Diagnostic reality of PTSD, PTSS - disorder or symptom?

"There are no races." a good friend said to me, we were enjoying the sun, sitting in his yard "there are only language groups" and he paused. I thought about that for a while. He had a point. A neat way to express the truth.

"And" I added,  "some people are socially indoctrinated and have internalized political, ideological or religious identities crafted by external agencies, so that they think that races exist....."

We are all people.  Racism was invented by British Christian Oligarchs as a tool of social division.

Fact : The vast majority of us are good, lovely vulnerable people, and we are all to some extent traumatised and oppressed because we live within  this war making social power system.

Consider PTSS and PTSD.

Post Trauma Stress Symptoms: What the person presents.  The person is wounded, shocked, traumatised and distressed and the lack of environmental safety and psychological resolution leads to long term symptoms of distress. Understandably so.

Post Trauma Stress Disorder: What hierarchy of violence presents as it refuses to address the trauma it generates and refuses to do anything to prevent further trauma or help resolve the issues arising - that is a deeply disordered behaviour pattern for any human culture. The labelling of the victimised is disordered. 

The system claims the traumatised suffer a disorder. "There's something wrong with you!"

The Survivors says "no, these are the symptoms of my trauma and I am even distressed that you suggest that I am disordered - your system of power that generates so much trauma is what is disordered!"

Quite a difference, eh?

"Given the kind of family, community and society you were born into, and everything that happened to you, it is no wonder you feel the way you do."

"There are things that happen in that child's life that should not have happened, and things that did not happen that should have happened, and that is a big part of why they feel the way they do. How can we help that child in his or her distress?"

What would be your diagnosis?

The wisest response and probably the most efficacious answer would be best based on what evidence we are aware of that can is verified, as a matter of due diligence, with a careful eye to  all the possible outcomes.

This is a current 'diagnosis' I am working on.

Make of it what you will.

1. We live in a social power system that is Hierarchically Violent, in as much as the effects of what psychologist and writer David Smail calls  the activity of 'distal power' trickle down, and afflict the population. Power is exercised by a few, who control immense institutions, and direct those in ways the ordinary citizen can rarely counter. States start wars, cut social care budgets. Who pays the price?

The Origins of Unhappiness - a new understanding of personal distress by David Smail

"It is the main argument of this book that emotional and psychological distress is often brought about through the operation of social-environmental powers which have their origin at a considerable distance from those ultimately subjected to them. On the whole, psychology has concerned itself very little with the field of power which stretches beyond our immediate relations with each other, and this has led to serious limitations on the explanatory power of the theories it has produced. 

To illustrate this, typical cases of patient distress in the 1980s are examined. The decade when the right-wing of politics proclaimed there was no such thing as society gave rise to psychological distress across social classes, as long-standing societal institutions were dismantled. 

This is as much a work of sociology, politics, and philosophy, as it is of psychology. Fundamentals of an environmental understanding of distress are outlined. A person is the interaction of a body with the environment."

2. Lateral Violence is a term that describes the displaced anger and outrage that ought to be directed at those who orchestrate oppression, but is instead directed at peer groups. This dynamic is manipulated by Power Establishments in the processes of 'othering' : Racism, Misogyny, Islamophobia, Homophobia, Zionism, Neo-Liberal bullying of the vulnerable and the poor do not emerge from ordinary people, they are stimulated by potent forces within media and institutions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_violence

3. An unresolved trauma has the potential to create or generate patterns of behaviour that are in effect coping mechanisms,  that can become distorted, dysfunctional and unhealthy over time. The pressure of lack of safety drives this most of all.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181836/ - paper on how trauma affects our brains

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2007/05/brain-function -  "Exposure to trauma may create enough changes in the brain to sensitize people to overreact to an innocuous facial gesture years later, even in people who don't have a stress-related disorder, says new research. It appears that proximity to high-intensity traumas can have long lasting effects on the brain and behavior of healthy people without causing a current clinical disorder. But these subtle changes could increase susceptibility to mental health problems later on." 

