Religion. The Etiology of Mental Illness - Henry Jones (Mental Health Education, 2007)

RELIGION:
THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS
Henry E. Jones, M.D.
www.MentalHealthEducation.net
THE HUMAN BRAIN
A UNIVERSAL THEORY
OF HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY
& AN EXPLANATION
OF THE CAUSE OF MENTAL ILLNESS
Henry E. Jones, M.D.
Copyright 2006 by Henry Jones M.D. All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
Preface Introduction: SECTION I: THE HEALTHY MIND Chapter 1: Anatomy of the Human Brain Chapter 2: The Human Forebrain SECTION II: MENTAL ILLNESS Chapter 3: Religion Chapter 4: Indoctrination Chapter 5: Perversion of Motivation Chapter 6: The Religious Self Chapter 7: Redemption Chapter 8: The Dialectic Effect Chapter 9: Perversion of Cognition Chapter 10: Identity SECTION III: CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY Chapter 11: Psychiatric Symptoms Chapter 12: Development of Mental Illness i iii 1 2 8 15 16 20 28 36 40 44 48 50 57 58 64
Chapter 13: The Psychiatric Syndromes Depression Bipolar Disorder Alcohol Abuse Chemical Abuse Obsessive-Compulsive Panic Disorder Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Schizophreniform Disorders Somatization Disorders Sexual & Identity Disorder Chapter 14: Examples of Religious Self-Sacrifice Chapter 15: Religious Self-Sacrifice in Everyday Life SECTION IV: CONCLUSIONS Chapter 16: Morality and Animal Behavior Chapter 17: The Cure of Mental Illness Chapter 18: The Morality of Life and Mental Health Chapter 19: The Prevention of Mental Illness Chapter 20: The Purpose of Mental Illness
68 70 72 74 77 80 82 84 87 89 91 94 100 103 104 106 110 114 118
Chapter 21: Politics and Public Policy Chapter 22: Summary POSTSCRIPT REFERENCES
122 124 127 129
PREFACE:
I write, not as a theologian or philosopher, but as a physician and psychiatrist. I have spent almost forty years interviewing, studying and trying to help mental patients. This book contains the results of my observations and analysis. The conclusions are not necessarily the ones I would have chosen. But they are the conclusions of a scientist presented with a massive amount of clinical data. They are conclusions that demanded not to be ignored. Henry E. Jones, M.D. www.MentalHealthEducation.net August 2006
INTRODUCTION:
eligious indoctrination of children is the cause of mental illness. Belief in religion can result in significant brain damage. What exactly do I mean by religion? How does religion adversely affect the human brain? How does belief in religion cause mental illness? These are serious questions, which I will answer in this book. But first, why is this issue important? Mental illness is the greatest threat facing mankind in the 21st century. A pandemic of mental illness has spread around the world. It now brings destructiveness to every nation. Mental illness reveals itself in thousands of ways. Terrorism, slavery, poverty, violence and famine might be our first concerns. Alcohol and drug abuse, suicide and homicide, child abuse and sexual molestation might be next. But broken homes and dysfunctional families destroy lives and hurt societies everywhere. When you factor in the loss of productivity, criminality and the reallocation of resources that all of these problems require, the human cost, and the financial cost, is staggering. Mental illness, when combined with weapons of mass destruction could result in the annihilation of the human race. While mental illness has resulted in hundreds of millions of deaths over previous millenniums, modern technology now places the entire planet and all members of our species at peril.
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INTRODUCTION
No longer can a mentally ill ruler, or a popular suicidal theology in some faraway land, be safely ignored. Mental illness becomes everyones problem with the advent of nuclear weapons. This book is directed toward any person concerned about the condition of our world. In addition to alerting concerned citizens about the global threat of religious belief, this book should be of help to the two groups who are at the forefront of this pandemic. The first group who should find this book of benefit is those who suffer the pain and anguish of mental illness. The symptoms of guilt, depression and anxiety rob many people of the joy of life. And when people are unhappy and miserable, they become angry and often turn to violence. While almost any hope of effective treatment relieves this some of this anguish for a while, it soon returns. A number of key insights are required to permanently overcome mental illness. The first is the realization that what is needed is education, not medication. Drugs can relieve emotional symptoms on a temporary basis, but no pill is going to introduce the knowledge that is needed into the human brain. Once a mental patient realizes that only specific knowledge can provide the cure they seek, then this book can start them on the path to lasting mental health. The second group of people this book seeks to help is the helpers themselves. Psychiatrist, psychologist, counselors of all kinds, endeavor to help their patients or clients. Most are frustrated that they are unable to do more. All wish to effect a more dramatic and sustained improvement in those they are trying to help. This book provides both patient and helper a deeper look inside the development and dynamics of mental illness. It also provides a platform from which to explore important, but neglected issues in mental health. In addition to the clinical applications of this book,
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RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS
there are important societal implications. Political leaders concerned with public policy need to understand the implications of this book. Most of the pandemics that have threatened mankind in the past required a public health intervention to bring them under control. Humans learned that clean water and proper sewage disposal were requirements of permanent settlements. Without these measures, city life is just too dangerous to maintain. The control of malaria mandated draining the swamps and insecticides to reduce the mosquito population. Control of bubonic plague demanded new sanitation measures at ports to reduce the rat population. Pasteurs discovery of the role of microorganisms in fermentation led to the germ theory and the concept of infection. This has led to huge changes in medicine and throughout society. Every public health measure required to combat these past threats has required changes in human behavior. Only by altering human behavior have epidemics been diminished. Such a public health approach will be needed to control the scourge of religion. The toxicity that religious indoctrination has for the human mind must be appreciated and addressed.
SECTION I: THE HEALTHY MIND
CHAPTER 1 Anatomy of the Human Brain

oing research on the human brain is difficult. Until the last few decades most of our knowledge of brain function came from the study of animals, and from post-mortem studies of patients. By comparing the anatomic findings at autopsy with the symptoms and behavior exhibited before death, a correlation can be derived between a damaged area of the brain and its functions. C.S. Sherrington pioneered the study of brain function in live subjects by stimulating areas of the brain of patients as they underwent surgery. Now scientists can use magnetic resonance imaging to map areas of the brain and relate them to function. From such studies a good deal has been learned. It appears that specific anatomic sites in the brain are not as well related to certain functions as once thought. Rather a number of areas in the brain, connected by nerve pathways to form circuits, are in charge of most functions. There also seems to be a good deal of variation between the sexes and from one human brain to the next. But even with these difficulties, we can make some important generalizations.
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The human brain can be divided into two major anatomically areas, the Forebrain and the Hindbrain. The Forebrain or new-brain includes the left and right cerebral hemispheres, each with its four lobes. The frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal lobes each with its gray matter are the largest and most obvious parts of the human brain. The Forebrain also includes the thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, hippocampus, and limbic system. The scientific name for this area of the brain is: prosencephalon. This area is believed to be the part of the brain most involved with abstract conceptual thought. This is the area that is programmable through experience and education. This area is also called the new-brain because it is an area that is poorly developed in the lower animals, and much better developed in the higher animals. The Forebrain reaches the zenith of development with the brain of man. Then there is the Hindbrain, or rhombencephalon. This area is referred to as the old-brain because it is present in primitive and ancient creatures, as well as in the more advanced animals. The Hindbrain of humans closely resembles that found in animals. Connecting the Forebrain and the Hindbrain is a small area called the Midbrain or mesencephalon. Most authorities believe this area functions mainly as a communications link or nerve crossroads, between the two major areas of the brain. The Hindbrain includes the cerebellum, pons, and medulla oblongata. This area of the brain functions in humans principally the same as it does in animals. It supports vital bodily functions. It regulates heart rate, respiration rate, sleep, digestion and most of the other automatic, so called vegetative functions. These functions in the Hindbrain of man and animals are fixed by genetics. They are wired-in, and largely inalterable and unchangeable. While this area can be trained to
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ANATOMY OF THE HUMAN BRAIN
some extent, it is not under direct volitional control. Mostly this area operates automatically, and to a considerable extent, unconsciously. Lying asleep within the human Hindbrain at birth is a structure that will require some development and maturation before it awakens. This structure, like the others in the Hindbrain, has its functions wired-in and fixed by genetics. The individual has little control over this structure, or how it works, yet it is this structure more than any other that will determine the course of a persons life. This structure is the SELF. The self is our experience of who we are and it contains our deepest hopes, fears, ambitions and desires. It is our inner life. It is that small voice down deep inside that represents our true being. It is through this self that we experience pleasure, pain, hope and disappointment. It is the self that is the executer of thought and action. The self emanates from Hindbrain tissue and has the attributes of this area of the brain. The self is not an abstract creation of computer cognition, it is hardware, and it is fundamentally inalterable and unchanging. The self is pre-programmed by genes, millions of years of evolution, and it is inalterable through learning, persuasion or force. If we observe the behavior of animals, we see that they spend most of their time trying to satisfy their basic needs and ensure their survival. This is almost their total and consummate purpose. Said another way, an animal is most concerned with its own self-interest. Even when you see an animal caring for its young, you can tell that it does so out of its own needs and pressures. If we try to extrapolate a moral code from animal behavior, it is one of near complete self-interest. The same is true of the human self. Animals, and the self, are all about providing for their needs, feeding themselves, feeding their offspring, gratifying their needs, bettering
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their survival situation and improving their opportunities for satisfying their needs in the future. The human self is as singlemindedly obsessed with satisfying its needs as any animal. If we again try to extrapolate a moral code from the orientation of the self, we again arrive at a self-centered ethic, a morality of acting in ones own self-interest. This natural morality that we observe in all living creatures is pro-life and pro-self. It is based on biological needs and survival. These pro-self, pro-life moral principles are hard-wired into the Hindbrain. If these moral principles of the self were the result of learning, humans would be very different beings. But selfish, self-centered behavioral imperatives promoting the individuals self-interest are wired-in to the self. They are permanent, inalterable and unchangible. This natural morality of the self, and the Hindbrains of all animals, is inalterably selfish, pro-self and pro-life. It is the self, which experiences pleasure and pain. Pleasure is mediated in the brain by chemicals or hormones called endorphins. When an animal or human satisfies a biological need, his brain secretes these hormones. These natural substances chemically resemble morphine. Secretion of endorphins by the brain evokes the feeling of pleasure. When a person, or an animal, engages in the activities which stimulate the brain to secrete endorphins, they experience pleasure. These chemicals make the individual feel very good. There is a whole spectrum of endorphins that are produced and secreted by the brain in response to different activities. Physical exercise causes the brain to secrete one group of endorphins. Ingesting food, listening to music, sexual activity, and mothering seem to produce still different endorphins. This endorphin kickback system rewards a creature for taking action and satisfying a need. An animal or a human quickly becomes addicted to those actions that cause the brain to secrete
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ANATOMY OF THE HUMAN BRAIN
these chemicals. Toddlers soon learn to seek the pleasure of these brain chemicals by thinking, solving problems and acquiring the things they need and enjoy. The human mind is ideally designed to succeed at such tasks. When an animals or a persons needs go unsatisfied, endorphins become in short supply. A lack of endorphins makes a person feel very bad. Low endorphin levels, even for a short time, can lead to depression and despondency. The endorphin system in animals works the same way. The endorphin reward system is a Hindbrain function. Endorphins affect other chemicals along several metabolic pathways important to proper brain function. Chronically low endorphin levels will cause an individual to feel extremely bad and may cause him to resort to reckless endorphin-seeking behaviors. If endorphin levels are low enough, long enough, brain damage will result. The self lies at the crossroads between concept formation in the Forebrain and the endorphin reward system in the Hindbrain. Self-esteem is the result of integration between cognition and the endorphin reward system. Self-esteem then creates a positive, optimistic attitude and demeanor. Selfesteem creates background music of the mind that is positive, uplifting, encouraging, and even heroic. Self-esteem is the good feeling that results from the seamless integration of Forebrain with Hindbrain.
CHAPTER 2 The Human Forebrain, The Mental Computer

