perm filename CHAP3[4,KMC]17 blob sn#077957 filedate 1973-12-17 generic text, type T, neo UTF8
00100	 A SYMBOL-PROCESSING THEORY OF THE PARANOID MODE
00200	
00300	           
00400	Hypotheses and Assumptions
00500	
00600		A theory consists of a conjunction  of  main  and  subsidiary
00700	hypotheses   (process   specifications),   simplifying   assumptions,
00800	boundary conditions  and  statements  of  initial  conditions  (state
00900	specifications). Underlying the theory are numerous other assumptions
01000	and presuppositions.
01100		While  paranoid  processes  represent a disorder at one level
01200	since they do not conform to norms, the observable regularities imply
01300	an  order  at another level. To account for this order, the theory of
01400	the paranoid mode to be described posits a structure or  organization
01500	of  interacting  symbolic  procedures.     These procedures and their
01600	interactions are supplemented in the theory by a number of  auxiliary
01700	assumptions and tacit presuppositions some of which will be described
01800	as the story unfolds. Since the theoretical ideas will  be  expressed
01900	in natural language, this formulation of the theory will of necessity
02000	have indefinite content.
02100		In explaining human symbolic conduct I presuppose a schema of
02200	intentionalistic action and non-action which can be described in  the
02300	form of a practical inference:
02400		AN AGENT A WANTS SITUATION S TO OBTAIN
02500		A BELIEVES THAT IN ORDER FOR S TO OBTAIN, A MUST DO X
02600		THEREFORE A PLANS, TRIES OR PROCEEDS TO DO X
02700	An agent is taken here to be human. "To do" means to produce, prevent
02800	or  allow  something  to happen. The agent's power to do X (intrinsic
02900	and extrinsic enabling conditions) is assumed.   X  can  be  multiple
03000	sequential  or  concurrent  actions  and includes mental action (e.g.
03100	deciding) as  well  as  physical action (e.g.talking).   It  is  also
03200	presupposed  in  this  action-schema  that,    in doing X, A receives
03300	feedback as to whether S is coming about, i.e.    whether doing X  is
03400	successful  or  not  in obtaining S.  Thus an intention is defined to
03500	consist of a wish, a belief, and an action which may be carried  out,
03600	interrupted and diverted or simply planned.
03700		The  major  processes,  posited in the thory as governing the
03800	paranoid  mode,  involve  an  organization   of   symbol-manipulating
03900	procedures or strategies at one level executed by an interpreter at a
04000	higher level. A serial execution of these strategies  is  assumed  to
04100	begin with "consciencing" procedures which judge an action, desire or
04200	state of the self to be wrong or defective according to  criteria  of
04300	positive  and  negative  sanctioning beliefs.     A censuring process
04400	then attempts to assign blame to an agent for the wrong.
04500		It is assumed that next the interpreter attempts a simulation
04600	of assigning blame to the self.  If the self accepts blame, the trial
04700	simulation detects an affect-signal of shame,  warning of an imminent
04800	potential for humiliation for personal failure or  imperfection.  The
04900	detection  in the simulation serves as an anticipatory warning not to
05000	actually execute the self-blaming procedure since it will  result  in
05100	the   painful   re-experiencing   of   a   negative  affect-state  of
05200	humiliation. An alternative strategy of assigning blame to others  is
05300	next  simulated  and  found not to eventuate warnings of humiliation.
05400	Hence it is executed.  It operates to repudiate that the self  is  to
05500	blame  for  a wrong and to ascribe blame to other human agents.   Now
05600	it is not the self who is responsible for a wrong but it is that  the
05700	self is wronged by others.
05800		These strategies have a consequence of being inefficient  and
05900	only partially effective in the prevention of humiliation.   They can
06000	misfire since the output counteractions generated may result  in  the
06100	self  repeatedly undergoing criticisms and condemnations from others,
06200	exposing the self to incremental shame and humiliation.      Hostile,
06300	antagonistic  and  belittling behavior provokes and alienates others.
06400	The locus of censure is shifted from  the  self  to  others  but  the
06500	countering  actions  designed to contend with others, and redress the
06600	wrongs, have paradoxical repercussions which tend to  amplify  rather
06700	than  reduce  the  very  states  these  strategies  are attempting to
06800	forestall and ward off.
06900	
07000		The  presuppositions  sketched  above  are not represented as
07100	procedures in the model-version to be described.   The model's actual
07200	strategies,  represented  in  the algorithm, begin with a scan of the
07300	input searching for conceptualizations as defined in Fig. 1.      The
07400	definition-rules  are  embodied  in the behavior of the model but are
07500	not  represented  as  such  in  the  algorithm  itself.  Using   this
07600	classification  scheme,  the  model attempts to identify the input as
07700	malevolent , benevolent or neutral. For example, to follow  one  path
07800	through  the  definition rules, malevolence is defined as mental harm
07900	or  physical  threat;  mental  harm  is  defined  as  humiliation  or
08000	subjugation;  humiliation  is defined as explicit or implicit insult;
08100	implicit insult consists of conceptualizations such as  those  listed
08200	in   Fig.   1.   If  the  input  strategies  succeed  in  recognizing
08300	malevolence, increases in negative affect-states of fear,  anger  and
08400	mistrust  occur  and  output strategies are executed in an attempt to
08500	reduce the other's malevolent effects.  If benevolence is detected in
08600	the  input, negative affect states decrease and an attempt is made to
08700	tell a "story" seeking self-affirmation and self-vindication from the
08800	other.   If  the  input  is  deemed  neutral,  a neutral non-paranoid
08900	response is given. The  output  actions  of  the  paranoid  mode  are
09000	grouped  into  reducing  persecution by retribution or by withdrawal.
09100	Retribution is intended to drive the other  away  whereas  withdrawal
09200	removes the self from the sphere of the malevolent other.
09300		The above informal formulation summarizes a series of posited
09400	operations in an organization of symbol-processing procedures.    The
09500	details of these procedures  and  their  interactions  will  be  made
09600	explicit  when  the central processes of the model are described (see
09700	p.000 ).
09800		The theory is circumscribed in that it  attempts  to  explain
09900	only certain symbolic phenomena of a particular type of episode, i.e.
10000	an interview.  It does not attempt to explain, for example,  why  the
10100	censuring process condemns particular actions or states as wrongs nor
10200	how  any  of  these  procedures  develop  over  time  in  a  person's
10300	paranoidogenic   socialization.      Thus  it  does  not  provide  an
10400	ontogenetic explanation of how an organization of  processes  evolved
10500	and  grew to be the way it is.     The model is further circumscribed
10600	in that it  offers  an  explanation  only  of  how  the  organization
10700	operates in  the  ethogenesis  of  symbolic behavior occurring in the
10800	present in a psychiatric interview.
10900		Some evidence bearing on the posited processes  will  now  be
11000	discussed.  Evidential support for processes which attempt to contend
11100	with a malevolent other comes from clinical observations  of  normal,
11200	neurotic   and   psychotic  paranoias.   The  agent  may  report  his
11300	self-monitoring directly to an  observer  commenting  that  his,  for
11400	example,  hostile  remarks  are  intended to retaliate for a believed
11500	wrong at the hands of the other. 
11600		The process of scanning for malevolence has both clinical and
11700	experimental  evidence to support it.    Clinicians are familiar with
11800	the darting eye-movements of psychotic paranoids. Patients themselves
11900	report  their  hypervigilance  as  intended  to   detect   signs   of
12000	malevolence.    Silverman  (1964)  and  Venables (1964) have reported
12100	experiments indicating that paranoid schizophrenics more  extensively
12200	scan their visual fields and have a greater breadth of attention than
12300	other schizophrenic patients.
12400		In  considering  the  presuppositions  of  censure and blame,
12500	direct  evidence  is  hard  to  come  by  and  hence  such  auxiliary
12600	assumtions  are on shakier ground. For centuries it has been a common
12700	observation that paranoids tend  to  accuse  others  of  actions  and
12800	states  which  hold  true  for  themselves  according  to  an outside
12900	observer.   In a classic paranoid clash 300 years ago, Newton, citing
13000	a  strategy  he  was  familiar with (only in others, of course), said
13100	about Leibniz: "he himself is guilty  of  what  he  complains  of  in
13200	others" (Manuel, 1968).      A  process  of  ascription has also been
13300	offered to account for the particular  selectivity  involved  in  the
13400	hypersensitivity  to  criticism.      That is, why does a man believe
13500	others will ridicule him about his appearance  unless  some  part  of
13600	himself believes his appearance to be defective?
13700		The obscurity of the relation between what the  self  expects
13800	as  malevolence  and the self's own properties is well illustrated in
13900	hypotheses which have attempted to explain the  paranoid  mode  as  a
14000	consequence  of  homosexual  conflict. It has long been observed that
14100	some (not all) paranoid patients are excessively concerned  with  the
14200	topic  of  homosexuality.    Several studies of hospitalized paranoid
14300	schizophrenics show them to be  preoccupied  with  homosexuality  far
14400	more than the nonpsychotic controls. (See Klaf and Davis ,1960). Such
14500	evidence may be interpreted as  having  generative  implications  for
14600	some  patients.     If  homosexual  interests  are  evaluated  by the
14700	censuring process as wrong, then the ethogenesis of the paranoid mode
14800	on  these  grounds  becomes  plausible  as  a limiting case in a more
14900	general process  of  forestalling  humiliation.    There  is  also  a
15000	non-negligible probablity   that   an  agent,  doubtful  of  his  own
15100	sexuality, might expect to be accused of homosexuality in a community
15200	which  censures homosexuality. In such a community homosexuals trying
15300	to "pass" are of necessity suspicious since they  must  be  on  guard
15400	against stigmatizing detection.
15500		It is obvious that self-censuring processes contribute to the
15600	regulation of human conduct. But are  distortions  of  self-censuring
15700	and  blaming  processes  the  ontogenetic  core of the paranoid mode?
15800	Heilbrun and Norbert (1971) have shown that  paranoid  schizophrenics
15900	are  more sensitive to maternal censure as measured by the disruption
16000	of a cognitive task by a tape-recording of  a  mother  censuring  her
16100	son. Further experimental evidence is needed along these lines.
16200		To embody the theory more comprehensively, the model might be
16300	extended in two ways. First, it could be made more dynamic over time.
16400	The model-version described here changes only over the  course  of  a
16500	single  interview.   To  explore  how  changes  can  be brought about
16600	through external symbolic input, the model should  have  capabilities
16700	for  self-modification  over  longer  periods  of  time  in  which it
16800	interacts with a number of interviewers. Such capacities  would  also
16900	allow  the  model  to  make retrospective misinterpretations, namely,
17000	reinterpreting old input as  malevolent  although  it  was  initially
17100	deemed as benevolent or neutral. A further use of more dynamic models
17200	could be to explore the ontogenesis of the paranoid  mode,  that  is,
17300	how   a  non-paranoid   symbolic   system  becomes  paranoid  through
17400	socializing interactions.
17500		An extension of the theory  would  involve  the  addition  of
17600	hypotheses   to   account   for   properties   such   as   arrogance,
17700	contemptuousness, and grandeur which are often found associated  with
17800	malevolence  convictions.     Implementation and integration of these
17900	hypotheses  in  the  model  would  complexify  it  to  increase   its
18000	comprehensiveness  by  extending  its repertoire of ethogenic powers.
18100	In widening the scope of a simulation one attempts  to  increase  its
18200	explanatory  power by covering a greater range of facts while keeping
18300	the model consistent. Naturally, accuracy rather than  range  is  the
18400	more fundamental desideratum.
18500	
18600	Initial Conditions
18700		When  a  theory  is  embodied  in a concrete operating model,
18800	representations of lawlike generalizations (in  this  case,  tendency
18900	statements   about   rule-governed   strategies)  are  combined  with
19000	representations  of  singular  conditions,  usually  termed  "initial
19100	conditions".    In  constructing  a  simulation  one  can  attempt to
19200	reproduce the behavior of an actual individual who  is  a  member  of
19300	some well-defined class such as "paranoid".   Another approach, which
19400	we adopted, is to construct a hypothetical individual whose  symbolic
19500	behavior will produce characteristic effects on expert judges leading
19600	him to be placed in the class "paranoid".   The  singular  statements
19700	describing  the  initial  conditions  of  our hypothetical individual
19800	follow.
19900		He is a 28 year old single Protestant male  who  works  as  a
20000	stockclerk at Sears, a large department store. He has no siblings and
20100	lives alone, seldom seeing his parents. He  is  sensitive  about  his
20200	parents,  his  religion  and  about  sex.  His  hobby  is gambling on
20300	horseracing, both at tracks and through bookies. A few months ago  he
20400	became  involved  in  a  severe  quarrel  with a bookie, claiming the
20500	bookie did not pay off a bet. After the quarrel, it occurred  to  him
20600	that  bookies  pay  protection to the underworld and that this bookie
20700	might gain revenge by having him injured or killed by the  Mafia.  He
20800	is eager to tell his story and to get help in protecting him from the
20900	underworld. He is willing to answer questions  about    non-sensitive
21000	areas  of his life and offers hints about his delusional system in an
21100	attempt to feel out the interviewer's attitude towards him.
21200		Because communication with the model  (affectionately  called
21300	PARRY)  takes  place  in the context of a psychiatric interview using
21400	unrestricted English, the first operations of the model  involve  the
21500	recognition of expressions characteristic of conversational language.