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EVOLUTIONARY
CLASSIFICATION
DISORDER: Dissociative
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Archetypal
Disruption
Disorders
of:
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A
Attachment Archetype
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B
Hierarchical/
Ranking Archetype
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C
Courtship/ Mating
Archetype
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D
Threat Response Archetype
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1.
Malf-
unction
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1.1
Modular
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1.1A |
1.1B
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1.1C
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1.1D
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1.2
Integrative
|
1.2A
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1.2B
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1.2C
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1.2D
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2.
Dys-
regulation
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2.1
Environmental Uniqueness
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2.1A
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2.1B
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2.1C
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2.1D |
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2.2
Maladaptive Meme
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2.2A
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2.2B
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2.2C
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2.2D
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3.
Sociability
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3.1
By-product (trade off) |
3.1A
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3.1B
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3.1C
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3.1D
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3.2
Defense |
3.2A |
3.2B |
3.2C |
3.2D |
Edelman
& Tononi (2000) note the striking similarity between neurological disconnection syndromes
and psychiatric
dissociation syndromes (conversion or psychogenic symptoms such as
hysterical sensory symptoms e.g. hysterical blindness, where the ability to see
becomes unconscious, fugue states, hypnotic analgesia or amnesia, multiple personality
disorder, depersonalisation, derealisation).
They suggest both represent disorders of integration, with alterations in
the degree of interactivity between brain areas, due to impairment of re-entrant
interactions. Re-entry is a central feature of
their Evolutionary Theory of Neuronal Group Selection.
Studies by Benjamin
Libet (1983) in the 1970s & by Edelman
& Tononi (2000) have found that for a stimulus to be
consciously perceived, there was the requirement of ongoing, sustained
neuronal activity (in the order of 100-500 msec such that anything shorter would
result in "subliminal perception" i.e. registered but unconscious) in
the form of rapidly integrating re-entrant interactions between multiple brain
regions, especially among the distributed neurones in the thalamocortical
system.
LeDoux related, in his book The Emotional
Brain, how split-brain surgery revealed evidence for the dichotomy
between cognition (thinking) & emotion (feeling) in the brain. When
examining patients who had had their corpus callosum (nerve fibres permitting
information sharing between the brain's left & right hemispheres) severed,
he found clear evidence that emotional processing occurs in independent fibres
to that of somatosensory & cognitive processing. For example, he found
a patient in whom emotional information was exchanged between the left &
right hemispheres but not cognitive information, such that when the patient was
shown pictures that reached only his right hemisphere, he was not able to say
what he saw but he was able to indicate how the picture made him feel.
LeDoux concluded that Freud was correct in proposing that "the unconscious
is the home of our emotions, which were dissociated from normal thought
processes" (LeDoux
1996).
Other mental disorders that have symptoms suggestive of degrees
of disconnection occurring are schizophrenia
(delusions - in particular first rank symptoms (recurrent ego-dystonic
intrusive thoughts), hallucinations (ego-dystonic
intrusive auditory sounds and communications), disorganised
speech & behaviour) & obsessive compulsive disorder (recurrent
ego-syntonic intrusive thoughts & images).
Disorganised-disoriented insecure
attachment, a primary risk factor for the development of psychiatric disorders,
has been specifically implicated in the aetiology of the dissociative disorders
(Schore
2002).
Dissociative symptoms are common
in borderline personality
disorder, schizoid personality disorder and antisocial personality
disorder.
From the perspective of developmental
psychopathology, dissociation has been described as offering "potentially very rich models for understanding the ontogeny of
environmentally produced psychiatric conditions" (Putnam
1995).
It is thought that dissociation at the time of
exposure to extreme stress signals the invocation of neural mechanisms that
result in long-term alterations in brain
functioning. Russell Meares
(1999) concluded that in all stages "dissociation, at its first occurrence, is a
consequence of a 'psychological shock' or high arousal."
Dissociative symptoms are common in acute stress
reactions and PTSD.
3.1A,
3.1D (By-prod. Sociab. Dis,
Defens. Sociab. Dis.)
Bracha
(2006) argues that this "stress and fear circuitry
disorder" results from "overconsolidation" of gene-culture
co-evolution. (See Classification Intro)
| Era |
Time-depth |
Fear circuits |
Inheritance type |
1. Mesozoic Era mammalian-wide
evolved fear circuits |
140,000,000 yrs |
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2. Cenozoic Era
simian-wide
evolved fear circuits |
20,000,000 yrs |
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3. Mid/Upper Paleolithic
H. Sapiens-wide
evolved fear circuits |
200,000-70,000 yrs (mid)
70,000-12,000 yrs (upper) |
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| 4. Neolithic culture-bound genome
specific evolved fear circuits (fear adaptations) |
12,000 years |
UNLOCALIZED (PSEUDO-SOMATIC) SYMPTOMS IN THE
CONVERSIVE DISSOCIATIVE SPECTRUM:
Pseudo-cytokine-driven (pseudo-infectious) fear symptoms
Epidemic pseudo-cytokine driven (pseudo-infectious) fear symptoms
Primary dissociative disorder?
PSEUDO-LOCALIZED (PSEUDONEUROLOGICAL “CONVERSIVE”)
SYMPTOMS:
Psychogenic non-epileptic attacks (pseudoseizures)
Epidemic sociogenic illness “epidemic hysteria”
Psychogenic pseudoparalysis (e.g. limping)
Psychogenic imbalance (Pseudocerebellar symptoms)
Psychogenic blindness |
Species atypical (psychopathological) fear
circuits firm-wired (prepotentiated) in a small no. of extant humans by
previously rare allele variants, spread after the emergence of human
Neolithic tribalism (cultures) & mostly by gene-culture co-evolution
& by mate-choice driven stabilising selection. |
