ where the experience of anxiety itself becomes aversive and is therefore avoided long after the original trigger for the anxiety has receded. Once Mr. M. thought he had heart attack. He was taken to the hospital. At the hospital he was assured that he had experienced a panic attack. Mr. M. was not totally relieved by this, as he had found the panic attack so unpleasant that he now lives in dread of it happening again.

Anxiety disorders are characterized by distorted beliefs about the dangerousness of certain experiences. Essentially, anxiety disorders are perpetuated by how we feel, what we think and what we do.

Changes in behaviour needed to overpower anxiety disorder

Mr. M. was not in the habit of doing any physical exercise. I advised him to do brisk walking for 45 – 50 minutes daily. He was advised to do the progressive muscular reaxation daily. 

In order to get rid of the drug addiction I advised him to reduce the dose of alprazolam at the rate of one tablet per month.

With these cognitive and behavioural efforts for 6 months Mr. M. got rid of both anxiety disorder and drug addiction.

CONTROL ANGER; AVOID AGGRESSION

Encyclopedia of Psychology [edited by Alan E. Kazdin, PhD and published by American Psychological Association] says that anger is a completely normal, usually healthy, human emotion. Everyone knows what anger is. We all have felt it either as a fleeting annoyance or as full-fledged rage. Often, anger is an automatic response to ill treatment. Anger is an emotional state that varies in intensity from mild irritation to intense fury and rage. When it gets out of control it becomes destructive. Then it creates problems—problems at work, in your personal relationships, and in the overall quality of your life. Therefore it is essential to understand and control anger.

Anger and aggression

The natural way to express anger is to respond aggressively. Anger is a natural, adaptive response to threats; it inspires powerful, often aggressive, feelings and behaviors, which allow us to fight when we are attacked. A certain amount of anger, therefore, is necessary to our survival.

On the other hand, we can't physically lash out at every person or object that irritates or annoys us; laws, social norms, and common sense place limits on how far our anger can take us.

Managing anger

The three main approaches to manage anger are expressing, suppressing, and calming.

1.      Expressing your anger in an assertive, but nonaggressive manner is the healthiest way to manage anger. To do this, you have to learn how to make clear what your needs are, and how to get them met, without hurting others. Being assertive doesn't mean being pushy or demanding; it means being respectful of yourself and others.

2.      Anger can be suppressed, and then converted or redirected. This happens when you hold in your anger and stop thinking about it. You start focusing on some other positive subject. The aim is to inhibit or suppress your anger and convert it into more constructive behavior. There may be some consequential effect if anger isn't allowed outward expression. Anger can turn inward. Anger turned inward may cause high blood pressure and/or depression. Unexpressed anger can create other psychological problems too. It can lead to pathological expressions of anger, such as abnormal behaviour of attacking people indirectly, without telling them why, rather than confronting them head-on. The person with anger turned inwards may become perpetually cynical and hostile. They aren't likely to have many successful relationships.

3.      Finally, you can calm down inside. This means not just controlling your outward behavior, but also controlling your internal responses, taking steps to lower your heart rate, calm yourself down, and let the feelings subside.

The goal of anger management is to reduce both your emotional tension and the physiological arousal that anger causes. You can't get rid of, or avoid, the things or the people that enrage you, nor can you change them, but you can learn to control your reactions.

Some People Are More Angry Than Others

We know that some people really are more "hotheaded" than others are; they get angry more easily and more intensely than the average person does. There are also those who don't show their anger in loud spectacular ways but are chronically irritable and grumpy. Sometimes they withdraw socially or get physically ill.

People who are easily angered generally have what some psychologists call a low tolerance for frustration, meaning simply that they think that they should not have to be subjected to frustration, inconvenience, or annoyance. They are particularly infuriated if the situation seems somehow unjust: for example, being corrected for a minor mistake.

There are two causes for this disposition. One cause may be genetic or physiological: There is evidence that some children are born irritable, touchy, and easily angered, and that these signs are present from a very early age. Another cause is sociocultural. Research has also found that family background plays a role. Typically, people who are easily angered come from families that are disruptive, chaotic, and not skilled at emotional communications.

How to Control Anger?

Relaxation

Simple relaxation tools, such as deep breathing and relaxing imagery, can help calm down angry feelings. There are books and courses that can teach you relaxation techniques, and once you learn the techniques, you can call upon them in any situation. If you are involved in a relationship where both partners are hot-tempered, it might be a good idea for both of you to learn these techniques.