he Forebrain of Homo sapiens is sometimes referred to as the new brain because it evolved into being in its present form just 200,000 years ago. When discussing evolution, we generally speak in increments of millions of years. So we human beings with our new and enlarged Forebrains are very new on the scene. And with this bigger and better Forebrain, we are able to do some marvelous things. We are able to do things that no other creature can do. To more easily understand what the human Forebrain can do, and how it does it, we can compare it to the personal computer. Computer hardware is the mechanical, magnetic, electronic, and electric components that make up a computer system. The Forebrain and its tissue are analogous to this computer Hardware. Computer software is the programs, routines, and instructions that control the functioning of the hardware and direct its operation. Experience and learning teach humans concepts. These concepts or ideas form the
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which is currently displayed in the minds eye is like what is displayed on a computer Monitor. And it is the self that is doing the observing. The mind, our mental computer, is programmed with concepts. Mind is a manifestation of the organization and activity of the total human brain. Thinking, contemplating, imagining, remembering, reminiscing, fantasizing, calculating, and changing our mind, all involve active brain processes that result in real structural changes in the brain. Atomic, molecular, electric, hormonal and chemical changes follow from every mental act. Chronologically, a childs mind develops through three stages: (1) the stage of sensations, (2) the perceptual stage, and (3) the conceptual stage4. At the first stage of mental development, the stage of sensations, the brain acts as a measuring device. It measures light waves, then transposes them into electric impulses; it measures sound waves, then transposes them into electric impulses; and it measures minute amounts of chemical in the air and in food, and transposes them into electric impulses. It measures temperature and pressure against the skin and transposes it into electric impulses. The human brain does this measuring and transposing into electric impulses inherently and automatically. A human being automatically experiences these electric impulses, depending on where in the brain they arrive, as sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. From these sensations, the brain automatically forms percepts. A percept is a group of sensations automatically bundled and integrated by the brain. It is in this form that the human being grasps the evidence of his senses and apprehends reality. Functionally, the human brain begins processing information beginning at this perceptual stage. Percepts are thus the foundation of all human knowledge. Starting with
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Software with which the human mind is programmed. That
THE HUMAN FOREBRAIN, THE MENTAL COMPUTER
percepts, a child begins his lifelong process of building first, second, third and for some, fourth order concepts. First order concepts are the most simple of the conceptual building blocks and are derived from underlying percepts. The first concept a child forms is the idea of thing. The fact that something exists is implicit in every percept ( to perceive a thing is to perceive that it exists). A child grasps this first concept of thing implicitly on the perceptual level. This begins the conceptual building of the individuals knowledge and understanding of the world. Next the brain, through its ability at relative measurement, forms secondary concepts by dividing things into different kinds of things. These secondary concepts are of concrete objects like mama, toy, table, chair, as well as secondary concepts of attributes and actions. The key to human cognition is this ability to regard entities as units of a larger group. This is the human beings distinctive method of thinking. Thus a growing child develops the concept of, for example chair, recognizing the chair he uses at the table as one example, one unit, of a whole class of similar objects. This class of objects, this concept, has a name, chair. So language becomes a method of labeling concepts, and then the tool of further conceptual thought. Chair, is further refined into high chair, my chair, daddys chair, rocking chair, and so on. Table goes through the same process, kitchen table, dining table, etcetera. Every object and every action in the childs environment undergoes similar cognitive definition, classification and labeling. The developing mind, through learning, accumulates an ever increasing store of concepts. Thus from a base of percepts, an ever-growing matrix of concepts and associations grows over time. This creates an ever expanding fourdimensional matrix of concepts and their connections which
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continually creates the human mind. As this matrix of concepts, and their associations expand, two interacting cognitive processes are taking place. From a base of percepts, then primary, secondary, and higher order concepts, cognitive development moves toward (a) more extensive knowledge, and (b) more intensive knowledge. That is to say (a) toward wider integrations, and (b) more precise differentiations. Following this process and in accordance with cognitive evidence, earlierformed concepts are integrated into wider ones or subdivided into narrower ones. The process of forming a concept is not complete until its constituent units have been integrated into a single mental unit and defined by a specific word. In this way the human mind is programned with concepts. This process of abstracting from an abstraction is not simply memorizing a word. Mental work must be expended and it is not an arbitrary selection. Each new concept must stand up to rigorous analysis, it must make sense within the context of all the individuals concepts and associations. Every new concept must be integrated without contradiction into the total of ones mind. Mind being all of the accumulated concepts, integrated from percept-derived concepts at the base, through all levels of abstraction. This ability of the human Forebrain at conceptual thought appears to have no limitation. The human imagination seems boundless and able to concieve anything regardless of whether or not it is real or even possible. This ability to imagine and concieve the seemingly impossible is mans greatest strength. It is also his Achilles heel. As the human mind pursues its relentless cognition and continually tries to integrate concepts and make logical associations, it is trying to eliminate contradictions. A contradiction prevents integration. The human mind abhors a contradiction. When the mind is confronted with a concept
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that cannot be integrated into its matrix of fully integrated concepts, that cannot be connected by logical links or associations all the way back and down to the level of perceptions, then it must do one of three things. The healthy thing for the human mind to do with a contradiction is to reject the concept as untrue and throw it out. We hear people say; Im not falling for that bull, Im not about to swallow that and that sounds untrue to me. These statements, and many others like them, are used to communicate to others that the concept does not logically integrate into the speakers knowledge bank and is therefore rejected. An idea may not be thrown out immediately. The person may ponder it for a period of time but a healthy, opinionated human will not accept ideas that they cannot integrate into their mind. A person will ponder the validity of a belief or concept until he is able to integrate it into his overall knowledge, or he will reject it and remove it from his mind. This rejection of floating abstractions, concepts that make no sense, and beliefs that cannot be integrated goes on continuously. Accepting beliefs and forming concepts is parsimonious. The human mind seeks the most simple and least concepts required to explain its observations. In children, the adherence to reality and reason is the natural inclination, but it is a choice. Conceptual integration, without contradiction, from the ground up, has epistemological primacy, but it is not automatic. In addition to this outright rejection there are two other ways the human mind may handle a contradiction. But if either of these two methods are utilized habitually, brain damage will result. The first of these potentially dangerous ways of dealing with a contradiction is by using compartmentalization. This mental mechanism can be harmless. If a child wishes to believe
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certain unintegratable concepts, even if only for a short period of time, he can use this mental mechanism. Children use this in make-believe games. Creative adults use this ability, especially actors, comedians, impersonators, novelists and spies. The trouble begins when a person forces their imagination to create a compartment in their mind where concepts that cannot be integrated may be housed. Here a concept can be protected from the relentless forces of cognition. Compartmentalization used routinely to force contradictions into the mind will result in mental illness. The third alternative is the most dangerious and is almost immediately disasterious. Brain damage usually leads to this approach and more brain damage will be the result. Here the individual responds to a contradiction by suspending the integrative process, blanking out and refusing to think. Logical and reasonable concepts then co-mingle with unintegrated and unintegratable superstitution and fantasy. With little or no organization or structure, the mental salad of psychosis results. Dementia praecox, the schizophrenias, are the most serious consequences of religious brain damage. Studies of theist populations reveal that about 2% are floridly psychotic at any given time. Without compartmentalization, and the mechanisms of defense necessary to maintain the process, this number would be nearer 100%. Indeed, history has recorded periods and events when entire populations in certain places have decompensated and mass psychoses reigned for a time. The computer-like Forebrain in humans appears almost infinitely programmable. Only the limits of the imagination restrict the Forebrain. The Hindbrain, containing the self is fixed, hard-wired and inalterable. The Forebrain, with its lightening-fast computer ability, should be in service to the fixed, feeling, Hindbrain self. The Forebrain should program itself to
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serve the self completely and efficiently. But it is possible for the computer-like Forebrain to be programmed in a manner that is incompatible with the needs and functions of the SELF. This is the crux of the problem. The new, computer portion of the brain can go where the old, animal portion of the brain cannot follow. And as it turns out, we are very fortunate that the human brain is made this way.
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SECTION II: THE MENTALLY ILL
CHAPTER 3 Religion
eligion is an institution, started and maintained by human beings. While these organizations typically claim a monopoly of God, not everyone agrees. The belief by human beings in a first cause, a creator, a higher power, or a father or mother of the universe, a deity, a supreme being or a God probably began the moment our ancestors were capable of conceptual thought. Most hunter-gatherer peoples worshiped a deity of some sort. They often found their God personified in such natural entities as the sun, the moon, an ocean, forest or mountain. Religion as we know it was invented about 20,000 years ago. This was at the point were advancements in agriculture began to allow the establishment of permanent settlements. The advent of agriculture, the establishment of cities, the institutions of slavery and religion and the development of organized military operations all appeared together around that time.
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For our purposes, religion will be defined as an institution that teaches and promotes a certain ideology. When this ideology includes a deity, the adherents to the ideology are theist, and the ideology can be called a theology. Some religions like fascism and communism may not include a deity. The principles we will discuss here apply to them equally as well. Religions, past and present, have had a number of beliefs. Some of the beliefs religion teaches, or has taught in the past, are that: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. God is a single entity or multiple entities. God is an inanimate object. God is a mythical animal. God is a real animal. God is a human-like, but immortal creature. God is part human, part supernatural. God is forgiving. God is punitive and punishing. God requires sacrifice of humans, the killing of people. God requires the symbolic sacrifice of humans. God requires sacrifice of the self. God requires the symbolic sacrifice of the self. God requires the sacrifice of animals. God requires the symbolic sacrifice of animals. God requires the sacrifice of inanimate objects such as food. God requires the symbolic sacrifice of inanimate objects. God requires certain rituals be performed at certain times. God requires prayer. God requires subjugation of reason to obedience. God defines sin.
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RELIGION
21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26.
God defines punishment for sin. God defines conditions for forgiveness of sin. God defines virtue. God defines reward for virtue. God describes a supernatural realm. God describes numerous supernatural inhabitants of this realm. 27. God outlines the type of relationship people should have with the supernatural inhabitants. I will define two of these religious beliefs. Later I will explain why they are important to human psychology. 1. Mysticism or supernaturalism -- A belief in things that cannot be perceived or proven through reason, logic or scientific research. Belief in mysticism rests on a mental process called faith. Faith is the mental process of accepting the validity of a belief on the basis of obedience to an authority. It is here that most religions evoke a concept of God. God is the authority who certifies the mystical belief system as true and valid. Someone, of course, must speak for God, or claim to have over-heard God speak for himself. Individuals who claim to have direct knowledge of Gods word are called prophets. These prophets reveal Gods wishes to the world. Sometimes they write them down themselves. On other occasions, someone who is a disciple of the prophet writes down what God has revealed. Hence, religions are sometimes referred to as revealed religions. These revealed religions are usually named after their principle prophet. 2. Human Sacrifice -- All prophets report that God wants human sacrifice. According to the prophets, either God wants mankind to make a sacrifice of other people, or God
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wants people to sacrifice themselves. Religion is about human sacrifice. The ancient pagan religions taught that God required that human beings be killed on Gods altars as a sacrifice to him. More modern religions are satisfied with individuals sacrificing their self to their God. Thus all religions teach that selfishness is evil and self-sacrifice is virtuous. All mankind he divided into two citiestwo vast communities that encompass the whole earth of past, present and future. That which animates secular society is the love of self, to the point of contempt for God; that which animates divine society is the love of God to the point of contempt for self. The one prides itself on itself; the pride of the other is in the Lord; the one seeks glory from man, the other counts its consciousness of God as its greatest glory.
English translation of writings of a renowned religious leader
In exchange for sacrifice, religion promises a reward. The reward is usually some kind of heaven or nirvana that is usually, though not always, located in another dimension, in another world and reachable only after death. This heaven promises pleasures and happiness unavailable in the real world, so an afterlife is generally part of a religious mysticism. This reward for sacrifice takes us in a circular fashion back to mysticism. While there are many other parts to most religions, these two aspects will be our focus. We will examine what these beliefs do to the proper functioning of the human mind.
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CHAPTER 4 Indoctrination
hildren are very suggestible. They want to please. They seek affirmation. They want their self to be recognized. They want their self to be recognized for its goodness. They expect the lovable-ness of their self to be appreciated and admired. They act as though they believe their survival depends upon their parents recognition of this. When the lovable-ness of their self is affirmed, children embrace the discipline provided by their parents, and in time, develop selfdiscipline. In time such children mature into opinionated, selfsufficient adults. But a child does not get to choose his parents, family, community, religion, nation or culture. Parents vary in how strict, hard-nosed, and demanding they are that their children think, believe and behave in certain ways. Family, community, religion, nation and culture also vary in this way. So the child of a liberal family in a liberal nation of a liberal culture may have considerable leeway when presented with religious beliefs. The child in a different family in a different country of a different culture may have little or no option but to mentally and behaviorally conform. Whether or not a person is free to
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abandon a belief system is of crucial importance. A Belief System (BS) is any group of integrated concepts, used in a systematic way, to accomplish a goal. A BS has both content and a methodology. A Belief System reduces the cognitive workload, allowing much more to be accomplished, particularly within a given time. Language is a Belief System. Imagine the time and effort it would take to create a new language every time we wished to communicate something to someone. A language held in common greatly facilitates communication. Without the Belief System of a written language, I would not be communicating to you now. Another example of a useful Belief System is arithmetic. This Belief System provides us a way of accurately measuring items as well as conducting calculations based on those measurements and it allows us to communicate these results to others. Imagine the time and effort it would take to create a new system of arithmetic every time we needed to count something, figure how many we would need and communicate this to someone! Both language and arithmetic are examples of useful and time proven Belief Systems. They allow us to build on what others have already created, without having to go back and re-invent the wheel. Thus we benefit enormously from what our ancestors accomplished. Almost all of human knowledge is held in the form of Belief Systems. We have hundreds of thousands of these Belief Systems from which to choose. Geography, astronomy, meteorology, nationhood, nationalism, communism, capitalism, socialism, feudalism, fascism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Nazism, Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory, Existentialism, mercantilism and Phrenology are all examples of Belief Systems of varying validity and usefulness. There are numerous Belief Systems of business management, stock market investing, child rearing and educa21
INDOCTRINATION
tion. There are economic systems, life-style and nutritional systems, as well as physical fitness and health systems. Some of these Belief Systems are considered useless or worse, while many are held in high esteem. Human beings like to embrace Belief Systems. Education largely involves learning such systems. They greatly reduce the time and effort needed to get things done. Most people tend to embrace a large number of Belief Systems. We need some kinds of Belief Systems more at certain stages of life and different ones at other stages. Indeed, there is an active market of producers, promoters and purveyors of all kinds of Belief Systems. They are responding to the huge market for these conceptual organizers. This book seeks to promote a Belief System, which I have produced and believe to be true. Often, over time, we may start to see where a Belief System doesnt work that well. More exceptions are discovered and more modifiers are needed to make it work. We become uncomfortable with this. As we see that our BS is fallible, and therefore of much more limited use than initially thought, we become dissatisfied with it and would like to abandon it and search for another. We realize that we had placed too much hope and trust in our old Belief System which we now recognize as incorrect or false. The technical term for a false belief is: delusion. We humans can easily be fooled into believing that a Delusional Belief System (DBS) is true. If it sounds plausible and passes our first few tests, then we may fall for it. Human cognition is not infallible, far from it. I have certainly fallen for my share of false beliefs and will no doubt continue to hold many. The question is: when confronted with evidence that one of my Belief Systems is invalid, can I give it up, reject it, and abandon it? If, for some reason, an individual cannot abandon a Be22
lief System when it is obvious that it has failed, is incorrect, is false and makes no sense, then we can say that he holds or has a Fixed Delusional Belief System (FDBS). In other words, right or wrong, he must believe. The BS is fixed in the sense that it does not want to be examined and rejected by perception or logic. There is an apparent emotional need or a fear to question it fully and let it go. What could force someone to hold on to a Belief System that is false and makes no sense? Purveyors of Belief Systems populate the market place. The purveyors of BS cover the spectrum and include Belief Systems for every conceivable problem human beings face. Or think they face. There are Belief Systems for various careers and professions. Other Belief Systems promote child rearing and family life choices. There are even Belief Systems that promise rewards before and after death in exchange for belief and life-style commitments while alive. While many Belief Systems appeal to a persons intelligence and desire for logical principles, some actually tout their inaccessibility to human reason. Denigrating human intelligence as insufficient to evaluate their Belief System, these marketers rely upon testimonials from respected authorities to sway potential customers. Any marketing program that disparages the consumers ability to evaluate its product should, of course, be rejected out of hand. If a person is not able to do this, he may suffer with a Fixed Delusional Belief System. Belief Systems not based on reality, not approachable through logic and reason, and that claim validity solely on the basis of authority, are often Fixed Delusional Belief Systems. They are fixed because to reject them the individual must reject the authority upon which they are based. This is why many FDBS claim the authority of God. Someone who initially accepts a FDBS may be reluctant to abandon it even when its shortcomings become obvious, because the person may not want to of23
INDOCTRINATION
fend God. If the persons parents also sanctioned the FDBS, then they may feel that questioning and abandoning it also amounts to rejecting their parents. But if the problem the Belief System is designed to solve is imaginary and intangible, than the touted Belief Systems validity and efficacy are also imaginary and intangible. If neither the problem nor the solution is real and there is nothing but smoke and mirrors, then logic dictates that we are dealing with a Delusional Belief System and it should be rejected and abandoned. Since these DBS are usually fixed, this is not so easy to do. Say a 3 year old is taught by his loving parents that a Green Gremlin created the world. They further instruct their child that he should pray to the Green Gremlin for health, success and happiness. He is told he should also pray to the Green Gremlin that he be spared sickness, poverty and unhappiness. Now let us fast-forward 60 years. The child is now a 63year-old adult. Imagine approaching this person and informing him that science has now proven that a Green Gremlin did not create the universe. You can imagine his consternation. For 60 years dozens of thoughts each week, hundreds of thoughts each month and thousands of thoughts each year have been linked by associations to the concept of the Green Gremlin. Virtually every concept in this persons mind is tied by these links to this central, unifying concept of the Green Gremlin. It is understandable that this person will have trouble reorienting themselves and it may take considerable time for them to accept the idea that there is no Green Gremlin. With time such a person may be able to put the Gremlin to rest and reject his old Belief System. But now lets go back to when our subject was 3 years old. Again lets have his parents teach him the Green Gremlin Belief System. This time however the parents are not loving at
24
all. This time his parents abuse him physically and psychologically. They beat him and threaten him with more punishment if he doesnt pray to the Green Gremlin properly. When bad things happen they are blamed on him and attributed to his poor relationship with the Green Gremlin and he is punished accordingly. Now again fast-forward 60 years. Imagine going to this individual and informing him that science has now learned that the Green Gremlin did not create the universe. Do you think this might be a dangerous thing to do? Yes, it could very dangerous to confront such an individual in this way. While both are examples of Delusional Belief Systems you can see that the emotional commitment is probably greater in the second example. When an individual reacts to a challenge to his BS with anger, aggression and violence we can be pretty sure we are dealing with a braindamaged individual suffering with a Belief System that is fixed. Fixed Delusional Belief Systems are fixed due to brain damage. Whether the force used was subtle psychological seduction or brutally physical, it is force nonetheless that is required to fix and hold a DBS in the human mind. And such FDBS must be held in the mind in a pathological manner. Forcing non-integrated, perhaps non-integratable, concepts into the mind will cause damage to the mental processes. These damages will be reflected not just in the inability to reject the delusions but also in other behavior of the individual. The more absurd the DBS, the greater psychic force required to fix it and the more violent will be the individuals propensities if and when his beliefs are challenged. Although religious institutions are not the only purveyors of FDBS, they represent the largest and best-organized promoters of them. For this reason, I refer to religion in this book rather than FDBS. However, the principles set forth here
25
INDOCTRINATION
for religion apply equally to all FDBS. Delusional belief systems that are promoted aggressively and forced upon children may become fixed and inalterable. FDBS will damage at least two areas of the human brain. All the religions I have studied, those that have been able to sustain themselves over many generations, have these attributes. These tenacious FDBS invariably hurt children, injuring and perverting both motivation and cognition.
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CHAPTER 5 Perversion of Motivation