4. Europe, and many other places have been the site of almost constant wars for over 2000 years and these wars are still 'celebrated' by each nation state in their self created national myths - this suggests the trauma remains unresolved. The grass roots have been subjected to a long series of wars driven by the 'perceived needs' of Power Establishments, which are in essence institutional bully systems that compete with each other, using war as a tool of policy. Europe has yet to recover from that dreadful history. The same can be said of Canada and North America and many, many other places. The inter-generational impacts of that trauma still percolate through our communities and nations.

5. The most obvious way to resolve trauma patterns is to be honest about what happened, to allow the person or the people who were traumatised to tell the truth, to create a situation of safety where the traumatised person or people know that they are safe, and to be clear as to the social and material situation within which the trauma/abuse occurred and address that. Justice and assurances that the abuse, oppression and war will cease and a peaceful future is determined are part of resolution of the trauma patterning.

This is what Gabor Mate and the Native Peoples, and the Survivors of clerical predatory abuse of children who confront the Vatican and others as in Ireland are seeking. And this is what women subjected to sexual assault are calling for - honesty that leads to safety that leads to prevention of future harms.

What is left then is living with the symptoms of trauma, and being cared for with that in mind, such that the symptoms abate and living can continue with less distress and more security and love.

6. It is fully human to face this. That is what it means to be fully human, to refuse to be dehumanised or to dehumanise any other, for any reason. Ever. That is fully human.

7. The mainstream system has always obliterated or denied or assimilated those cultures that were more egalitarian because their existence provides evidence of an 'alternative' or 'alternatives' ( the older cultures were much more diverse than the mainstream culture claims to be) way of life that is more gentle on people, more nurturant and indeed more sustainable, happier and humane.

PTSS , PTSD,  Post Trauma Stress Symptoms, Chronic Trauma, Intergenerational Trauma. all these terms are varied ways of observing what our experience means. They are not labels; they are directions, themes, narratives, patterns and the individual cannot be correlated with the general pattern, each experience is uniquely that if that particular person.

More care is need in the public discourse on matters of importance to our collective community, our shared realities and experience.

Let us rest, and let us heal. As a cry from the heart, not as a demand or expectation. It is what it is.

"There are no races." a good friend said to me, sitting in his yard; "there are only language groups"

I think he has a point. We're all human beings living within social cultural systems predicated on leveraged power, power that protects itself with extreme violence. That hurts everyone.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

Governance - the basics, unapologetic truth and honesty.

Governance is the administration of our shared contributory resources, our taxes, for the benefit of ALL the people of the land.

The puerile adversarial process of Government and Opposition is an outdated 19th Century process of competing Powers and is inadequate to the task of meeting the needs of the people as whole.




It is a process that is concerned with maintaining power above all else. All too often the people who suffer the most from the adverse outcomes of these infantile power struggles are the ordinary citizens, at home or abroad/

When the majority of people refuse to accept that old and sordid duality, and demand, as their right, that all elected officials, those who thrive on the contributions of the people, work together to benefit the people at all levels, equally, and when the majority of the people take materially significant steps to ensure that collaboration, co-operation, justice and mutualism based on the evidence, and responsive to the outcomes, is at the very core of policy and decision making, then our Society will be a much more humane and equitable society.

It will then slowly, but assuredly, move towards that state known as 'civilised'.

Until then the bulk of what passes for Governance is just more crappy behaviour being propagandised, marketed, justified, covered-up and explained away.

Anyone who is unable to deal with these simple facts, or is unwilling to face them, is part of the problem.

I make no apologies for stating it this clearly. The situation is clearly offensive in the material reality, way beyond 'offending sensibilities'.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

The Green Party Ad with the Bullying Children.

The Green Party Ad with the Bullying Children.

I found that video really disturbing.

Children as bullies and monsters.....  in the context of 'traditional parenting' and the mistreatment of children who show signs of non-compliance, who do not 'fit in', who are reacted to rather than responded to. a pattern which is a very, very strong behavioural pattern in the UK.

Many adults are dismissive of children who 'act out' and the mainstream attitude is to punish the child to avoid confronting the parent or the social setting within which children learn to become bullies. 45% of UK School secondary school children report being bullied. The response these children who are bullies need is not more punishment and sanction. They need help. Which often means their parents need help. After all where does a child learn his or her emotional behaviours?