Some simple steps you can try:

·         Breathe deeply, from your diaphragm; breathing from your chest won't relax you. Picture your breath coming up from your "gut."

·         Slowly repeat a calm word or phrase such as "relax," "take it easy." Repeat it to yourself while breathing deeply.

·         Use imagery; visualize a relaxing experience, from either your memory or your imagination.

·         Nonstrenuous, slow yoga-like exercises can relax your muscles and make you feel much calmer.

Practice these techniques daily. Learn to use them automatically when you're in a tense situation.

Cognitive Restructuring

Simply put, this means changing the way you think. Angry people tend to curse, swear, or speak in highly colorful terms that reflect their inner thoughts. When you're angry, your thinking can get much exaggerated and overly dramatic. Try replacing these thoughts with more rational ones. For instance, instead of telling yourself, "oh, it's awful, it's terrible, everything's ruined," tell yourself, "it's frustrating, and it's understandable that I'm upset about it, but it's not the end of the world and getting angry is not going to fix it anyhow."

You have to be careful of words like "never" or "always" when talking about yourself or someone else. The self suggestions like "this @#%&* machine never works," or "you're always forgetting things" are not only inaccurate, but they also serve to make you feel that your anger is justified and that there's no way to solve the problem. They also alienate and humiliate people who might otherwise be willing to work with you on a solution. Remind yourself that getting angry is not going to fix anything that it won't make you feel better (and may actually make you feel worse).

Logic defeats anger, because anger is irrational. So use cold hard logic on yourself. Remind yourself that the world is "not out to get you," you're just experiencing some of the rough spots of daily life. Do this each time you feel anger, and it will help you get a more balanced perspective.

Handle and Face the Problem

Sometimes, our anger and frustration are caused by very real and inescapable problems in our lives. Not all anger is misplaced, and often it's a healthy, natural response to these difficulties. There is also a cultural belief that every problem has a solution, and it adds to our frustration to find out that this isn't always the case. The best attitude to bring to such a situation, then, is not to focus on finding the solution, but rather on how you handle and face the problem. Make a plan, and check your progress along the way. Resolve not to punish yourself if an answer doesn't come right away.

Better Communication

Angry people tend to jump to—and act on—conclusions and some of those conclusions can be very inaccurate. The first thing to do if you're in a heated discussion is slow down and think through your responses. Don't say the first thing that comes into your head, but slow down and think carefully about what you want to say. At the same time, listen carefully to what the other person is saying and take your time before answering.

Using Humor

"Silly humor" can help defuse rage in a number of ways. For one thing, it can help you get a more balanced perspective. Humor can always be relied on to help unknot a tense situation.

Angry people tend to feel that they are morally right, that any blocking or changing of their plans is an unbearable indignity and that they should NOT have to suffer this way. Maybe other people do, but not them!

Changing Your Environment

Sometimes it's our immediate surroundings that give us cause for irritation and fury. Problems and responsibilities can weigh on you and make you feel angry at the "trap" you seem to have fallen into and all the people and things that form that trap. Give yourself a break. Make sure you have some "personal time" scheduled for times of the day that you know are particularly stressful. One example is the working mother who has a standing rule that when she comes home from work, for the first 15 minutes "nobody talks to Mom unless the house is on fire." After this brief quiet time, she feels better prepared to handle demands from her kids without blowing up at them.

Some Other Tips to Control Anger

1.      Timing: Try changing the times when you talk about important matters with your spouse so that these talks don't turn into arguments.

2.      Avoidance: Don't look at what infuriates you. The point is to keep you calm.

3.      Finding alternatives: If your daily commute through traffic leaves you in a state of rage and frustration, give yourself a project—learn or map out a different route, one that's less congested or more scenic. Or find another alternative, such as a bus or commuter train.

Manage phobia by self-help

Phobia means morbid fear. It is usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational. The sufferer tries to avoid the objects and situations causing fear. In the event the phobia cannot be avoided entirely the sufferer will endure the situation or object with marked distress and significant interference in social or occupational activities. (The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook 5th edition by Edmund J. Bourne. pp. 50–51)  Psychologists have listed a very long number of objects and situations usually causing phobia. http://www.phobialist.com/ 

There are six steps in self-help program 

Step I: Learning about anxiety and phobias

This is a very important step. It helps you to understand what is happening when you experience fear and tension.  All the worries and physical feelings you are experiencing are together called anxiety. Learn the two facts about anxiety:

FACT 1: Anxiety is normal and adaptive because it helps us prepare for danger.  Therefore, the goal is to learn to manage anxiety, not eliminate it.