eligion promotes sacrifice as a virtue5. They teach human sacrifice as a moral ideal. It is religion that sanctions the cultural and familial attack on children to devalue the self. In Sunday Schools, madrassas, catachism classes, Temple Studies, and Bible Schools, young children are every week subjected to long sessions of such brain washing. The lesson being taught is that human sacrifice is a virtue and that it should start with ones self. This thesis is not presented to well-adjusted adults. Religion begins its psychological manipulation of children right at the time a child is becoming aware of his self and developing his identity. Right when the child is most vulnerable he is subjected to an intense propaganda campaign. This indoctrination program uses physical as well as psychogical abuse to pound in the dogma. This propaganda campagin is directed specifically against the young childs self. The attack is often ubiquous throughout the childs social environment. At home, at religious services, at school, in the media, the message is the same: live not for oneself, but for others. The purpose of the
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ideological indoctrination is to sever natural morality from its roots in the Hindbrain and substitute a man-made agenda. The goal is to divide the brain against itself and interpose a religious institution. The morality of self-sacrifice tears morality from its roots in mental integration and substitutes an unintegratable floating abstraction. Religious brain washing attacks the childs moral worth, attacks his self as selfish, loathsome and undersirable. He is schooled in the view that concern for ones own selfinterest is bad, concern should be for others. He is pressured to embrace an anti-self ideology. Every living creature on earth has rational self-interest wired-in. But mans Forebrain can be programmed through indoctrination to fight that natural inclination. This cultural attack on children is very successful at perverting their motivation. The child is taught that his self is evil, bad, wrong, incompetent, and selfish, that he should sacrifice himself to a greater good. He is taught that he should turn against his self and live for others. This perverts his normal natural brain development. A persons motivation should be pro-life; especially pro their own life. A person should seek pleasure and seek to avoid pain. A person should defend themselves, stick-up for themselves and fight for their interest. A person should be a best friend to himself or herself. But religious idealogy and a theist culture blocks this normal orientation. A parent can address a child in a number of ways. Much can be communicated to a child by how he/she is addressed. Examine this statement: Parent Johnny! You selfish little devil! Why did you take Katys ice cream?
29
PERVERSION OF MOTIVATION
First of all it is a silly question. Obviously, Johnny took his sisters ice cream because he wanted it. But notice that the parent begins with an attack on Johnnys moral character, his self. You selfish little devil says that you are bad, a devil and selfish. How much better had the parent said, Johnny, I know you wanted more ice cream. Why didnt you say you wanted more ice cream? It was not very smart for you to take Katys ice cream from her. Now I am going to get Katy some more ice cream. If you continue to take what is not yours, I am not going to take you with us to the ice cream store the next time we go. Such a parental response is not a character attack. It is just a statement indicating that the behavior was not smart. Thinking through the long-range consequences of ones behavior is what we wish to encourage. Intelligent, wise behavior is the result of thinking! This is what we want to encourage! We want to teach our child that nothing is wrong with a need (In this example the hunger for ice cream), what counts is that a person intelligently satisfies their needs. But this is not what theist parents say. Theist love to attack the childs self. They view such character attacks as teaching the child a lesion he needs to learn. Can you see the Doctrine of Original Sin at work here? I have heard dozens of variations of this character attach on children, some children as young as one year of age! The intensity of the character assasination, as with the absurdity of the mythology, varies from family to family, group to group, and culture to culture. The more intense the attack on the childs identity, and the earlier it is begun, the more
30
serious the mental illness produced. By condemning the self as evil, conceited, destructive and violent, the child is forced to renounce an important part of his body, a part of his brain! The admonition not to be selfish harms the childs attitude toward his self and leads directly to self-abasement, self-castigation, self-condemnation, selfcontempt, self-distrust, self-doubt, self-hate, self-flagellation, and self-destruction. When a childs parents and his culture promote self-destruction as a virtue, is there any wonder that children mutilate their minds! Then they go on to mutilate their lives! Promoting self-sacrifice as a virtue places a premium on suffering. The mentally ill actually value pain and suffering. They pursue and collect suffering and sacrifice as a measure of their virtue and the currency that they believe can buy them success and happiness in the future. Until you are able to grasp the fact that religion promotes self-hatred and is anti-life, you will not be able to grasp the profound evil of religious belief. We love our culture and our country, so it is understandable that we find it difficult to believe that all its goodness has been created inspite of religions influence! Life must be the standard of good for a living creature. Therefore the religious standard of death and self-sacrifice must be seen as the evil it is. Terrorist suicide bombing is the pinnacle of religious achievement. Can you concieve of anything more evil? Many children are forced to endure an unrelenting familial and cultural brow-beating, and often worse, or be criticised and ostracised. Clerics relentlessly force little children to memorize their brand of superstitious nonsense. This withering and repetitious attack is just too much for most children to withstand, especially when such a campagn is initiated by his own parents!
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Other children need no heavy handed indoctrination. Their desire to be good is so great that they adopt the immoral religious standards of their culture, sometimes even over the objections of their parents. These children often develop a powerful and punitive conscience as they indoctrinate themselves! They may even come to view their parents lack of religious conviction as a form of parental neglect. When self-sacrifice is taught at the right time in his mental development, a child will usually accept it as his moral code. He may believe that he must accept this evil morality on threat of abandonment or withdrawal of love. If the morality of self-sacrifice is accepted into a childs mind at this age, it becomes a subconcious software program of selfdestruction! It behaves like a destructive computer virus! Preversion of the childs moral development thus causes a perversion of his motivation. For now, instead of being motivated toward success and life, and the normal endorphin reward that produces, he is motivated toward his own selfdestruction. Once this subconscious program of selfdestruction is installed in the childs mind, only willpower and discipline, and the development of mental illness, can prevent it from running its course and destroying the individual. If enough will-power and selfdiscipline can be marshalled against it, then it might lie low and wait for success or happiness to trigger it off. When faced with a situation where his self is attacked as evil, sinful, devilish and unworthy, a child will seek to escape. He will run from such an identity. He does not want to be defined in such a way. Naturally he wants to be out of this hot seat and would like to disown this self that is the object of so much ridicule. He wants to adopt the same anti-self posture as his parents, their religion and his culture. The psychologically
32
abused child believes that to be loved, and perhaps to survive, he must accept the religious notion that his self is bad. But he cant undo or change the self he was born with. His true self is inalterably established in his Hindbrain. The concept of possessing an evil self is forced on the child. Original Sin means that the human is innately evil and only redeemable through the ritual acts of a religious institution. It makes no sense. It strikes one as a manipulation. It seems like someone is trying to sell something. It seems like someone is trying to create a market for something artificial and unnecessary. Unfortunately, billions of people believe this nonsense and view their children in such a light. It is not possible for them to avoid conveying this attitude and evaluation to their offspring. Faced with a belief that makes no sense, but one he thinks he must believe in order to be loved and survive, most children give up, give in, and accept the belief. But how can he make a mind that demands integration accept a concept that defies logic? How can a mind be forced to accept ridiculous and absurd religious concepts that clash with the way he is made? Under such enormous pressure, most children will try to create what the aggressors demand -- a religious self. Normally when a person encounters a contradictory concept, one that he cannot integrate into the whole of his mind, he rejects it. His first option is to refuse to believe that which does not compute. The human brain does not seriously want to accept and believe a contradiction. That goes against everything it is designed to do. The mind tries, day and night, with enormous tenacity and enery, to resolve contradictions. Much of the time needed for sleep is to go over and over associations attempting to resolve contradictions. Typically, the mind runs through its entire database multiple times during sleep, trying to solve contradictions and make sense. The human mind does not want to accept a belief cut
33
off from the rest of its knowledge, cut off from its base of perceptions, cut off from normal Hindbrain function. But when up against parents, teachers, clerics and a culture demanding that he believe his self to be sinful, and presented with no acceptable alternative, most children will eventually give in and agree. The concept selfish can be difficult for the theist mind. When one advocates selfishness to a theist he will invariably assume you are giving license to Id fantasies of sadistic and hedonistic behavior. So the therapist should always emphazise that they mean a long-term, life time perspective regarding selfishness. Even then the heavily indoctrinated theist will feel sinful just contemplating thinking and behaving selfish. A study of the problem theist have with the term selfish reveals mountains about the workings of the theist mind and theist motivation. More about this later. It is difficult to determine a persons motivation judging only by their behavior. One of a counselors jobs during his interviews is to determine the patients motivation. From many hours of communication with many mental patients, I learned that their motivation is consistantly one of self-sacrifice. Even when their behavior appears very selfish, mental patients go to extraordinary lengths to convince themselves and others that their motives are selfless. So a good deal of deception and self-deception is part of mental illness. We should be thankful that most of the mentally ill resort to religious hypocricy. It is the true believers, those that actually act out their religious beliefs, that are so dangerious. Religious hypocricy, and its necessity, is what compartmentalization is about.
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CHAPTER 6 The Religious Self