The comparison is impossible.

Comparing wounded children to the adult sociopaths who wield power and abuse it intentionally whilst manipulating almost everybody they interact with and covering up the more nasty side of their abuses with the intent to maintain their position is like comparing a boot to a hole in the ground saying they are the same because one can put ones foot into it.

Being dismissive of or pretending an air of 'superiority' over the adult sociopaths who abuse institutional and political power is futile. They have to be challenged and confronted with evidence, head on. That is hard and serious work, and not to be taken lightly.

The video is also a mirror of how the adult world views wounded, who 'act out' children.

It's appallingly bad taste.

There's an element of the derogatory spleen to it, that is more often seen in mainstream media and comment threads.

It's trolling..

It is profoundly inaccurate, divisive and pretty much delusional. Its off topic.

To a pediatrician or child development scientist or counsellor it's a horrific indictment of the Green Party's unwillingness to speak TRUTH to power, not least amongst themselves.

That was a VERY expensive add to make. A waste of our funds.

I can see why some see the humour in the add. Nonetheless ...... it is a grave PR error.

Had they focused on the mistreatment of the disabled, the loss of the NHS as a publicly owned institution and the reality of off shore tax avoidance and money laundering and off shore tax evasion, which was already a big story we all know about.... they'd have hit gold...... with the release of the Panama Papers it would have struck home BIG TIME.

Hindsight, eh?

How about a bit more foresight, depth to their campaigning? For starters!

There is no benefit in dumbing down or caricature in the serious business of political lobbying, which is what we are involved in, here. There is no benefit it stooping to the methods of the DM, Sun and others.

Corbyn refuses to engage at that level. He does not attack the other side, with personalized trolling, he confronts and challenges the false premises upon which they stand.

None.

It's demeaning.

The add is obviously designed as a taunt, an insult. That is how it will be taken.

And that will harden the resolve of people on the fringes of  support for the right wing and the left wing who still believe in the bird,.

When they see this kind of stereotyping and insult mixed, which is so banal, and which we rightly deride in the Daily Mail and Sun et al they will react rather than respond.

It’s a rather futile attempt in terms of addressing the world of Governance and power.

I wonder what ad agency convinced them that that would be a good idea?

Was it a set up to see how much depth there is to the Green Party’s strategic and tactical understanding?

If so, they know now.

Power thinks about these kinds of things and has way more practice in such matters than any of us ever would..... by a long shot.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

Mossak Fonseca: Management of The Panama Papers

This information contained in the 11 million documents that are 'Panama Papers' will be carefully 'managed'.

The prime directive of Power is to retain, enhance and project that power and to defend it with all the might and tools available to it. Everything a power establishment does meets these criteria. It's what bullies in the home do.So too with bullies in political, government and corporate office.

Our political power system is a mirror of the behavioural dynamics of an abuse family, a mirror that has become institutionalised over time. Take ten people with an anti-social psychology, get them to build a social structure, and that structure will express their core psychology.

It really is that simple.

What makes it complicated is the secrecy, the violence and the social conditioning, because these are all crutches that are repeatedly rebuilt to shore up that edifice of hierarchical bullying, which is constantly 'reformed' as people emerge and resist in order to mitigate that resistance, or to co-opt it.

Each reform creates yet another layer of bureaucractic rules and limitations, dependency and obfuscation.

Jobs for willing compliers in an insecure jobs market.

We pay their wages.

We let them off the hook.

Because we live in a bully system, and few of us are able to confront bullies with any clarity, because schooling and religion are inherently a bully system, and 12 years of schooling ensures we normalise to that shituation such that we don't see it anymore for what it is.

I don't blame the people for that = I hold those who design and implement Government Education Policy the most accountable, just like I hold the Catholic Church responsible for it's followers indoctrinated stance which supports The Vatican, (even as evidence of The Vatican's criminal mendacity in their cover-up emerges) more than I blame those followers for the crimes of The Vatican.

Of course it is easy to be angry AT those people who follow such obviously toxic Institutions.