FACT 2: Anxiety can become a problem when our body tells us that there is danger even when there is no real danger. This is the problem in phobias.

It is also important to know that phobias are common. Having a phobia does not mean that you have become a mental patient. Phobias can be successfully managed by self-help. Many people learn to overcome their fears and to suppress their immediate fear response. For example, snake charmers learn to handle snakes suppressing their fears of snakes. Firefighters enter burning buildings even though their first instinct is likely telling to run the other way! A young person with blood, injection, needle, injury phobias learns to suppress fear responses and becomes nurse or doctor.

Step II: Find out what is the real fear factor

Find out what exactly about the object or situation is frightening. Is it the noise it makes? Or the way it moves? Is it the fear of being trapped? Is it the fear fall from the height or the dizziness you feel when climbing? If you don't find out the real focus of your fears, you could be wasting time trying to overcome the wrong problem, or be making the work more difficult than it needs to be. For example, if someone is afraid of getting blood drawn, he or she might actually have a blood phobia, not a needle phobia.  Thus, doing exposure with needles would probably not be very helpful. To improve, he or she would have to do exposure with blood. 

Step III: Realistic Thinking  

The anxious thoughts that people have due to their phobia are unrealistic. But, when they are very anxious, it is difficult for them to recognize this fact. For example, an individual who has experienced choking on a piece of bread may believe that anything with a bread-like consistency that they put in their mouths will make them choke again. Even though this is unrealistic, he or she will avoid many different foods.  Someone with an elevator phobia might avoid elevators because they believe that the cables will break and the elevator might crash.  The likelihood of this happening is very small, yet someone with an elevator phobia will walk up twenty flights of stairs to avoid taking the chance.  It is helpful to examine your thoughts, and decide whether the worries are unrealistic. In fact, one ‘learns’ the irrational fears. Therefore one can unlearn the irrational fears. 

Get the facts about feared objects and situations:

Sometimes, people have false beliefs about feared objects or situations, and it can be very helpful to get the facts. For example a person with Cynophobia (fear of dogs or rabies) may believe all dogs are carriers of rabies virus and they cause rabies in humans by their presence. Scientific information regarding rabies virus and its infection in humans would help the person a lot to get rid of his Cynophobia.

Step IV: Face it

Facing the objects and situations causing fears in a gradual and consistent manner is the most effective way to overcome fears and phobias, and is called “exposure”. This process involves gradually and repeatedly exposing yourself to the feared object or situation in a safe and controlled way. You learn to “ride out” the anxiety and distress until the anxiety passes.  This process requires courage and determination. Sometimes your anxiety is so high, that you cannot imagine resisting it. Anyone who decides to try exposing themselves to their fears needs to draw up a personal “training program”.  For example, if a person with Ailurophobia (fear of cats) wanted to be able to remain in a room with the pet without panicking, he/she may take the following steps:

Step 1:    Draw a cat on a piece of paper.

Step 2:    Read about cats.

Step 3:    Look at photos of cats.

Step 4:    Look at videos of cats.

Step 5:    Look at cats from a distance.

Step 6:    Look at them closer.

Step 7:    Have another person bring a cat into the room.

Step 8:   Try to touch the cat.

Through repeated experiences of facing your fears, you begin to realize that the situation or object while possibly unpleasant is not harmful. With each exposure, you will feel an increasing sense of control over your phobia. This sense of control over the situation is the most important benefit of exposure. As your anxiety gradually decreases, you no longer react with uncontrollable panic when confronted with it.

Keys to Managing Phobia:

1.      Do the exposure exercises as often as you can. You are trying to build up positive experiences to replace all the bad ones of being defeated by the phobia, and too long a gap between exercises makes this more difficult.

2.      Try to get the help of family and friends. If there is someone to work with who can talk to you calmly and positively while you are doing the steps. Make sure the helper you recruit is not over-sympathizing or endlessly asking how bad you are feeling! This will make it harder for you to focus on the steps and to stay positive.

Step V: Learning Relaxation

Learning relaxation techniques can help you to reduce feelings of anxiety that occur when you are about to face, or anticipate facing, a feared phobic situation.

Calm Breathing: This is a strategy that you can use to calm down quickly. When we are anxious, we tend to breathe fast and shallow. This can make us feel dizzy and lightheaded, which can make us even more anxious. Calm breathing involves taking slow, regular breaths through your nose. For more information, see How to do Calm Breathing.