sing his ability to compartmentalize the theist child will form a pseudo-self. Using his imagination he creates a phony, contrived, inauthenic, Polyannish, religious self. This false religious self is too good to be believable. This perfect, selfless, goody-two-shoes religious self is created by the child in response to attacks on his moral character. He wants to be a good person. So he creates a self that he thinks will be acceptable to his parents, his culture and himself. He has a true, natural self in his Hindbrain, but to please his parents, and himself, he creates an abstract, conceptual self in his Forebrain. What happens inside the mind of children who internalize self-hate? Hatred of the self once internalized will lead to self-destruction, murder of the self: suicide. An alarming number of children do commit suicide. If you truly believe what religion teaches about the self, you cannot escape hating yourself. Thankfully most children who are forced to internalize such religious nonsense as self-sacrifice do not commit suicide, they reach an accommodation. They make a deal. Such
36
children try to abandon the condemned, bad self, and using their imagination, create another self, which is religiously acceptable. The child tries to change his identity to resemble that wanted and demanded of his condemners. He creates this artificial self through the process of compartmentalization. One of the results is the masochistic tendencies we see so routinely in psychiatry6 Masochism is the taking of delight by this religious self in the pain and humiliation inflicted on the true self. Cutting behaviors, speeding and reckless driving, unprotected sex, alcohol and drug abuse and other forms of self-abuse have their roots here, as adolescents join in the condemnation of their true self. The new phony religious self takes masochistic pleasure in the pain caused the true self. Masochism revels in the debasement that can be brought on the self. Teaching a child that self-sacrifice is a virtue pits the Forebrain against the Hindbrain. Place your two fists in front of you and bang them together and you have an idea of what this does inside the mind. (The Forebrain is taking delight in the misery it is causing the Hindbrain!) The child jumps on the bandwagon condemning his self, so that he will fit in and gain a sense of belonging with his family and friends. A child forms a mental compartment where he can store his religious self and all the superstitious fantasy and religious nonsense he is being pressured to believe. Mystical beliefs and fantasies of life after death, immortal beings, and supernatural realms populated with human-like Gods are accepted into this compartment. Saints, angels, prophets, disciples and devils all become inhabitants of this mental sphere. Here, these fantasies can be protected from reality. Its hard to believe that otherwise sane adults believe that teaching their children all this nonsense will make them better people. Making such a compartment, creating this pseudo reli37
THE RELIGIOUS SELF
gious self and accepting and believing this lunacy allows the child to avoid massive self-hatred and suicide. Biologically, neurologically, and psychologically, humans resist compartmentalization, but creating a religious self, utilizing compartmentalization, is necessary as it allows the child to believe all the religious gobbledygook and still survive. To believe and actually practice religious morality is suicidal. Hypocrisy and self-deception, and the mental illness it causes, are preferable to death! All mental illness begins with the identification of the true, biological self as selfish, bad, evil, unworthy, and destructive. After identifying the true self as something undesirable, shameful and loathsome, the individual goes to work against his true self. All mental illness begins as a form of self-hate. The mentally ill see their self as their enemy, something within themselves that they must work to control, imprison, disown or destroy. Or they must do things so terrible as to get somebody else to destroy their self for them. When the mentally ill individual sides with his true self, he feels guilty. He has violated his moral code of self-sacrifice. When he sacrifices his self, he becomes angry. This is because he recognizes he has done something painful and stupid. Then, feeling ashamed of his anger, he turns it inward on himself, punishes himself inside his mind and becomes depressed. He spends his life vacillating between guilt and depression. Anxiety and panic overwhelm him at those times when he realizes that he is to spend his entire life within this nearly inescapable maze. Suicide is often the end result of this self-hatred. Suicide is premeditated murder of the self. Self-hate is the natural consequence of the evil morality of human sacrifice, of selfsacrifice. Once a child has developed self-hate, the escape from suicide is the religious self. The creation of this inau38
thentic, phony identity establishes a way to think well of oneself. There is then a way to stimulate secretion of brain endorphins and have some happiness. It is through redemption.
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CHAPTER 7
A deal is struck
Redemption
he promise of redemption, of being reborn or bornagain postpones total destruction of the self and relegates self-destruction to times of excessive success and happiness. Without redemption, the individual will engage in the self-destruction that religion has now programmed into his mind. Without redemption, drugs, alcohol, or suicide are his options. The redemptive process must be extra self, or beyond or above the self. Redemption must come from without, from a higher power. The mentally ill believe that nothing good can come from within, the self is bad, and cannot redeem anything. There are many religious, philosophical, political and social/occupational systems that offer such redemption. Adolescence is characterized by this psychological and moral battle. Most youngsters are able to make a deal with their religious self. In exchange for the promise to pursue a Holy Cause, their religious self allows them to think well of themselves. Their morality of self-sacrifice will not al-
40
low them to pursue a life selfishly for themselves, but their conscience will approve a life lived for others in some noble pursuit. Some youngsters become religious missionaries, embracing the very poison that has caused them to be sick in the first place. Many dedicate themselves to helping others as teachers, doctors or nurses. Some youths join the military or go to work for the government. Others look for unique ways to justify their existence and bargain with their religious conscience for a successful life. In exchange for self-sacrifice in this life, they bargain for success in this world and they hope for the promised reward in a utopia somewhere in the future. Adolescents latch onto these altruistic and selfsacrificing occupations and careers as a drowning man grabs a life raft. Career paths that care for others or claim lofty or holy goals are indeed true life rafts, as guilt, depression, selfdestruction, drug abuse or suicide is the alternative. If their career choice or trade is not blessed by society as a noble cause, the person will have to find some extracurricular volunteer or charity work to assuage their guilt. So once the religious ideology is accepted and compartmentalization takes place to create a religious self, the youngster can find redemption by dedication to a Holy Cause. The masochistic programming will result in self-destruction or suicide if a deal or contract with the religious self cannot be reached. Even with a contract in place, success is a powerful stimulus to self-destruction. The adolescent, because of his religious self cannot, will not, fight for his self, but he can fight, kill and die for his Holy Cause. The human mind does not take such compartmentalization lightly. Creating an artificial compartment for the religious self is not a perfect solution. Mental gymnastics of this sort causes problems. A matrix of percepts, topped with basic concepts, crowned with higher order concepts, has its roots in the ground. The healthy human mind has four-dimensionally
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REDEMPTION
integrated concepts, which mean that they are integrated back and down over time with associations that tie them, through perceptions, to external reality. The important point here is that the matrix of concepts, which must be placed in this artificial compartment the mentally ill create within their mind, is not tied to perceptual, or any other, reality. Concepts such as the religious self and mystical religious beliefs, are not tied to anything, except maybe hope; that is why they are called floating abstractions. The religious self is all phony, floating and unattached to anything real. Unintegratable concepts housed in the brain in this way cause several kinds of side effects.
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CHAPTER 8 The Dialectic Effect

he most profound side effect of compartmentalization is that it cannot be limited to a single compartment. Compartmentalization typically leads to the tripartite mind described by Sigmund Freud.7 This is caused by the DIALECTIC EFFECT. Human cognition works in a dialectic manner. When a concept is difficult to integrate, the mind works on it from every angle. It tries breaking it down into smaller concepts and it tries combining it with other concepts to make a wider one. Then, if a concept cannot be integrated into ones knowledge, a healthy mind tosses it out. But if the individual fears throwing the concept out of his mind, if we are dealing with a fixed delusion and compartmentalization, then this dialectic aspect of cognition results in a dialectic effect. Whenever one floating conceptual matrix is created and maintained within a mind, it creates its opposite -- a mirror image of itself -- another mental compartment. An action causes an opposite and equal reaction. This is particularly true in outer space where there is no gravity. Because of the dialectic of human cognition, this is
44
reality, without links to percepts, floating loose and unattached by integration, create their opposites the more they are reinforced. This is the Dialectic Effect.
also true in the mind. Abstractions that are unconnected to
A body of beliefs, a matrix of concepts, integrated fourdimensionally and thereby connected to external reality, does not cause a rebound or reaction, and does not create a mirror compartment, is immune to the Dialectic Effect. Freud labeled the compartment created in which to store unintegrated and unintegratable religious concepts the Superego. The Superego will contain the religious self plus all the mysticism and absurdity that goes with it. Freud called the normal, integrated, reality-based portion of the mind the Ego. The Ego is our source of common sense. The Ego will contain the normal, true, practical, worldly, sensible self, plus all the integrated, reality-based non-contradictory concepts. By definition then, those concepts stored in the Superego are those that cannot be integrated into the Ego. The Superego compartment will, because of the Dialectic Effect, create its opposite compartment, holding concepts the direct opposite of those in the Superego. Freud named this compartment the Id. The Id will therefore contain an unrealistic, sadistic, hedonistic, evil self. The Id will be made up of concepts the direct opposite of the persons religious beliefs. There will be much sexual and aggressive fantasy in the Id. Paradoxically; the more Superego concepts are reinforced, the more the Id concepts are automatically reinforced as well. In the process of reinforcement, the opposite concepts contained in the mirror compartment, are also strengthened. So the more one tries to believe religious concepts, the more powerful the Id becomes. The more one attends church and prays that their good Superego beliefs will guide their actions; the more their evil Id concepts are also strengthened.
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THE DIALECTIC EFFECT
A theist child hides his Id compartment. He is ashamed of the ideas, fantasies and feelings that come from this area of his mind. Because of religious indoctrination, he thereby begins development of a secret mental life. The Superegos religious nonsense and the Ids unacceptable fantasies reciprocally reinforce each other. Id fantasies scare the child and send him fleeing to his Superegos religious notions of purity and holiness. This grows the Superego in size and strength. The practice of religious rituals and prayer, because of the Dialectic Effect, then reinforces and increases the power and size of his Id fantasies. In this way, religion causes one to fear their feelings, fantasies and thoughts. The theist child shamefully hides his Id, even from himself. Such fear of ones thoughts and feelings guarantees denial and repression and reinforces compartmentalization. Throughout childhood, the child is hiding and storing up, saving up, these ideas, beliefs, and feelings. Through childhood and latency, he is filling up his Superego and Id compartments. His family, friends and society applaud his increasing religious commitment. Other secret friends may be doing the same for his Id interest. By the time the child arrives at adolescence, his Superego and Id compartments may be bursting at their seams. Only willpower and self-discipline are keeping the adolescents mind from exploding!
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CHAPTER 9 Perversion of Cognition