Yet that is all too easily manipulated and turned against the people. "You are either with us or against us."

The emergence of the term 'sheeple' within the Conspiracy Theory community as a catch all phrase that embedded hatred and disdain for others at the same level of society. What is that all about?

Lateral Violence is when people who are stressed from above, pass on that stress to those around them or under them.

It's a displacement activity, and people on left/right, Rep/Dem dualist sides are playing that game out - they attack each other rather than confront the bully system itself, mostly because they have internalised aspects of the bully system.

Such as the concept of 'just war' to 'protect our values' carried out by poor young men wearing 'our sacred flag' which people on all sides seem to accept as a 'natural' and therefore a moral stance.

We will not resolve this until we stop fighting amongst ourselves and confront our own social conditioning,and that of those around us, and act with a degree of empathy rather than venting at each other...

Mossack Fontseca Papers :

Local action. think global, act local.

That is the declared logic behind the release; it's way bigger than the Snowden release or anything else like it, so they say.
.

When the information for each country, that relates to each countries elite Governing, Commercial and Criminal layers is available to the people in that country...... they know whose doors to be knocking on.

The doors of those who Rule them. And their companions in the business and criminal world.

But the information was handed over to the Guardians of the system, the Corporate Press, so how is that going to work out?

 Of course they will 'manage' the release via media and legal processes.

That is a given. Jimmy Savile. Highbury Disaster. Iraq War. The Vatican on predators within it's ranks, high and low.

So the data has to get out to the wider public, for us to investigate and chase.

Local solutions to local problems, globally.

Name the individuals, name the behaviour, out them and confront them.

That is how one must address a bullies behaviour.

Corbyn should be calling for this, he should be directing the resources available in the grass roots to this end, and not asking the Government to act, when he and we know they are complicit, they are actively involved in these money laundering scams.....

They are the people, or class, wot invented them for fecks sake!

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

Patterns. Behavioural patterning.

Patterns. Behavioural patterning.

As a general pattern, a commonly held view, according to conventional wisdom, and a view that accords with the beliefs of Religionists,  Ideologues, the NeoLiberal right wing and bullies of all kinds through out society is that 'survival of the fittest' is a fundamental justification of their position because it is a scientific fact which they claim is to be seen every day in nature.

Animals brutally eating other animals.

"It is the way the world works!"

They tend to refuse to address the evidence that suggests otherwise, a data base that is already vast, and which happens to be mounting in detail every day.

Which is that all organisms eat, all are eaten, all shit and piss and all the shit and piss and decay is food for more life and more diversity and it’s all sitting on the hard work of bacteria.

The bigger picture.

The bigger picture is that all this activity nurtures more life, in ever increasing diversity, and to the human eye, great beauty and generosity.

Biology is a living process of co-operation across space and time, a web of mutually nurturant processes mediated by geology, climate the action of the organisms themselves and not much else besides.

Animal Predation is the basis for human predation, therefore Human predation is natural.

Which is akin to asserting that Moles are the same as Miners, and calling that the same behavioural dynamic.

The comparison between carnivore predator and predatory human pathology holds no water. In logic terms it is a faulty comparison.

We cannot gain any accurate information by comparing the optimal health of one organism in it’s natural environment with the adverse health of another organism in a chronically stressed environment.. That does not compute.

Its like saying that a boot and a hole in the mud are the same thing because one can put one's foot in both - but they are not the same thing. They do share some qualities.

Human predatory behaviour is psychopathy and it cannot be compared to any normal healthy animal behaviour.

Human predatory behaviour  does not emerge and persist as much in healthy families, healthy communities, healthy societies as it does in hierarchically violent cultures - there is vast evidence of this, and a very detailed picture of what happens when an egalitarian pre-conquest culture is intruded upon by a bully predatory culture, the effects of chronic stress emerge within one generation.

That process is an mirror of what happens to an individual who goes through chronic stress and trauma at any stage of life... and is broken by it.

And therefore it is not a valid comparison with healthy normal behaviour in another organism.

Evolution and convention.

I see 'evolution differently to the way the mainstream sees it.