Muscle Relaxation: Another helpful strategy is to learn to systematically relax all the parts of your body. This process involves tensing various muscles and then relaxing them. For more information, see how to do Jacobson’s Progressive Muscle Relaxation.  http://netmind2011.blogspot.com/2011/11/manage-stress-and-avoid-anxiety-part-ii.html 

Step VI: Appreciate yourself your improvement

If you are noticing improvements, take some time to give yourself some credit: reward yourself! How do you maintain all the progress you’ve made? By Practice only! Don't be discouraged if you start repeating old behaviours. This can happen during stressful times or during transitions (for example, starting a new job or moving), and this is normal.  It just means that you need to restart practicing the steps learned earlier. Coping with anxiety is a lifelong process.

Stop magical thinking; get rid of obsessions

Obsessions and obsessive compulsive disorder

Obsessions are thoughts that recur and persist despite efforts to ignore or supress them.  The obsessions or intrusive thoughts vary in their clarity and vividness. A relatively vague obsession could involve a general sense of disarray or tension accompanied by a belief that life cannot proceed as normal while the imbalance remains. A more intense obsession could be a preoccupation with the thought or image of someone close to them dying. Other obsessions concern the possibility that someone or something such as God, the Devil, or disease will harm either the person or the people or things that the person cares about.

Some people experience sexual obsessions that may involve intrusive thoughts or images of kissing, touching, fondling, oral sex, anal sex, intercourse, incest and rape with strangers, acquaintances, parents, children, family members, friends, coworkers, animals and religious figures, and can include heterosexual or homosexual content with persons of any age. With other intrusive, unpleasant thoughts or images, most normal people have some disquieting sexual thoughts at times. But people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder [OCD] may attach extraordinary significance to the thoughts. People with OCD understand that their notions do not correspond with reality. In spite of this insight they feel mental tension and guilt because the ideas coming up against their will are unacceptable and highly objectionable and they give much importance to these ideas.

Magical thinking

Obsessions and magical thinking are closely related. In fact, the obsession originates from magical thinking. Magical thinking is nonscientific cause-effect reasoning characterized by such ideas as the ability of the human mind to affect the physical world. Magical thinking can occur when one simply does not understand possible causes. British science fiction writer and futurist Sir Arthur C. Clarke [http://www.arthurcclarke.net/] suggested that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. It can also occur in response to situations that are largely unpredictable or chaotic, such as a coin toss, as well as in situations that one has little or no control over, especially those are emotionally invested in.

The chapter on Magic and Religion [http://www.bartleby.com/196/9.html] in The Golden Bough by James George Frazer says that magic is more like science than religion. Both scientific and religious worldviews are mechanistic and based on causality, but the former is distinguished by the scientific method and by skepticism. People use magic to attempt to explain things that science has not acceptably explained, or to attempt to control things that science cannot.

According to Frazer, magical thinking depends on two laws, viz. the law of similarity and the law of contagion. The law of similarity suggests that things similar things tend to appear grouped together. The principle of similarity states that like produces like. For example, in Voodoo rituals the houngan (Voodoo priest) will draw a representation of the spirit he or she wishes to invoke. The belief that creating an imitation of the spirit will help summon the spirit is a central part of Voodoo and an excellent illustration of the law of similarity. Another example is the ancient Incan attachment to gold. The Inca people worshipped the sun. They called gold the blood of the sun and revered it above all other materials, simply because it shares two properties with the sun; it has a bright yellow color and it refuses to be tarnished. As a representation of the sun, they assumed it to have some unseen relationship with the sun.

Frazer's principle of contagion holds that if two things were once in contact, they retain a degree of influence over each other. The most common example of this is the old belief that if one of your enemies obtains some article of your clothing or a piece of your body (hair, nail clippings, etc.), he or she has the power to work evil magic on you. By the law of contagion, the object which was once in contact with you can still affect you, for good or bad. Now, if this concept is applied to the dual notion of the body and spirit, many basic practices concerning deceased humans can be explained.

The idea that an individual is composed of two separate elements, of a body and a spirit, is older than history. Now, the body and the spirit, if they are to make an individual, would seem to be in contact. So, by the principle of contagion, the dead body would retain influence over the spirit, the real essence of the person. If things that happen to the corpse have a similar effect on the spirit, there are very good reasons to treat the body well. Thus follow the ancient practices of burying the corpse in clean cloth after washing and perfuming, the interment of practical and luxury goods, and various means to prolong the existence of the body.