t the same time a child is being forced to accept a devalued view of his self he is required to believe in a mystical ideology. This supernaturalism includes a supernatural God and a supernatural realm populated with assorted supernatural creatures. This obviously will not integrate into a mind created from the senses, percepts and rationally associated concepts. The child must therefore resort to compartmentalization. He creates a compartment where he can house, not only his newly created religious self, but all of this insanity as well. Compartment formation is caused by forcing the mind to accept unintegratable concepts. Using force against the mind may become such a common and frequent undertaking as to be viewed as a valid epistemological tool. The theist child may conclude that he can believe anything he wishes so long as he forces it into an appropriate compartment! This gives him the ability; curse actually, to engage in magical thinking. Many psychoanalytic writers have described magical thinking. It is a process of making illogical associations or connections. The
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mentally ill are particularly fond of doing this to create a false cause and effect. They turn verbs into nouns, create absurd categories and place themselves inappropriately into elaborate streams of causality. They accept many ideas without integrating them. Magical thinking is the way the Superego and Id process information. This creates even more fear in the person of his thoughts, feelings and conclusions. Superstition is the result of such mental processes. Much of the so-called thinking in which the mentally ill engage is of this magical thinking variety. It yields little except more fear and increasingly outrageous fantasy and superstitutions. Faith is another magical thinking mental operation. Faith undercuts the sovereignty of the individuals cognition and renders him dependent upon outside authority. Unwilling to think for himself, he can only feel, pray, and hope, that some authority will come to his rescue. Creating mental compartments separate from the reality-oriented mind creates a huge amount of anxiety. This is due to the constant vigilance and energy necessary to keep everything carefully compartmented and separated. There is the constant fear that he may not be successful at doing so. The fear of mental disintegration is enormous. Willpower and powerful defense mechanisms like denial and repression are what is holding the individuals mind together! Psychosis results when the reality-based self, or Ego looses control and the reality-detached compartments take over. The theist therefore develops a psycho-epistemology of force. He can believe anything his willpower and selfdiscipline can press into an artificial mental compartment! Force thereby becomes the theists preferred approach to solving problems not only psycho-dynamically, but socially and politically as well! This is the source of the theist admiration of force and denigration of reason.
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THE DIALECTIC EFFECT
So each of these religious concepts: supernaturalism and human sacrifice attacks an area of the human brain. The morality of self-sacrifice perverts Hindbrain function drying up much endorphin secretion. Supernaturalism perverts Forebrain cognition forcing the acceptance of contradictions creating compartmentalization, self-deception and mental illness. Combined these injuries retard maturation and produce individuals who are blindly responsive to authority.
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CHAPTER 10 Identity
ith sexual maturity contemporary society expects the adolescent to embrace reality. Our culture sends a mixed message about this. Be virtuous, follow the religious morality of self-sacrifice, also be financially successful, embrace reality and pursue your commercial interest. This split in societys demands places more pressure on adolescents. With maturity, the young adult is expected to employ his Ego, learn to support himself, and begin to build his own career and family. The arrival of maturity makes it more difficult to hold off and ignore these pressures. The push to get out on ones own places tremendous stress on the tripartite adolescent mind. Faced with the demands of adulthood, the youth is pressured to make a firm commitment exclusively to his Ego. Yet religion continues to beckon for an altruistic life. Thankfully, most theist adolescents do identify with their Ego. That is to say, they make a deal with their religious self that allows them to choose a worldly path. They pick a practical educational path leading to a career that earns money. They reject criminal behavior and enter the world of commerce. They choose a spouse and start a family. They will continue their secret inner life with its hidden agendas; but, at least
IDENTITY
outwardly, they choose socially acceptable pursuits. A small percentage of adolescents reject a major commitment to Ego pursuits and identify more fully with their Superego or Id. Superego identifiers are often the overly religious kids. These children find it difficult to compromise. They are very idealistic and see making a deal with their conscience as the hypocrisy it is. They are courageous and determined to make their religious beliefs work in the real world. Taken to the extreme, these are the people who become the fanatics of various causes. These are the kind of people that fuel Inquisitions, Holy Wars, crusades of all kinds, and terrorism. And the more radical they become in their religious thoughts and actions, the more they stimulate their Id. Therefore the tension between the two grows greater and the chances of violence increase. Those adolescents that make Id identifications are rarely candid about it. All religious children hide their Id, but those who make an Id identification go further and develop a secret undercover life. They become disillusioned with their culture and see its unrealistic aspects. They tire of the endorphin deficient existence. They come to view the dominant culture as dumb and unattainable to them. They become astute at living a double life. This is the group of kids who easily become sociopaths. Some individuals can switch back and forth between Superego and Id identification. The psychiatric literature, criminology text, and general literature have examples of individuals, who under certain conditions switch 180 degrees, from a life as a Superego identifier to one as an Id identifier. Some individuals develop many mental compartments. They have multiple selves or personalities. Such compartmentalization compromises cognitive integrity and destroys the possibility of endorphin mediated pleasure and self-esteem. This makes the urge for exogenous endorphins, like medica52
tion or illicit drugs, even greater. Theist compartmented individuals, in general, are potentially dangerous. They are angry and fearful. They must expend a great deal of energy maintaining their compartments by exercising willpower and determination. It doesnt take much to set them off. They do make excellent assassins. When a person satisfies a need, his brain secretes endorphins and he feels good. This is wired-in, neuro-anatomy, neurophysiology. One of a humans most powerful needs is for mental integration. The more a person engages in behavior that ignores a need, the more of an endorphin deficiency he will suffer. The mentally ill person may therefore be enduring a bland, inhibited, pleasure-less life. He may possess an endorphin-starved brain. If, at this point, he should inadvertently have an exciting and pleasurable experience, it may well change the entire course of his life. Such an exciting and pleasurable experience, because of his endorphin starved state, may feel much more powerful than it would be otherwise; indeed, in relative terms, it is an extreme change. What might be pleasurable to anyone becomes, in our subject, a life-changing epiphany! He takes this great feeling as enlightenment. He sees it as a beacon, beckoning him toward his true identity! Exercising his magical thinking, he takes the experience, and the feeling, as indisputable proof of his real self. What this experience embraces is of crucial importance, since the individual will adopt it and its meaning with great fervor. The experience may be of a sick child taken in pain to a doctors office. It may be a homosexual encounter, or a first visit to a saloon and his first drink of alcohol. It may be the first experience with a drug, looking through a peep-hole watching adults having sex, a beating or castigation by an authority figure, or his killing of a pet. What constitutes a lifechanging experience is as varied as life and human nature.
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IDENTITY
When it is combined with magical thinking, such abominations as serial killers and suicide bombers are sometimes the result. The conflict in the mind of the mentally ill is between the true Hindbrain self and the religious self. It is between the Forebrain which culture may program and the Hindbrain that is locked in the mode of self-preservation. It is a battle between the Superego, the Id and the Ego. It is a torment that rages in the subconscious of theist continuously. A massive amount of mental energy is required to control the compartmented mind. All this pent-up energy and anger can make the compartmented individual very dangerous. This situation has been described as being like two huge locomotives sitting on the same track, facing each other nose-tonose. Both locomotives are running at maximum power. The noise, smoke and heat generated are enormous as the iron wheels spin at great speed against the iron rails. But neither locomotive is going anywhere! Nothing positive is being accomplished and there is a great danger of fire and explosion. Whenever a persons identity is challenged, this equilibrium or balance may be thrown off and this can cause a mental explosion. Tolerance of other sects and challenges to their own beliefs is very difficult for religious people. Alternative beliefs cause anxiety and anger to escalate very rapidly. This can cause a violent and often deadly outburst of behavior. While these traits are valuable in designing a battle plan of psychological warfare, they are disturbing when they describe your fellow citizens. A heavy religious identifier, for example, may experience the intrusion of a foreign culture, or the proximity of a different religion, or secular non-believers, as an attack on their identity. An Id identifier may experience the observation of a 6-year-old girl playing joyfully in her yard, as a stimulant to his sexual fantasies. He may become enraged at her for stimu54
lating his sexual thoughts and feelings, feelings he is trying hard to extinguish or control. The first example may lead to terrorism. The second case may result in molestation, rape and murder. Identity is so enormously important that people will kill and die when they perceive it to be threatened. The creation of mental compartments housing absurd mystical concepts, sometimes kept secret and at other times proclaimed loudly to the world is the key to understanding mental illness. Once a mind is unbridled from reality, free from the constraints of cause and effect, magical thinking runs amuck. Then superstition rules over logic and fear replaces reason. Whether it is the well-kept secret ideology of one person or the proselytized militant ideology of billions, the unifying concept is a rejection of the restraints of reason and the embrace of uninhibited, structure-less fantasy. Whether the floating mental construct must be protected and reinforced by fantasy, perversion, serial molestation, or murder, or more simply just by recruiting more converts, the failure of reasonable people to call absurdity what it is, only encourages increasingly absurd behavior. To quote Voltaire, those who believe absurdities will commit atrocities. Through religious brainwashing, the individual is left with a damaged brain. He then suffers both damaged cognition and a damaged core sense of self-worth. These two consequences of religious training-- perversion of motivation and perversion of cognition--form the foundation of the many psychiatric syndromes we see in clinical practice. Programming one part of the brain to oppose another part is diabolical. The person is left with a damaged ability to apprehend reality and gullibility for life. All his life he will be prone to falling for one religious cult or political fad after the other. He may change religion, he may change his political beliefs, he may even
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IDENTITY
change his patriotism, he may change from one fanaticism to another, but he wont question the virtue of self-sacrifice. Thus most non-religious fanatics got their start in a religion.
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SECTION III: CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY
CHAPTER 11 Psychiatric Symptoms

s a result of the injuries to the two major areas of the brain, patients develop a plethora of symptoms. Each patient develops some symptoms that are more severe and prominent than others. Depending upon which symptoms dominate a particular patients illness, it is categorized into one syndrome or another. The symptoms that most mentally ill patients suffer are: Anxiety: Anxiety is chronic fear without a specific known threat. Psychiatric disorders that reflect a lot of anxiety include Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, Specific Phobias, Social Phobia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Depression: Depression is a mood disturbance characterized by chronic sadness and unhappiness without an obvious cause. Psychiatric disorders that reflect a lot of depression include Major Depression, Dysthymic Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and Cyclothymia. Depression results from the beating the religious con58
science (Superego) is giving the person inside his mind. This self-abuse drives endorphin levels low. Prolonged endorphin depletion eventually causes brain damage. Patients may develop catatonic stupor if endorphin levels remain low enough, long enough. Alcohol, illegal drugs and prescription medications act like artificial or exogenous endorphins and are used to give temporary relief. They may provide mental relief through two mechanisms. First the drug or alcohol may act directly on some of the endorphin receptors giving pleasure. Secondly, the drug or alcohol may sedate the Forebrain, particularly the frontal lobes, temporally knocking out memory and handicapping the punitive religious conscience. Sedating the punitive religious conscience releases the hindbrain to satisfy its needs. Electro-convulsive treatment works the same way. Most drug abuse develops out of the attempt at selftreatment. Such temporary relief comes at a high price in side effects and such behavior easily becomes addictive. Obsessive-Compulsive: This symptom is characterized by obsessive, seemingly uncontrollable racing thoughts. Compulsions are uncontrollable, repetitive ritual-type behaviors. Somatization: These symptoms suggest medical disease where no medical condition is found. Generalized aches and pains, as well as more specific complaints such as stomach aches, sexual pain, bone and joint pain, and neurological symptoms like syncope are seen. Psychiatric disorders that reflect a lot of somatization include Hypochondriasis, Pain Disorder, and Somatization Disorder. Dissociation: This group of symptoms includes disruptions in consciousness, memory, identity, or perception. The major diagnoses in this group include Dissociative Amnesia, Dissocia59
PSYCHIATRIC SYMPTOMS
tive Fugue, Depersonalization Disorder and Dissociative Disorder. Magical Thinking: This symptom is characterized by the belief and the fear that thoughts can affect external objective reality. Conversely, some develop the belief that other people/beings, real or imaginary, can affect or control ones thoughts. The belief that success is a reward by God or Fate and failure is punishment from God or Fate is common. At its core, magical thinking is an unlinking of cause and effect. Magical thinking figures prominently in schizophreniform disorders and in Major Depression. Dependency: Chemical or substance addiction as well as habitual social conformity and blind obedience to authority are common in psychiatric disorders. This symptom is prominent in alcohol addiction and in chemical and substance abuse. Fear of Their Mental Processes: The mentally ill believe there is such a thing as an abnormal or immoral thought! They find it difficult to understand that there is no such thing as an abnormal or immoral thought. Any thought may pop into a persons mind at any time and it means absolutely nothing. No matter how violent, perverted, or awful one may consider a thought to be, it means nothing. No thought anyone has is a reflection upon their worth, value, mental health, intelligence or moral stature. It is like spam popping up on a computer monitor. It might be irritating, but it means nothing. If experiencing a thought causes a person to feel ashamed, guilty, fearful, depressed or anxious, then that thought will be reinforced. That is, it will become stronger and more likely to reoccur. But no matter how often a thought occurs it means nothing morally. I am not saying that analyzing
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recurrent thoughts is a waste of time. Evaluating recurrent thoughts and dreams can give valuable insights into a persons programming. What I do mean is that thoughts are no measure of a persons moral worth or mental health. Behavior is the gold standard by which such things are measured. No matter how many thoughts or how many zeros you add-up, the sum is still zero. I am not saying that a person should verbalize every thought. Speaking is an action. For social and political reasons, some thoughts should not be verbalized, except perhaps to ones therapist. This does not mean that such thoughts indicate mental illness. We will discuss actions or behavior below. Therefore, a person may ponder any thought that pops into their mind. There is absolutely nothing to fear from a thought! This fear of ones thoughts is the result of religious indoctrination that has the person watching for signs of sin and evilness in his thoughts and feelings. Another attitude common to most of the mentally ill is the belief that feelings can be abnormal or immoral! Feelings are the result of thoughts. They are like the wake in the water that follows a boat. Since any thought may pop into a persons mind at any time, one may experience any type of feelings at any time. No matter how inappropriate feelings may seem relative to the objective external environment, they are the result of the thoughts the person is having or has had. No feeling, no matter how inappropriate to the external surroundings, is a reflection on a persons worth, value, mental health, intelligence or moral stature. If experiencing a particular feeling causes one fear, guilt, anxiety or shame, then that feeling is reinforced. That is, it will become stronger and more likely to reoccur. Again, I am not advising a person to verbalize or take action on a feeling. That is behavior, which I discuss below. A person should allow himself or herself to feel any
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PSYCHIATRIC SYMPTOMS
feeling. There is absolutely nothing to fear from a feeling! Feelings are completely powerless, they cant do a thing! Behavior is taking action by activating a voluntary muscle. A person controls their muscles and therefore they have a choice as to act or not to act. Action can be moral, neutral, or immoral. Behavior can be heroic, uplifting, helpful, inspiring, humane, productive, mature, beautiful, educational, loving, protective, or beneficial, as well as immoral, wrong, illegal, vile, despicable, unthinking, unkind, perverted, violent, unhealthy, abnormal, and disgusting. We all, all human beings, have a large repertoire of behaviors to choose from at any given moment in time. When we behave well, it is not out of ignorance of bad behaviors, and when we behave badly, it is generally not because we do not know how to behave well. The greatest asset and the biggest burden humans have is choice and the fear of ones thoughts and feelings only overburdens the selection of a rational choice. All of these symptoms are mixed to various degrees and in differing amounts to form the psychiatric syndromes.
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CHAPTER 12 Outline of the development of the Fundamentals of Mental Illness

he foundation for mental illness is formed by the religious indoctrination of children. The anti-self morality combined with the mystical epistemology produce both emotive and cognitive mental damage. This produces the two attributes of these post-indoctrination individuals that play a role in the development of psychiatric syndromes. These are magical thinking and an anti-life motivation. 1. Culture, religion, and family preach the evils of the self. Human sacrifice in general and self-sacrifice in particular are praised as virtues. A child understands very clearly that this is an indictment of his very being! He takes this prejudice against his self very personally! He knows that he is viewed as possessing an evil nature prone to selfishness. He is repeatedly warned that he should be very careful least his evil tendencies take over and cause him to do terrible things. He learns to fear what thoughts and feelings may pop into his mind.
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2. An anti-self ideology is an anti-life ideology. It makes no sense for a living creature. Everything in a living creatures biology is designed to promote and preserve life. The Hindbrain cannot alter its programming and accept an anti-life, death-worshiping morality. Therefore an anti-life, anti-self ideology may be programmed into the Forebrain but it will not integrate into the totality of the human mind. Such an ideology can be forcibly pushed into a mind, but it cannot be cognitively integrated and correctly incorporated. 3. An anti-self, anti-life ideology will not correctly integrate into the human mind. The Forebrain can be programmed with religious self-sacrifice, but the Hindbrain self cannot adapt to it. However, a child placed under great social pressure to adopt this evil anti-self, anti-life ideology may do so, by using a special mental mechanism. The child alters his mind so that he can accept a poisonous idea by using the mental mechanism of compartmentalization. He may accept this view of himself easily and without a fight or he may resist. 4. Most children will eventually accept the anti-life, antiself ideology into their mind, but only as a foreign body is accepted into body tissue. It is walled off like an abscess, like something that shouldnt be there. This compartment is created in the mind of a child to house his religious beliefs. To acquire some self-respect, he creates a religious self. This religious self utilizes a kind of thinking called magical thinking. Freud called this compartment the Superego. 5. The child, identifying with this religious self, joins with his culture, religion, and family in condemning his true self. This turning on oneself, or identification with the
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OUTLINE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF MENTAL ILLNESS
aggressor creates the masochism that often turns to self-destruction. 6. Because of a phenomenon called the Dialectic Effect, the religious self compartment will stimulate the creation of its mirror image, its exact opposite, an evil self in a compartment which Freud called the Id. A reciprocal reinforcement occurs between the Superego and the Id. 7. With the arrival of adolescence, pressure mounts for a kid to choose an identity, to choose one of his selves and commit himself to it wholeheartedly. What are his choices? a. Superego identification: To identify with the religious self will require a great deal of magical thinking, sometimes to the point of psychoses. Various religious cults facilitate this. b. Id identification: This choice proceeds out of the cultures, religions and familys pressure to debase the self. The youngster treats his body and his life in a devalued way. Cutting behaviors, risky lifeendangering activities and other masochistic lifestyle choices reinforce the identity and communicate to like-minded teens that the youngster agrees with them on the low value of the self. Sadistic behavior, including the torture of others, communicates this depraved evaluation of human life. This can lead to a sociopathic life-style. c. Ego identification: This is the better choice of the three. The youngster makes a deal with his Su66
perego or religious self. He chooses a worldly career by offering sacrifices. This allows him to make sense and make money. Success and happiness may continue to trigger tendencies toward self-destruction. This choice produces neuroses.
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CHAPTER 13 Psychiatric Syndromes
he psychiatric syndromes are simply descriptions of behavior. Professionals refer to them as descriptive diagnoses. The first step in creating a new psychiatric syndrome is for a professional to describe a pattern of behaviors, and give the behavior pattern a name. This is then published in the psychiatric literature. All psychiatrists read about the new syndrome and memorize the behavior that it denotes. Upon interviewing a patient with a similar behavior pattern, he is diagnosed as suffering with the new syndrome. This completes the circular reasoning. Interventions directed at these behavioral patterns, i.e. treatment directed at these diagnostic categories, are a profoundly superficial approach. About the only thing such interventions accomplish is some temporary relief of symptoms. Medication is sometimes needed for a short period; occasionally it can be life saving. But most of the medication prescribed for psychiatric syndromes in the United States today is a waste of time and money. As you go through this section, I think you will see why this is so.
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I wish to show how the more common psychiatric syndromes develop out of the foundation of cognitive and motivational injury. The steps outlined for each syndrome are not absolute. Every patient has their own creative twist and no two patients labeled with the same mental disorder came to their syndrome in identical fashion. The information learned from interviewing a patient should not be forced into one of these molds. The human mind likes to categorize things, and this is good. Just remember every human being is in a category of one. 1. Syndrome of Major Depression 2. Syndrome of Bipolar Disorder 3. Alcohol Abuse Syndrome 4. Chemical Abuse Syndrome 5. Syndrome of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder 6. Panic Disorder Syndrome 7. Syndrome of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 8. Syndrome of Schizophreniform Disorders 9. Somatization Syndrome 10. Syndrome of Sexual and Gender Identity Disorder
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PSYCHIATRIC SYNDROMES
1. Syndrome of Major Depression

The syndrome of major depression is characterized by a persistent sad, anxious, or empty mood. Feelings of hopelessness and pessimism predominate. Feelings of guilt, worthlessness and helplessness are common. People suffering this condition show a loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that were once enjoyed, including sex. This loss of interest is often accompanied by a decrease in energy. These patients exhibit fatigue, being slowed down as well as difficulty in concentrating, remembering, and making decisions. Quite often these people suffer insomnia, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping. Appetite loss with weight loss or overeating with weight gain is common. Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide, suicide attempts and hypochondrias are all too frequent. This is how these syndromes develop: 1. The child is indoctrinated in the morality of self-sacrifice. The process of mentally incorporating this moral code results in either suicide or the partitioning of the mind. (The Freudian tri-partite mind is created) 2. In order to think well of himself and distance himself from his true self, he forms a religious self. This religious self or Superego then acts as a punitive conscience. 3. The religious self turns on the true self and joins with his family and culture in punishing the true self. A life of chronic endorphin deficiency begins. This may lead to suicide if a deal or contract cannot be reached with the con70
science. 4. Before or during adolescence, the youngster strikes a deal, or forms a contract, with his conscience. He agrees to suffer and sacrifice for a Holy Cause in exchange for the reward of success and happiness in this life and for a reward in the future. 5. Failures, setbacks, difficulties, lack of success, and unhappiness, are interpreted as signs of insufficient sacrifice and suffering. 6. The individual endeavors to produce more suffering and sacrifice, which he knows are the required currency. Selfflagellation is pursued in a number of ways, including silent internal verbal self-abuse. 7. Self-abuse in the silence of his mind further reduces endorphin production thus increasing the depression in a downward spiral. Magical thinking leads the individual to punish himself in the belief that God, Fate, or the powers that be will reward him with success once he has suffered sufficiently. 8. Suicide is the ultimate offering made in a final and desperate attempt to get the religious conscience (Superego) to relent, forgive and reward. 9. The only escape from this masochistic game of buying success with suffering is to renounce religion and the morality of self-sacrifice and embrace the morality of rational self-interest.
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2. Syndrome of Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar Disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is characterized by dramatic mood swings from high or manic feelings of extreme euphoria to deep despair or depression. These periods of mania or depression change the persons level of energy, thought processes, and behavior and can last for hours, weeks, or months. This is how this syndrome develops:
1. The child is indoctrinated in the morality of selfsacrifice. The process of mentally incorporating this moral code results in either suicide or the partitioning of the mind. (The Freudian tri-partite mind is created) 2. In order to think well of himself and distance himself from his true self he forms a religious self. The religious self or Superego acts as a punitive conscience. 3. The religious self turns on the true self and joins with his family and culture in punishing the true self. A life of chronic endorphin deficiency begins which may lead to suicide if a deal or contract cannot be reached with the conscience. 4. Before or during adolescence, the youngster strikes a deal, or forms a contract, with his conscience. He agrees to suffer and sacrifice for a Holy Cause in exchange for
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the reward of success and happiness in this life and for a reward in the future. 5. The individual has what he considers an unusual success. He believes there must be some mistake. He does not believe he has suffered sufficiently to justify such success. He fears a great rectifying event in the future when he will have to pay for all he has received. An unanticipated or extraordinary success is thus viewed as a sign of extra, but undeserved, favor. Extraordinary success brings endorphins and pleasure, but fears that extraordinary sacrifice and suffering will soon be required in compensation. 6. When more suffering and sacrifice are thought to be needed, he turns on himself with self-abuse and flagellation. When he is favored, he is flooded with endorphins and becomes euphoric; but this is soon followed by intense fear as he anticipates compensatory punishment. 7. The only way off this emotional roller coaster is to renounce religion and the morality of self-sacrifice and fully embrace the morality of rational self-interest.
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3. Alcohol Abuse Syndrome

Alcohol abuse disorder is a psychiatric syndrome, which is characterized by a craving for, and the strong need to drink alcohol. The person has an inability to limit his drinking on any given occasion. Physical dependence including withdrawal symptoms such as nausea, sweating, shakiness and anxiety occurs when alcohol ingestion is stopped. Such individuals often develop tolerance whereby larger and larger amounts of alcohol are ingested to get the same high. People with this disorder often drink themselves into ill health, destroy their marriage and family life, career, and find themselves in legal difficulties. This is how these syndromes develop:
1. The child is indoctrinated in the morality of selfsacrifice. The process of mentally incorporating this moral code results in either suicide or the partitioning of the mind. (The Freudian tri-partite mind is created) 2. In order to think well of himself and to distance himself from his true self, he forms a religious self. The religious self or Superego acts as a punitive conscience. 3. The religious self turns on the true self and joins with his family and culture in punishing the true self. A life of chronic endorphin deficiency begins. This may lead to suicide if a deal or contract cannot be reached with
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the conscience. 4. Before or during adolescence, the youngster strikes a deal, or forms a contract, with his conscience. He agrees to suffer and sacrifice for a Holy Cause in exchange for the reward of success and happiness in this life and for a reward in the future. 5. Failures, setbacks, difficulties, lack of success, unhappiness, are interpreted as signs of insufficient sacrifice and suffering. Practicing the morality of self-sacrifice, even if dedicated to a Holy Cause, leads to chronic endorphin deficiency 6. Selfish Id thoughts, fantasies, and behaviors produce endorphins in an endorphin-starved brain. These strong good feelings frighten the individual and stimulate fear and guilt. The individual endeavors to produce more suffering and sacrifice, which he knows is the currency required. Self-flagellation is pursued in a number of ways, including silent internal verbal self-abuse. 7. Self-abuse in the silence of his mind further reduces endorphin production, thus increasing the depression in a downward spiral. Magical thinking leads the individual to punish himself in the belief that God, Fate, or the powers that be will reward him with success once he has suffered sufficiently. 8. Suicide is the ultimate offering made in a final and desperate attempt to get the religious conscience (Superego) to relent, forgive and reward. Alcohol abuse is near
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a perfect accommodation. Alcohol is an artificial endorphin that really makes the person feel good. Drinking allows the individual to sacrifice his family and career to his Holy Cause of destroying himself. 9. The only escape from this masochistic game of buying success with suffering, experiencing endorphin deficiency, and becoming addicted to artificial endorphins is to renounce religion and the morality of self-sacrifice and to embrace the morality of rational self-interest.
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4. Chemical Abuse Syndrome

Chemical and substance abuse disorders are characterized by the compulsion to ingest, inhale, or inject one or more of any number of chemicals for their cognitive, emotional, or behavioral effect. The use of such chemicals is continued in spite of its detrimental effects upon marriage, family life, occupation, and physical health. People with this disorder become so committed to their dependency on their chemicals that they are willing to suffer legal and health consequences rather than forgo their addiction. This is how these syndromes develop: 1. The child is indoctrinated in the morality of selfsacrifice. The process of mentally incorporating this moral code results in either suicide or the partitioning of the mind. (The Freudian tri-partite mind is created) 2. In order to think well of himself and distance himself from his true self, he forms a religious self. This religious self or Superego acts as a punitive conscience. 3. The religious self turns on the true self and joins with his family and culture in punishing the true self. A life of chronic endorphin deficiency begins. This may lead to suicide if a deal or contract cannot be reached with the conscience. 4. Before or during adolescence, the youngster strikes a deal, or forms a contract, with his conscience. He agrees
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to suffer and sacrifice for a Holy Cause in exchange for the reward of success and happiness in this life and for a reward in the future. 5. Failures, setbacks, difficulties, lack of success and unhappiness are interpreted as signs of insufficient sacrifice and suffering. 6. The individual endeavors to produce more suffering and sacrifice, which he knows is the required currency. Self-flagellation is pursued in a number of ways, including silent internal verbal self-abuse. 7. Self-abuse in the silence of his mind further reduces endorphin production, thus increasing the self-hate and depression in a downward spiral. Magical thinking leads the individual to punish himself in the belief that God, Fate, or the powers that be will reward him with success once he has suffered sufficiently. 8. Chemical or substance use is discovered as a way to provide a relief, serenity and a calming effect which is more effective than anything else. Drug use allows selfsacrifice to proceed, and self-sacrifice insures continued the need for drug use. 9. Suicide is the ultimate offering made in a final and desperate attempt to get the religious conscience (Superego) to relent, forgive and reward.
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10. The only escape from this masochistic game of buying success with suffering is to renounce religion and the morality of self-sacrifice and embrace the morality of rational self-interest.
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5. Syndrome of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a syndrome that may be limited to either obsessions or compulsions, but most often is composed of both. Obsessions are thoughts, images or impulses that occur over and over again. These ideas are recurrent and unwanted. Common obsessions are of contamination with germs, dirt, insects, imagining having harmed oneself or others, loosing control of aggressive urges and intrusive sexual thoughts. Compulsions are acts a person is compelled to repeatedly perform in an effort to make their obsessions go away. Washing of hands, repeating phrases, checking locks, touching, hoarding and praying are common compulsions. This is how these syndromes develop: 1. The child is indoctrinated in the morality of selfsacrifice. The process of mentally incorporating this moral code results in either suicide or the partitioning of the mind. (The Freudian tri-partite mind is created) 2. In order to think well of himself and distance himself from his true self, he forms a religious self. This religious self or Superego acts as a punitive conscience. 3. The religious self turns on the true self and joins with his family and culture in punishing the true self. A life of chronic endorphin deficiency begins. This may lead to psychosis or suicide if a deal or contract cannot be
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reached with the conscience. 4. Before or during adolescence, the youngster strikes a deal, or forms a contract, with his conscience. He agrees to suffer and sacrifice for a Holy Cause in exchange for the reward of success and happiness in this life and for a reward in the future. 5. Failures, setbacks, difficulties, lack of success and unhappiness are interpreted as signs of insufficient sacrifice and suffering. Unanticipated success and extraordinary happiness is interpreted as being in great favor. 6. The individual endeavors to produce more suffering and sacrifice, which he knows is the required currency. Self-flagellation is pursued in a number of ways, including silent internal verbal self-abuse. How do you control the uncertainty and how can you tell if you are in or out of Gods favor? Compulsive rituals and obsessive thoughts test your status and provide reassurance and protection from punishment. 7. Anxiety and guilt will not go away until the patient quits playing the masochist game. The only escape from this is to renounce the morality of self-sacrifice and embrace the morality of rational self-interest.
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6. Panic Disorder Syndrome

