Psychology Today hit piece labels conspiracy thinking a psychotic illness

Thirty years ago Psychology Today was a wonderful magazine. Thought-provoking, beautifully illustrated, well-written and based on good research. The last issue I read, probably ten years ago, was just tabloid baloney. skewing everything toward the thrill-seeking lowest common denominator. Being lambasted by Psychology Today probably isn't even an insult.

reply to post by nocensorshipplease


Does that "hitpiece" include the conspiracy concerning menstrual cycles? Because I hate them! I hate them! And I demand to know why only women have to suffer through them while men get to give us crazy labels for enduring something they can't conceive of - EVERY MONTH! This is a REAL conspiracy and I want answers.

Besides all that, the word menstrual doesn't even look like a real word.

This has been a demonstration of intentional psychosis for those who don't get it

reply to post by xmotex


Which a GREAT MANY do. It's silly. They decry people for being "sheeple" of the MSM then buy wholy anything that comes out through sites like Infowars.com. It's funny at times. Annoying the rest.

reply to post by Hazelnut


Someone has to bear the children. We aren't egglayers.

Hey I wonder. Do you suppose this will be covered under the new Obamacare Health Care Program?

And this seems very plausible to me.

Conspiracy Theories Explained Random events are deeply meaningful to paranoid schizophrenics. Is something happening in their brains?
By Kathleen McGowan, published on November 01, 2004 - last reviewed on February 20, 2007
Paranoid schizophrenics are prone to delusions, tales in which random events become deeply meaningful. Some believe in complex conspiracies; others think they are Jesus Christ.

These stories sound crazy, but they may be the brain's efforts to make sense of its own internal messages, suggests #ij Kapur, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and vice president of research at the Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. In addition to other brain abnormalities, schizophrenics have too much dopamine. Just as addicts' desensitized dopamine systems make them feel that nothing matters, high levels of the neurotransmitter make schizophrenics believe that everything is significant.

Because the addict's dopamine-driven salience system keeps telling her that something very important is happening, ordinary events appear intensely meaningful. That police car? That song on the radio? That man with a cigarette walking by? They must be part of a massive international conspiracy.

Kapur calls it "biased inductive logic"—a top-down effort to explain the feeling that everything seems important. The cognitive parts of a schizophrenic's brain create the paranoid tale in an effort to explain the constant red alert blaring from the dopamine circuits, using any stimuli available. This is why delusions are culturally appropriate. African schizophrenics may fear they've fallen under the spell of a shaman, while Kapur's patients in Toronto think that the Mounties are after them.

Kapur cautions that this theory is still speculative, but it could support a radical idea: treating schizophrenia with cognitive therapy. If drugs control the overactive dopamine system, patients may then gradually unlearn their delusions.

SOURCE:www.psychologytoday.com...

[edit on 5-9-2009 by Watcher-In-The-Shadows]

reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows


Well that was one easy conspiracy to solve.

reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows


Call me paranoid but

patients may then gradually unlearn their delusions

Doesn't that sound like brainwashing or brain-wiping.

reply to post by Hazelnut


Not particularly. I have noticed a strong tendency of a number of conspiracy theorists that believe their theories based solely on an inability to even acknowledge counter-arguments, discarding any contradictory to their theory information as if it didn't even exist. And I think he means correcting the chemical problem will break them out of this cycle or should I say the bias. Thusly allowing the person to take all available information into account.

[edit on 5-9-2009 by Watcher-In-The-Shadows]