Shades of this had come down to us in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic prohibitions against mutilating the body. The Hindus anoint the body with oil. The Christians do extensive cosmetic work on the deceased in funerals.

One must also consider that the spirit retains some influence over the body. This brings up another idea which has been greatly influential in human culture; the dead can affect the physical world. So the well-being of the deceased's soul was reason to pamper the corpse. The thought of an angered spirit with the ability to turn said anger into physical action had provided another motivation to treat the corpse with dignity.

A common form of magical thinking is that one's own thoughts can influence events, either beneficially, by creating good luck, or for the worse, as in divine punishment for "bad thoughts". Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis reflected on these phenomena in his essay, "The Uncanny". [http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/freud1.pdf]  

Fusion of thought and action

Rationalists often claim that they are devoid of magical thinking. But fact is contrary to their conviction. I proved this in a gathering of hundred and odd rationalists. I asked them to write on a piece of paper the name of the person most beloved. After they had written the name, I asked all of them to write below the name these words: “this person would die soon in an accident.” Sixty per cent of the rationalists assembled there couldn’t write those words. They believed that writing of those words would harm the beloved person. This is a typical example of magical thinking or the fusion of thought and action.

These beliefs reflect an incorrect understanding of the boundaries of self. One can indeed will to move one's own arm, but not the ashtray on the table. The thinking that one’s thoughts would cause harm or good luck to others is called magical thinking. There occurs a thought action fusion and is the main culprit in causing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Because of thought action fusion the people with OCD give much importance to the irrelevant and unacceptable thoughts coming up to the consciousness against the individual's will. So, the first and foremost task of the therapist treating a case of OCD is correcting the magical thinking of the individual.

SECRETS OF MEMORY: Part VI False memory implanted by public notions

The tabloid press and the electronic media indulging sensationalism frequently report cases of seemingly sane individuals who recall being abducted by aliens and taken aboard unidentified flying objects (UFOs). From a scientific viewpoint, such reports are difficult to accept as anything other than false because they are so bizarre and implausible. How, then, they might be explained?  Psychologist Nicholas P. Spanos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Spanos  has given a reasonable explanation.  According to Spanos such recollections are delusional false memories instilled into the mind of an individual through sociocultural mechanisms. Such memories are called delusional false memories. Delusional memory is implanted by suggestions coming from the sensational stories covered in the tabloids; bizarre stories reported on televisions; and statements made by friends and family.  

False memories of Betty Hill

Betty Hill was an avid believer in UFOs before the night that she and her husband, Barney, claimed to have seen a strange light following, their car. Betty’s sister suggested that she and her husband may have been “irradiated” by the light. Betty began to have nightmares in which she and Barney were abducted by aliens who took them on board a UFO, communicated with them telepathically, performed medical tests, and showed Betty a star map.

A psychotherapist who treated Betty for her nightmares used hypnosis to elicit detailed reports of these events from both her and Barney, who had heard these accounts from his wife numerous times. The psychotherapist concluded that the reports were delusional false memories shared by the couple. Such false memories are similar to false memories called confabulations which are usually created by the individuals with loss of memory due to brain injuries. In the case of individuals with delusional false memories, the power of their belief system constructs the delusional memories. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_and_Barney_Hill_abduction  

Memories of the previous birth

Belief in reincarnation rationalizes memories of previous births. Reincarnation is different from resurrection. In reincarnation the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant. This doctrine is a central tenet within the majority of Indian religious traditions, such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism; the Buddhist concept of rebirth is also often referred to as reincarnation. The idea was also fundamental to some Greek philosophers as well as other religions, such as Druidism. It is also found in many small-scale societies around the world, in places such as Siberia, West Africa, North America, and Australia. Resurrection of the Dead is a belief found in a number of eschatology, most commonly in Christian, Islamic, Jewish and Zoroastrian. In general, the phrase refers to a specific event in the future; multiple prophesies in the histories of these religions assert that the dead will be brought back to life at some point in the future. Most eschatology believe in a universal resurrection of all of the dead, while a minority, such as the Christadelphians believe that only a select will be resurrected.

The story of Shanty Devi

In the 1930s the case of a 9-year-old girl Shanty Devi of Delhi was given wide publicity as a proof for reincarnation. The girl claimed to be a member of the Choubey family of Mathura in her past life. Mathura, a town 145 kilometers from Delhi was never visited by the girl or her parents. It is claimed by the believing ‘specialists in reincarnation’ that the girl explained many details of the town Mathura the Chouban family.  http://www.prebirthexperience.com/The%20Life%20Beyond.htm