Panic disorder is a syndrome that is characterized by episodes of inappropriate intense fear accompanied by heart palpitations, trembling, shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, and fear of dying. This is how these syndromes develop: 1. The child is indoctrinated in the morality of selfsacrifice. The process of mentally incorporating this moral code results in either suicide or the partitioning of the mind. (The Freudian tri-partite mind is created) 2. In order to think well of himself and distance himself from his true self, he forms a religious self. This religious self or Superego acts as a punitive conscience. 3. The religious self turns on the true self and joins with his family and culture in punishing the true self. A life of chronic endorphin deficiency begins. This may lead to psychosis or suicide if a deal or contract cannot be reached with the conscience. 4. Before or during adolescence, the youngster strikes a deal, or forms a contract, with his conscience. He agrees to suffer and sacrifice for a Holy Cause in exchange for the reward of success and happiness in this life and for a reward in the future. 5. Failures, setbacks, difficulties, lack of success and unhappiness, are interpreted as signs of insufficient sacri82
fice and suffering. 6. The individual endeavors to produce more suffering and sacrifice, which he knows is the required currency. Self-flagellation is pursued in a number of ways, including silent internal verbal self-abuse. 7. Self-abuse in the silence of his mind further reduces endorphin production thus increasing the depression in a downward spiral. Magical thinking leads the individual to punish himself in the belief that God, Fate, or the powers that be will reward him with success once he has suffered sufficiently. 8. As long as the individual reinforces the idea that he deserves successes because he has sacrificed, then extra success will panic him because he fears he hasnt yet paid for it. The panic is caused by the idea that the owed sacrifice and suffering may at any moment become due and payable. 9. The only escape from this masochistic game of buying success with suffering is to renounce religion and the morality of self-sacrifice and embrace the morality of rational self-interest.
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7. Syndrome of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that a person may develop after experiencing or witnessing an extreme, overwhelming traumatic event during which they felt intense fear, helplessness, or horror. After exposure to an accident, natural disaster, or terrorist attack, the person may develop nightmares, flashbacks, and heightened anxiety that disrupt their daily life. The dominant features of post-traumatic stress disorder are emotional numbing (i.e., emotional nonresponsiveness), hyperarousal (e.g., irritability, on constant alert for danger), and re-experiencing of the trauma (e.g., flashbacks, intrusive emotions). Post-traumatic stress disorder is also referred to as shell shock or battle fatigue (when describing the disorder in combat veterans) and as post-rape syndrome. This is how this syndrome develops: 1. The child is indoctrinated in the morality of selfsacrifice. The process of mentally incorporating this moral code results in either suicide or the partitioning of the mind. (The Freudian tri-partite mind is created) 2. In order to think well of himself and distance himself from his true self, he forms a religious self. This religious self or Superego acts as a punitive conscience.
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3. The religious self turns on the true self and joins with his family and culture in punishing the true self. A life of chronic endorphin deficiency begins. This may lead to psychosis or suicide if a deal or contract cannot be reached with the conscience. 4. Before or during adolescence, the youngster strikes a deal, or forms a contract, with his conscience. He agrees to suffer and sacrifice for a Holy Cause in exchange for the reward of success and happiness in this life and for a reward in the future. 5. Failures, setbacks, difficulties, lack of success, unhappiness, are interpreted as signs of insufficient sacrifice and suffering. 6. The individual endeavors to produce more suffering and sacrifice, which he knows is the required currency. Self-flagellation is pursued in a number of ways, including silent internal verbal self-abuse. 7. Self-abuse in the silence of his mind further reduces endorphin production, which increases the depression in a downward spiral. Magical thinking leads the individual to punish himself in the belief that God, Fate, the powers that be will reward him with success once he has suffered sufficiently. 8. The individual suffers and sacrifices, diligently trying to live up to his agreement, and believing he is doing so when a very serious and tragic event occurs.
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9. The PTSD patient feels betrayed and confused. He has played by the rules, paid his dues, and then this happens. He feels that it is very unfair. Since the rules seem to have changed, panic sets in. If sacrifice and suffering do not buy you success and safety, what is there to rely upon? 10. As long as this person plays the masochist game of buying favors with suffering and sacrifices, he will not be able to let this event go. The only escape is to renounce the morality of self-sacrifice and embrace the morality of rational self-interest.
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8. Syndrome of Schizophreniform Disorders

Schizophreniform disorders are characterized by a marked break with reality. Hallucinations, delusions, illusions and perceptual misinterpretations are common. Disorganized speech, inappropriate behavior, mood changes, and deterioration in care of oneself are common. This is how these syndromes develop: 1. The child is indoctrinated in the morality of selfsacrifice. The process of mentally incorporating this moral code results in either suicide or the partitioning of the mind. (The Freudian tri-partite mind is created) 2. In order to think well of himself and distance himself from his true self, he forms a religious self. This religious self or Superego acts as a punitive conscience. 3. The religious self turns on the true self and joins with his family and culture in punishing the true self. A life of chronic endorphin deficiency begins which may lead to psychosis or suicide if a deal or contract cannot be reached with the conscience. 4. Before or during adolescence, the youngster tries to strike a deal with his conscience. He tries, but fails, to get an agreement to suffer and sacrifice for a Holy Cause in exchange for the reward of success and happiness in the future. He may feel this is hypocritical and
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a moral compromise. He is too idealistic to sell out in this way. Unable to reach closure on the masochistic contract, the persons identity remains in flux. 5. Self-abuse in the silence of his mind further reduces endorphin production, which increases the depression in a downward spiral. Magical thinking leads the individual to punish himself in the belief that God, Fate, or the powers that be will reward him with success once he has suffered sufficiently. 6. This failure to compartmentalize causes cognitive and perceptive distortions that can be resolved in only oneway. Psychosis or suicide is the ultimate offering made in a final and desperate attempt to get the religious conscience (Superego) to relent, forgive and reward. 6. The only escape from this masochistic game of buying success with suffering is to renounce religion and the morality of self-sacrifice and embrace the morality of rational self-interest. Embracing the morality of rational self-interest will heal the patients mind.
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9. Somatization Syndrome
Generalized and vague aches and pains without medical evidence of disease characterize somatization disorders. Complaints such as stomach aches, sexual pains, gastrointestinal problems, and neurological symptoms are common. Hypochondriasis is in this group of disorders. This is how these syndromes develop: 1. The child is indoctrinated in the morality of selfsacrifice. The process of mentally incorporating this moral code results in either suicide or the partitioning of the mind. (The Freudian tri-partite mind is created) 2. In order to think well of himself and distance himself from his true self, he forms a religious self. This religious self or Superego acts as a punitive conscience. 3. The religious self turns on the true self and joins with his family and culture in punishing the true self. A life of chronic endorphin deficiency begins. This may lead to psychosis or suicide if a deal or contract cannot be reached with the conscience. 4. Before or during adolescence, the youngster strikes a deal, or forms a contract, with his conscience. He agrees to suffer and sacrifice for a Holy Cause in exchange for the reward of success and happiness in this life and for a reward in the future. With this masochistic contract, a life of endorphin deficiency begins.
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5. He feels so bad all the time that he logically concludes that he is being punished for insufficient suffering and self-sacrifice. He searches for his punishment: cancer perhaps? 6. The individual endeavors to produce more suffering and sacrifice, which he knows is the required currency. Self-flagellation is pursued in a number of ways, including silent internal verbal self-abuse. 7. Self-abuse in the silence of his mind further reduces endorphin production, which increases the depression in a downward spiral. Magical thinking leads the individual to punish himself in the belief that God, Fate, or the powers that be will reward him with success once he has suffered sufficiently. 8. Every ache or pain causes great fear as he interprets it as a symptom of a terminal disease and a punishment from God. 9. The only escape from this masochistic game of buying success with suffering is to renounce religion and the morality of self-sacrifice and embrace the morality of rational self-interest.
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10. Syndrome of Sexual and Identity Disorder

Sexual & Gender Identity Disorders comprise a large group of psychiatric syndromes that involve problems with sexual identity. This includes the paraphilias, pedophilia, voyeurism, exhibitionism, sexual masochism, and sexual sadism. Also in this group is fetishism and frotteurism. Gender Identity Disorder is the condition where the person desires to be the other sex. This is how these syndromes develop. 1. The child is indoctrinated in the morality of selfsacrifice. The process of mentally incorporating this moral code results in either suicide or the partitioning of the mind. (The Freudian tri-partite mind is created) 2. In order to think well of himself and distance himself from his true self, he forms a religious self. This religious self or Superego acts as a punitive conscience. 3. The religious self turns on the true self and joins with his family and culture in punishing the true self. A life of chronic endorphin deficiency begins which may lead to psychosis or suicide if a deal or contract cannot be reached with the conscience. 4. Before or during adolescence, the youngster tries to strike a deal with his conscience. He tries, but fails, to get an agreement to suffer and sacrifice for a Holy Cause in exchange for the reward of success and happiness in the future. He may feel this is hypocritical and
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a moral compromise. He is too idealistic to sell out in this way. Unable to reach closure on the masochistic contract, his identity remains in flux. 4. He has a life-changing sexual experience, an epiphany; then, using his magical thinking; he interprets this as a sign of his proper identity. He engages in behaviors that reinforce this identity. 5. Failures, setbacks, difficulties, lack of success and unhappiness, are interpreted as signs of insufficient sacrifice and suffering. 6. The individual endeavors to produce more suffering and sacrifice, which he knows is the required currency. Self-flagellation is pursued in a number of ways, including silent internal verbal self-abuse. 7. Self-abuse in the silence of his mind further reduces endorphin production, which increases the depression in a downward spiral. Magical thinking leads the individual to punish himself in the belief that God, Fate, or the powers that be will reward him with success once he has suffered sufficiently. 8. Psychosis or suicide is the ultimate offering made in a final and desperate attempt to get the religious conscience (Superego) to relent, forgive and reward. 9. The only way to change identity, or to form one, is by healing the fractured mind. To do this, the morality of self-sacrifice must be renounced. The only escape from this masochistic game of buying success with suffering
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is to renounce religion and embrace the morality of rational self-interest.
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Chapter 14 Some examples of religious self-sacrifice:

1. Jim lives deep in the mountains, two hours from the nearest settlement and four hours by automobile from city services. He lives there with his wife who has to commute to her job as a secretary. Jim does not like nearby neighbors. When he lived in town, people constantly took advantage of him. A neighbor once borrowed Jims chainsaw because he needed to cut down a dead tree in his yard. This neighbor kept Jims saw for many weeks, forcing him to repeatedly ask for its return. When the neighbor finally returned the saw to Jim, it was broken into many pieces. The neighbor told Jim he was sorry but a tree had fallen on his saw. Jim humbly accepted the apology, went to town and purchased a new chainsaw. A few days later the neighbor heard Jim cutting some firewood and came over. The neighbor admired Jims new chainsaw, and said that he needed to finish cutting up his downed, dead tree. Jim generously offered his neighbor the saw, along with extra gasoline. That is when Jim vowed to move away from people, off into the wilderness where he would be alone.
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2. Mohammed Aldouri was born in Palestine and has lived there all his life. He received all of his education at a school at his local mosque. He is a devout Moslem. His hatred of the Jews is only overshadowed by his love of Allah. He has dedicated his life to the Palestinian cause. This morning he is dressing in the clothes of a Jewish cleric, under his gown strapped to his body is enough explosive to destroy a small building. He kneels on his prayer rug; he prays earnestly for a long time. Then he rises and poses for a videotaping that will be given to his family after his death. He says good-bye to each of his loved ones and he leaves by car for the trip that will bring him nearer to his target. 3. Carl sits in his living room. It is late at night, his wife sleeps, and all is very quiet. Everything is very still, nothing seems to be moving. Yet inside Carls mind, there is a raging mixture of thought and feeling. As quiet and motionless as things appear on the outside, they are chaotic and violent inside of Carls mind. Like a broken record, Carl goes over and over every shortcoming, every failing, every mistake, every misstep that he has ever made, as far back in his life as he can remember. He calls himself every derogatory name and description he can think of. He is stupid, he is lazy, he is fat, he is ugly, he is worthless, he is selfish, he is rotten to the core, and he is a slob, without any saving virtue or redeeming value. This verbal abuse goes on inside the privacy of his mind for hours on end. Upon arising, his wife comes into the living room, she finds Carl in a very black and foul mood. She suggests that Carl get back on his Prozac.
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SOME EXAMPLES OF RELIGIOUS SELF-SACRIFICE
4. High in the Andes Mountains, towering above the trees lays a great temple. It is an Inca temple and thousands of loyal worshippers of the Inca gods chant in their ritual of human sacrifice. Amrika is about the most beautiful and perfect little 6-year-old girl you could ever hope to see. It is the year 1443 and Amrika has been chosen as an offering to the gods. She and her family are very proud. On the signal she and hundreds of young girls began their march up the many steps to the great altar. She is overwhelmed with emotion at the thought of the great deed she has been chosen to undertake for her people. Her love of her gods and her people has never been stronger as she nears the altar platform. 5. Lisa has been married three times. She is 43 years old and has a son, age 24, and a daughter, age 21. Both are now out on their own. Lisa is going through her third divorce and is living alone. She says that she has never been happy. She has spent her whole life trying to please others and make everyone happy. She has concluded that she doesnt trust men, and for good reason. Lisa finds many faults with herself. She is too selfish and thinks too much about her unhappiness, yet she admits that gaining the approval and avoiding the disapproval of others is her central motivation in life. She says she suffers from low self-esteem. She avoids confrontations and feels guilty if she sticks up for herself. She attributes her low self-esteem to being fat, ugly, and lazy, and she constantly reminisces about her personal failures. She has decided that she must be the type of woman that men always dump.
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6. Bill is in his garage. He tried this once before and messed up. He is determined to get it right this time. He has shut the garage door and is now sealing off all the edges. Bill is very angry. He is angry with his wife, and mostly with himself. He has always done everything others wanted him to do so they would accept and love him. His wife has insisted that he volunteer his time for a fundraiser. Although he despises this organization, he has complied with her wishes. He is miserable when he refuses her and feels like he has betrayed himself when he complies. He cant win any way he goes. He views himself as defective, as mentally ill and beyond hope or cure. He has made sure his car is full of gasoline this time and will run for a long time. After making sure the window and back door were also well sealed, he starts the automobile and sits down on a chair to await the inevitable. His last thoughts are of his father and the terrible way his father treated him. 7. Clyde sits in Cellblock 4 at Folsom Prison on death row. He has confessed to killing five people and has hinted there may be a lot more. Clyde hates people, he hates himself, and he hates every living thing. He will not admit to this hate. He may not be aware of it, since he has no point of reference. His hate is pervasive and complete throughout his being. He does not experience it as a separate or distinct emotion for he is the living embodiment of hate. When he was a child, Clyde tortured and killed animals and took delight in the agony of dying creatures. To destroy that which is evil, that which one hates, is good. Clyde is not unhappy.
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8. John tried to hang himself after his wife announced that she was leaving him. In his mind, to take his life would show his wife and children how much he loved them. John has never had any sense of self and has always felt hollow and empty. When he met his wife to-be, he fell madly in love with her. She became his reason to exist and she became his holy cause, someone to devote his life to. When she quit him, he lost not only a wife, but also all reason to live. He was emptied out and had nothing, nothing to lose. With her leaving, he believes he has lost his soul, his being, and his self. He was already dead even before he tried to kill himself. All that was left to do was the formality of putting a toe tag on his body and sending it to the morgue. 9. Ben lives near a shopping center. He goes to this shopping center often, for groceries, to do his laundry, and for other purchases. When he leaves home, he must be careful not to step on a crack in the sidewalk. He feels sure that stepping on a crack in the pavement will precipitate some terrible accident that may kill him. He halfway knows that this is silly, but hes not sure; hes still afraid.
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Chapter 15 Religious Self-Sacrifice In Everyday Life
he code of self-sacrifice is very destructive to family relationships. It perverts motivation, attitude and outlook. It also encourages rejection of personal responsibility. Self-sacrifice means denial of ones needs. It forces a person to choose between behaving morally, and behaving in a way that is good for oneself. The morality of self-sacrifice makes a person choose between an endorphin deficient good upstanding life, and a morally indefensible, but endorphin abundant one. The more altruistic and self-sacrificing an individual behaves, the more morally righteous he feels, the more endorphin deficient he becomes. Note the contrast between these two women.
Wife # 1 awakens early in the morning to the thought, I am tired. I dont want to get up and do my duty but my husband must get off to work. And my three children must soon leave for school. I must not be selfish and sleep in. I
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must get-up and make breakfast for my family. As she gets dressed she is anxious to get everyone off so that she can be alone. Wife # 2 awakens early in the morning to the thought, I am tired. I could use more sleep but I love my husband and I appreciate how hard he works to provide for our family. I am so proud of my kids and love them so much. They will be leaving soon and I wont see them all day. I want to see them off with a good breakfast. Notice that the behavior of the two women is identical. If you were only observing what they do you would miss the point. It is their motivation that is 180 degrees different. With the change in motivation comes the change in attitude. In the first example the wifes estimate of herself (that she is a bad person, that she is selfish) is reinforced. Only the exercise of her will and her willingness to sacrifice and do her duty makes her behavior good. Down deep she feels like her behavior is phony, that she is phony. She must fight against her fundamental, negative view of herself, force herself to act in opposition to her nature, and do what is right. Her thought processes reinforce a view of herself as a person who must fight her natural inclinations, in this instance to neglect her family. She must make herself do the right thing. Endorphin deficiency is assured by her motivation. The attitude she will develop will be one of resentment. Her outlook will be pessimistic. How will this motivation affect her self-esteem? How will this motivation affect her sense of responsibility? In the second example, the wife thinks only of what she wants. Her husband and her kids are hers to enjoy. She owns this situation! Therefore she thinks like an owner. She selfishly wants to do good for her family. She is reinforcing a view of
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herself as a person who naturally wants to care for those she loves. Her attitude may be one of pride and self-satisfaction. Her outlook will be optimistic. What will this do to her selfesteem? How will this motivation affect her sense of responsibility? The individual who must force himself to do what is right, to act in opposition to his selfish desires, out of moral duty, will assign responsibility to forces outside himself. They caused this. They have put him through this. It is their fault. An individual who is motivated by normal selfish desires, and does what he wants to do, will accept authorship and ownership of his actions. Such individuals tend to accept responsibility for their behavior.
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SECTION IV: CONCLUSIONS
CHAPTER 16 Morality and Animal Behavior

nimals have been given a bum rap. Centuries of folk stories, fairy tales and mythology have painted an eschewed picture of animal behavior. Wild animals are not the ravenous, jaw snapping monsters with blood dripping from their teeth that you may have read about. Nor are they trying to burst into your home to devour every human being in sight, as some storywriters would have you believe. To objectively study animal behavior, we have to first carefully study the animal. Most animals have a lot fewer options than we humans. Their sources of suitable food are more restricted. Their ability to sense the environment may be highly developed in select areas, but overall it is more limited than ours. Their ability to manipulate objects and use tools is almost non-existent. They have few means of storing food for future use. They have very limited ability to communicate with their fellow creatures and cooperate toward a common objective. They are largely alone as they face the challenges of survival. When you observe wild and domesticated animals, you realize that they behave quite logically. A lion or tiger will kill
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and eat you if they are hungry. Its not personal; its just that to them you are food. Its all very logical. Given their handicaps, they utilize their strengths and guard their weaknesses very well. Their relationships with other members of their species are indeed very admirable. The males do fight over the females, but such fighting seldom results in death. Rape is almost unheard of. Animal mothers do a much better job of nurturing their young than they generally get credit for. I know of no incidence of one group of animals making war on another group. Some insects do this, but it must be extremely rare for animals. This is my point. Animals are guided by their Hindbrain. They use their Forebrain to get what their Hindbrain wants and satisfy their needs. Their system is predicated on the ethic of selfishness or rational self-interest. And it works pretty well. Actually it works much better for animals than self-sacrifice or altruism is working for humans! Far too many human parents murder, abandon, and abuse their offspring; little of this happens in the animal world. Groups of humans are constantly engaged in the wholesale killing of other groups; this almost never happens within the same species of animals. I think it is indisputable that the moral behavior of animals is much better than that of humans! So, if humans are serious about improving moral behavior, we need look no farther for good examples than members of the animal kingdom. And if animals can behave so much better than we humans, guided as they are by their selfish Hindbrains, then we humans should jettison our abstract conceptual religious consciences, our morality of self-sacrifice, and listen more to our Hindbrains!
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Chapter 17 The Cure of Mental Illness
ntil you have sat across the room from your patient and observed the terror in his eyes as he grasps his chest and complains of a racing heart, you cannot understand the terror. Until you see your patient looking about the room expecting a bolt of lightening to strike at any minute, you will not appreciate the fear. Until you have seen the beaded cold sweat and actually smelled the odor of fear as your patient contemplates an idea that is taboo, you may not truly love freedom. Until you have experienced these things, you will not be able to fully appreciate the power of religion to enslave the human mind. I am not sure that mental illness, once firmly established, can be totally eradicated. The damage done to a child by religious indoctrination is extremely tenacious. I have used the personal computer as an analogy to the human brain. However, here the analogy breaks down. The personal computer is not living tissue. A computer can be erased and reprogrammed with ease. Thankfully, the severity and frequency of the signs and symptoms of mental illness is
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greatly reduced once the patient understands and embraces selfishness. Then the individual can learn to cope with the reduced and less frequent symptoms when they do occur. Over time the symptoms become a rare annoyance, rather that the life-wrecking syndrome they were. Basically the treatment of mental illness is education and freedom. The two are a back and forth enterprise and they go hand in hand. Most counselors and tutors have their own styles and approach to patients. Almost all of these techniques work if the counselor is free enough in his own mind to lead his patient to the discoveries they need to make. Mankind obviously does not know the difference between good and evil! As long as each is mistaken for the other we have a serious problem. This makes the treatment of mental illness doubly difficult. As long as society views religion as beneficial or benign, it will be an up hill struggle. The many good works done by religious people are done in spite of their religious beliefs and their religious affiliation should not be given the credit. I hope I have made it clear that anyone who truly understands and practices a religion will be lead inexorably to homicide, suicide, or both. Thankfully most people are religious hypocrites, poor religionists, but good, civil and considerate human beings. As these good people go through their lives they are mistaken when they give religion the credit for their good behavior. More curative than knowledge of religions negative influence, or a therapists techniques, is the positive healing power of reason. When God is understood to be synonymous with reality, universe, nature, reason and freedom, rather than some supernatural apparition, then understanding God becomes an impetus to education, knowledge, scholarship and scientific research. Such a concept of God heals the rift between reason and life created by religion and cures mans men107
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tal schism. The mind-body fissure is closed eliminating the false alternatives. This makes the liberals sacrifice of God for reason and the conservatives sacrifice of reason for God, unnecessary. It puts God and reason back together on the same team, with virtue and material prosperity on the same side, for the good of man and for the true understanding of God. Then religion is seen as the blasphemy it is and the cause of mans excommunication from God.
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Chapter 18 The Morality of Life & Mental Health

orce and coercion share so much history with highminded calls for morality that I am reluctant to describe a moral code. My fear is that it will be forced on someone. If force and coercion could be eliminated from mental operations, I am sure an individual could find suitable moral guidance from his own reason. If you can eliminate the moral damage done to you by religion, you can simply listen to your Hindbrain. So please do not view these ideas as commandments, they are just some suggestions. The code of self-sacrifice is the morality of mental illness and death. It is so artificial and unwholesome that it requires huge man-made institutions and armies of people to advertise and promote it. Without around-the-clock propaganda and constant scare tactics, it would die a much-needed death. When something requires preaching into your brain 24/7, perhaps it shouldnt be there. The basic, natural, biological morality of life is the code of SELFISHNESS. Sometimes referred to as the morality of rational self-interest. This morality requires that you be as sel110
fish in your motivation as humanly possible all the time! This morality exists in your hindbrain and needs no national or international organization promoting it. It may now be buried under so many layers of religious idiocy that you need to launch a reclamation project to find it, but its there. To be as selfish as you possibly can require that you think, and think hard. You must figure out what would be the very best thing for you to do for yourself in the long run! It is not easy to choose the most selfish course to take; it requires a lot of thought. With practice, one gets better at it. Choosing self-sacrificing behavior is easy. So long as it hurts and someone other than you gets the advantage, its the thing to do. While the morality of sacrifice will lead to the social philosophy of the greatest good for the greatest number, or from each according to their ability, to each according to their need, the morality of life will embrace voluntary exchange to mutual satisfaction. The morality of selfishness recognizes that healthy adult relationships must be 50-50. Reciprocity is the essential characteristic of mature, grown-up, adult dealings. Reciprocity is a fancy word for trade. That is correct! The healthy, adult relationship is no more complicated, and no less, than trade. So what is trade? Trade is the voluntary exchange of goods and services to mutual benefit. Only the individuals involved in a transaction may make the determination as to whether or not an exchange is fair and equal. Only persuasion and negotiation are allowed. The use of force, or the treat of its use, nullifies and voids any transaction as a trade. Trade is the opposite of extortion, intimidation, rape, theft, violence, and murder. Trade presupposes mature individuals, each selfishly pursuing their own self-interest. The barbaric code of self-sacrifice requires domination and submission, sadism and masochism. Human sacrifice in all
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its renditions is an ancient evil that has caused more human suffering than all the epidemics combined.
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Chapter 19 The Prevention of Mental Illness

ince the invention of writing, and the beginning of recorded history, most of what has been recorded is one massacre after another. The masses have been so mesmerized by the written word that no amount of lunacy is dismissed if it is in writing. Indoctrination or brainwashing of children in psychotic and mystical absurdities works through intensity and repetition. The more surrounded children are with like-minded cult members, the more often training sessions are held; and the longer and more emotional such sessions are, the more the childs mind is swamped with such filth. Parents should not allow this psychological abuse of their children. Just as education was required to control malaria and bubonic plague, education is needed to prevent mental illness. People just do not know that they should think! Religious indoctrination has blocked their psychological maturation to the point that they are constantly looking for a parental authority figure to obey. They do not understand that they should do what they think is best. They do not understand what they should do and what they should not do in regards to raising
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children. The public does not see religion for the menace it is. People do not understand that any ideology that requires that you mutilate your mind to accommodate it will have you commit other violence soon enough. Religion is incompatible with a healthy happy life. As a parent you can force your child to believe any ideology you wish, no matter how absurd and ridiculous it is. You can use enough punishment, terror, threats and intimidation and cause your child enough pain and fear that he will believe the unbelievable. But then dont be shocked one morning when your teenager is at your throat with a knife! As a teacher, or classmate, you can continue the ridicule of someone begun by his parents, but then dont be surprised if he brings a gun to school and kills you all. Violence begets violence is nowhere more true than in raising children. In my experience, the motives of most clerics are laudable. Most would be shocked to realize that, because of the way the human mind works, much of the evil that religion tries to control in adults, was produced in those adults by religion when they were children! The belief that selfishness is the root of evil is so ubiquitous that few challenge it. The truth is, however, that we want everyone busy selfishly pursuing their own interest, rather than the much more dangerous activity of sacrificing their life to some Holy Cause. When children are forced to believe any of the various theologies and nationalist ideologies that exalt sacrifice to a higher cause, they are forced to mentally mutilate themselves. Such tactics should be called what they are: child abuse! Indoctrinating children with superstition and nationalistic propaganda should be universally condemned. Most of the psychological abuse of children by clerics, religious schools and misguided parents is the result of ignor115
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ance. Binding the feet of infant girls, circumcision, placing rocks on childrens heads to flatten their skulls, and beatings with peach tree limbs are minor when compared to ruining their minds! Once the good people in every culture understand this, those now working so hard in the wrong direction will reverse course and lead the charge toward mental health. It is time for psychologists, psychiatrists, and educators to cease hiding behind sophistry and political correctness and teach the truth.
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Chapter 20 The Purpose of Mental Illness
lavery is a state of mind. