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sn#088054 filedate 1974-02-20 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 complex conjunction of (1) main and
00700 subsidiary hypotheses, (2) simplifying assumptions, (3) boundary
00800 conditions and (4) statements of initial conditions Underlying the
00900 theory are numerous other assumptions and presuppositions.
01000 Paranoid processes represent a disorder at one level since
01100 they do not conform to norms, but the observable regularities imply
01200 an order at another level. To account for this order, the theory of
01300 the paranoid mode to be described posits a structure or organization
01400 of interacting symbolic procedures. These procedures and their
01500 interactions are supplemented in the theory by a number of auxiliary
01600 assumptions and tacit presuppositions some of which will be described
01700 as the story unfolds. Since the theoretical ideas will be expressed
01800 in natural language, this formulation of the theory will of necessity
01900 have indefinite content.
02000 In explaining human symbolic conduct I presuppose a schema of
02100 intentionalistic action and non-action which can be described in the
02200 form of a practical inference:
02300 AN AGENT A WANTS SITUATION S TO OBTAIN
02400 A BELIEVES THAT IN ORDER FOR S TO OBTAIN, A MUST DO X
02500 THEREFORE A PLANS, TRIES OR PROCEEDS TO DO X
02600 An agent is taken here to be human. "To do" means to produce, prevent
02700 or allow something to happen. The agent's power to do X (intrinsic
02800 and extrinsic enabling conditions) is assumed. X can be multiple
02900 sequential or concurrent actions and includes mental action (e.g.
03000 deciding) as well as physical action (e.g.talking). It is also
03100 presupposed in this action-schema that, in doing X, A receives
03200 feedback as to whether S is coming about, i.e. whether doing X is
03300 successful or not in obtaining S. Thus an intention is defined to
03400 consist of a wish, a belief, and an action which may be carried out,
03500 interrupted and diverted or simply planned.
03600 Further presupposed processes involve (1) an organization of
03700 symbol-manipulating procedures or strategies at one level executed by
03800 (2) a higher-level interpreter. A serial execution of these
03900 strategies is assumed to begin with the interpreter executing
04000 "censuring" procedures which judge an action, desire or state of the
04100 self to reflect an inadequacy or defectiveness of the self.
04200 It is assumed that the interpreter then attempts a
04300 simulation, an experimental trial, of assigning blame or censure to
04400 the self. If the self accepts blame, the trial simulation detects
04500 an affect-signal of shame, warning of an imminent potential
04600 humiliation for personal failure or imperfection. Humiliation
04700 signifies an unacceptable self despised by others. The detection of
04800 shame in the simulation serves as an anticipatory warning not to
04900 actually execute the self-censuring procedure since it will result in
05000 the painful re-experiencing of the devastating negative affect-state
05100 of humiliation. To forestall this exposure of inadequacy, the
05200 interpreter tries an alternative simulation of assigning blame to
05300 others and in this experiment detects no warnings of impending
05400 humiliation. Hence this strategy is executed by the interpreter. It
05500 operates (1) to repudiate that the self is to blame for an inadequacy
05600 and (2) to ascribe blame to other human agents. Now it is not the
05700 self who is unacceptable because of inadequacy; instead, what is
05800 believed is that the self is wronged by others.
05900 These internal strategies for the prevention of humiliation
06000 are only partially effective because of the nature of their output
06100 consequences. They can misfire since the output counteractions in
06200 which others are blamed may result in the self undergoing censure and
06300 condemnations from others who retaliate. In this sense the
06400 forestalling strategies are inefficient since the blaming and
06500 accusing of others can paradoxically lead to what the self wants to
06600 avoid, namely shame and humiliation for personal inadequacy. Hostile,
06700 antagonistic and belittling behavior provokes and alienates others.
06800 The locus of censure is shifted from the self to others but the
06900 countering actions designed to blame others and redress believed
07000 wrongs, have paradoxical repercussions which expose the self to
07100 censure. They amplify rather than reduce the very states these
07200 strategies are attempting to forestall.
07300
07400 The presuppositions sketched above are not represented as
07500 procedures in the model-version to be described. The model's actual
07600 strategies, represented in the algorithm, begin with a scan of the
07700 input searching for conceptualizations as defined in Fig. 1. The
07800 definition-rules are embodied in the behavior of the model but are
07900 not represented as rules in the algorithm itself. Using this
08000 classification scheme, the model attempts to identify the input as
08100 malevolent , benevolent or neutral. For example, to follow one path
08200 through the definition-rules, malevolence is defined as mental harm
08300 or physical threat; mental harm is defined as humiliation or
08400 subjugation; humiliation is defined as explicit or implicit insult;
08500 implicit insult consists of conceptualizations such as those listed
08600 in Fig. 1. If the input strategies succeed in recognizing
08700 malevolence, increases in negative affect-states of fear, anger and
08800 mistrust occur and output strategies are executed in an attempt to
08900 reduce the other's malevolent effects. If benevolence is detected in
09000 the input, negative affect states decrease and an attempt is made to
09100 tell a "story" seeking self-affirmation and self-vindication from the
09200 other. If the input is deemed neutral, a neutral non-paranoid
09300 response is given. The output actions of the paranoid mode are
09400 grouped into reducing persecution by retribution or by withdrawal.
09500 Retribution is intended to drive the other away whereas withdrawal
09600 removes the self from the sphere of the malevolent other.
09700 The above informal formulation summarizes a series of posited
09800 operations in an organization of symbol-processing procedures. The
09900 details of these procedures and their interactions will be made
10000 explicit when the central processes of the model are described (see
10100 p.000 ).
10200 The theory is circumscribed in that it attempts to explain
10300 only certain symbolic phenomena of a particular type of episode, i.e.
10400 an interview. It does not attempt to explain, for example, why the
10500 censuring process condemns particular actions or states of the self
10600 as inadequate nor how any of these procedures develop over time in a
10700 person's paranoidogenic socialization. Thus it does not provide
10800 an ontogenetic explanation of how an organization of processes
10900 evolved and grew to be the way it is. The model is further
11000 circumscribed in that it offers an explanation only of how the
11100 organization
11200 operates in the ethogenesis of symbolic behavior occurring in the
11300 present in a psychiatric interview.
11400 Some scattered and insufficiently interlocking evidence
11500 bearing on the posited processes will now be discussed. Evidential
11600 support for processes which attempt to contend with a malevolent
11700 other comes from clinical observations of normal, neurotic and
11800 psychotic paranoias. The patient may report directly his
11900 self-monitoring to an observer, commenting that his, for example,
12000 hostile remarks, are intended to retaliate for believed wrongs at the
12100 hands of other people.
12200 The process of scanning for malevolence has both clinical and
12300 experimental evidence to support it. Clinicians are familiar with
12400 the darting eye-movements of psychotic paranoids. Patients themselves
12500 report their hypervigilance as intended to detect signs of
12600 malevolence. Silverman (1964) and Venables (1964) have reported
12700 experiments indicating that paranoid schizophrenics more extensively
12800 scan their visual fields and have a greater breadth of attention than
12900 other schizophrenic patients.
13000 In considering the presuppositions of censure and blame,
13100 direct evidence is hard to come by and hence such auxiliary
13200 assumptions are on shakier ground. For centuries it has been a common
13300 observation that paranoids tend to accuse others of actions and
13400 states which hold true for themselves according to an outside
13500 observer. In a classic paranoid clash 300 years ago, Newton, citing
13600 a strategy he was familiar with (only in others, of course), said
13700 about Leibniz: "he himself is guilty of what he complains of in
13800 others" (Manuel, 1968). A process of ascription has also been
13900 offered to account for the particular selectivity involved in the
14000 hypersensitivity to criticism. That is, why does a man believe
14100 others will ridicule him about his appearance unless some part of
14200 himself believes his appearance to be defective?
14300 The obscurity of the relation between what the self expects
14400 as malevolence and the self's own properties is well illustrated in
14500 hypotheses which have attempted to explain the paranoid mode as a
14600 consequence of homosexual conflict. It has long been observed that
14700 some (not all) paranoid patients are excessively concerned with the
14800 topic of homosexuality. Several studies of hospitalized paranoid
14900 schizophrenics show them to be preoccupied with homosexuality far
15000 more than the nonpsychotic controls. (See Klaf and Davis ,1960). A
15100 review of clinical, test, and experimental evidence for the
15200 homosexual hypothesis in paranoid schizophrenia has been made by
15300 Kline who, while realizing the reliability and validity issues which
15400 plague these studies, concludes that the evidence is supportive.
15500 (Kline, 1972). Such evidence may be interpreted as having generative
15600 implications for some patients. If homosexual interests are
15700 evaluated by the censuring process an inadequate, unacceptable self,
15800 then the ethogenesis of the paranoid mode on these grounds becomes
15900 plausible as a limiting case in a more general process of
16000 forestalling humiliation. There is also a non-negligible
16100 probablity that an agent, doubtful of his own sexuality, might expect
16200 to be accused of homosexuality in a community which censures
16300 homosexuality. In such a community homosexuals trying to "pass" are
16400 of necessity suspicious since they must be on guard against
16500 stigmatizing detection.
16600 It is obvious that self-censuring processes contribute to the
16700 regulation of human conduct. But are distortions of self-censuring
16800 and blaming processes the ontogenetic core of the paranoid mode?
16900 Heilbrun and Norbert (1971) have shown that paranoid schizophrenics
17000 are more sensitive to maternal censure as measured by the disruption
17100 of a cognitive task by a tape-recording of a mother censuring her
17200 son. Further experimental evidence is needed along these lines.
17300 To embody the theory more comprehensively, the model might be
17400 extended in two ways. First, it could be made more dynamic over time.
17500 The model-version described here changes only over the course of a
17600 single interview. To explore how changes can be brought about
17700 through external symbolic input, the model should have capabilities
17800 for self-modification over longer periods of time in which it
17900 interacts with a number of interviewers. Such capacities would also
18000 allow the model to make retrospective misinterpretations, namely,
18100 reinterpreting old input as malevolent although it was initially
18200 deemed as benevolent or neutral. A further use of more dynamic models
18300 could be to explore the ontogenesis of the paranoid mode, that is,
18400 how a non-paranoid symbolic system becomes paranoid through
18500 socializing interactions.
18600 An extension of the theory would involve the addition of
18700 hypotheses to account for properties such as arrogance,
18800 contemptuousness, and grandeur which are often found associated with
18900 malevolence convictions. Implementation and integration of these
19000 hypotheses in the model would complexify it to increase its
19100 comprehensiveness by extending its repertoire of ethogenic powers.
19200 In widening the scope of a simulation one attempts to increase its
19300 explanatory power by covering a greater range of facts while keeping
19400 the model consistent. Naturally, accuracy rather than range is the
19500 more fundamental desideratum.
19600
19700 Initial Conditions
19800 When a theory is embodied in a concrete operating model,
19900 representations of lawlike generalizations (in this case, tendency
20000 statements about rule-governed strategies) are combined with
20100 representations of singular conditions, usually termed "initial
20200 conditions". In constructing a simulation one can attempt to
20300 reproduce the behavior of an actual individual who is a member of
20400 some well-defined class such as "paranoid". Another approach, which
20500 we adopted, is to construct a hypothetical individual whose symbolic
20600 behavior will produce characteristic effects on expert judges leading
20700 him to be placed in the class "paranoid". The singular statements
20800 describing the initial conditions of our hypothetical individual
20900 follow.
21000 He is a 28 year old single Protestant male who works as a
21100 stockclerk at Sears, a large department store. He has no siblings and
21200 lives alone, seldom seeing his parents. He is sensitive about his
21300 parents, his religion and about sex. His hobby is gambling on
21400 horseracing, both at tracks and through bookies. A few months ago he
21500 became involved in a severe quarrel with a bookie, claiming the
21600 bookie did not pay off a bet. After the quarrel, it occurred to him
21700 that bookies pay protection to the underworld and that this bookie
21800 might gain revenge by having him injured or killed by the Mafia. He
21900 is eager to tell his story and to get help in protecting him from the
22000 underworld. He is willing to answer questions about non-sensitive
22100 areas of his life and offers hints about his delusional system in an
22200 attempt to feel out the interviewer's attitude towards him.
22300 Because communication with the model (affectionately called
22400 PARRY) takes place in the context of a psychiatric interview using
22500 unrestricted English, the first operations of the model involve the
22600 recognition of expressions characteristic of conversational language.