I don't subscribe to the linear process of a -z where a is 'primitive' and z is 'perfected'. I am completely evolved right here right now. I might be traumatised, scarred, limping, mentally distressed, inadequate - most of these are symptoms of environmental conditions where the biological mandate for optimal health is degraded. I need healing more than evolving.

I see a web of experience where each adaptation is complete at all times, always has been and always will be, as long as a habitat for life exists : indeed that is what current science of micro and macro biology is clarifying.

Rather than evolution from primitive to perfected, it is a process of ever increasing density of nurturant processes mediated by a diverse range of organisms that from the get go are responsive to changes in the dynamic habitat mediated by geology, weather, asteroids, and even man made changes ... etc....

Life is. Complete. This is how I feel my own being and when I look at people I see the same, and if there are changes I might want to help, they'd be about healing behaviour rather than 'evolving it'. Very much in the present, the here and now. This has been my experience in this field.

I suspect the linear progression view is partly Empire Logic, a stream of hierarchical thinking which all supports the assumption that the Empire is the most best top Gods chosen one and all the past has lead to this glorious moment.

The concept of Heaven was and remains a mental hopium to facilitate 'working for the man' until you died.

The experience of constant power struggles of the violent hierarchies in this culture is the basis for that particular concept of linear progression and survival of the fittest.

Amongst older, wiser, gentler and cultures, that thrived for 60,000 + years, and many younger ones that are still in existence, on the edges (350,000,000 people world wide) of 'civilisation' the pattern is to experience time as a web, that operates 360 degrees from any single point. and they feel their place as part of the earths living body.

And THAT feeling is 100% correct. They are. That feeling is the full body mind sensory experience which exists before the words of connection, bonding, intimacy, nurture are uttered. Experience is meaning, words is communication.

The example of societies that live and have lived lives that were and are loving, nurturing, bonded, religion free, hierarchy free, sexually healthy, egailtarian, co-operative and within that human, vulnerable, open to being hurt, capable of anger, pain, fear, terror, despair, mood swings....

I don't have a rose tinted view of pre-conquest life.

I do recognise healthy nurturing humane relationships, and I see these as the most important area of human experience and meaning of life, above all other considerations.

This human body and mind is perfectly evolved to love, to experience happiness and content, to be robust in health, to contribute to the community that nurtures me because it's joyful, it is gratitude.. it is evolved to be able to deal with occasional moments of stress, accidents, difficulties, emergencies - it is not evolved to be able to handle long term chronic stress and unresolved trauma. The proof of that is the way degenerative diseases increase in chronically stressed populations.

That is the big picture of the known existence of Hominoids as understood an Anthropology at the cutting edge, from all that I am accessing via information flows world wide, from solid science to the stories of peoples lives.

"What happened before the trauma?"

A pertinent question.

My thoughts are this...

What was the child doing, engaged in, feeling right before the adult shouted violently at the child?

- The child was exploring a sharp tool. or. The child spilled a glass of milk whilst learning how to hold the class..

What change occurred in the child's sense of self?

- Shock, then fear, all focus on the adult, then incomprehension, then tears ..... both the tool and the milk and what happened just before the shock are gone from the child's mind... and the child's attention is now fixated on the adult to prepare for what ever happens next.... to meet the adults needs to avoid further pain.

The rubber plant was growing well in that spot. Fresh shoots were a constant. Then someone dropped a bottle of tequila into the pot. And the rubber plant died.

Any healthy organism or community of organism will develop stress behaviours if exposed to long term trauma and re-traumatisation, or chronic stress.

As part if my healing, I had to access who I was before the abuse, what was I doing?

And for me what I found was a lovely wee baby boy, absolutely excited about life, exploring, growing, and that there was immense personal pleasure in the sensory experience of being alive.

Throw that baby into elite Irish catholic boarding schools, give him a good whipping, maintain that pressure for 12 years, and see how he will turn out... each child is different, so the bullies have to subject lots of children to the process and filter out the ones who will work for the system, and the ones who will not, and then break that lot if they can.

Ruling systems are experts at recruitment via grooming, indoctrination, manipulation, bureaucracy to 'manage' vulnerable, damaged people, to avoid what damages them that they are responsible for, to create grass roots division, and the are adept at gas-lighting, social torture, etc - they have already seen it all, studied it... Machiavelli.. The Bible.

I emerged from those 12 years a behavioural bully. I was one of the ones who was broken. I was manipulative, dishonest, insecure, paranoid, charming if need be, masking low self esteem... not acknowledging the pain of those I hurt. And a head full of quite crazy ludid paranoia's and self harm daydreams....

I also thought that all my behavioural problems were all about me, that my childhood had been more or less normal, that it was ALL me, that I was what was 'wrong'....

I was not born to be that way. I was not wombed to be that way. No one is, ever.

So in answer, there is plenty of evidence of widespread native cultures of diverse language groups and societies that were fundamentally egalitarian and biodynamically sustainable, and it tips towards being the dominant mode of human society for the 3 million years of human existence.

It is the confirmation from the recent discoveries in endocrinology, neurology, epi-genetics, and the exploration of bacterial life within the body are all reliable as indicators of health and stress over time, vast spans of time even though we are left with less and less materials, surviving artefacts, bones etc to assert the reliability of that assumption as we go back further and further in time: the body systems are ancient and they carry that ancient thread within them. The bacteria many of them are older still.

That evidence still exists where much of the material has vanished.

How do children become bullies and psychopaths?

A friend asked "How do children become bullies or psychopaths?" in relation to my assertion that human relationships, and thus the societies of human beings, were pretty much egalitarian for the bulk of our existence. His point was that healthy people would not allow bullying to go unchallenged. How does it start?

From what I have learned, it can be at a whole range of starting points.... .... they can be extremely subtle …and over time if slights are not resolved, if misunderstandings are repeated, they can fester, even if the child appears to be unconscious of them. That is internal pressure.

Which leads to more misunderstanding of the children's behaviour if they try to communicate and are not really heard, and so their needs are not met, and they become frustrated, and this leads on to more control, more demands for compliance, less negotiation by the parents, school, carers etc further compounding the issue.. and then there's aspects of that child's own person, autonomy, style of being, the food they eat, what colours they like,who they think they are, all these at the specific level of the individual are absolutely vital to pick out in diagnosis, or rather understanding the picture of that child's life.

That child might grow up and fit in, be fairly kind, normal and be a bit controlling, and at any stage a situation can trigger the old issues into bullying, a little at first, and so on... and he or she will tend to hang out with others he or she feels on par with.

If they build a social structure they will inject their psychology into it. If they have children, the children will grow up with that as normality. They will justify it all the way, and over time create stories or myths to support that justification. That children who grow up into a Islamic world become identify as Islamic is not a coincidence. What else was on offer? Who can blame them for that?

Extrapolate that kind of understandable mix up within a stressing social system out across whole populations, over thousands of years.... and suddenly European History makes horrific sense...

"Given the kind of society and family you were born into, how you have been treated and related to, and all that you have experienced, it's no wonder you feel the way you do!"

The precise diagnostic for that individual, if you will, but in practice more of a process of self discovery by the patient in a safe and empathic environment, than the prescriptions of some licenced professional pointing it out and administering 'medications'.

Not everyone will follow that path into compliance, broken-ness. (the processes of 'social engineering' are not perfected, nor will they ever be. We humans are way too diverse, and we are inherently free exploratory beings designed to thrive. THAT cannot be erased.) Not all abused become abusers.

The data we have at present is suggestive of a dynamic where the vast majority of serious abusers were abused as children or suffered later intense trauma and at either stage they surrendered.

This evidence cannot be used to excuse harm caused, or mitigate how we deal with those who cause serious, serious harm, and show no real remorse, Some people are genuinely dangerous and cannot be allowed to participate in open society.

Ever. As a health and safety issue, not as punishment.

It all comes down to what is a truly healthy relationship between adults and children, and what does our biology and experience of the last 250,000 years tell us about the most fertile, nurturant, loving, respectful  and sustainable ways to life on Earth and where does that correlate with the physical, emotional, social and psychological quality of people's experience of life and relationship?

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe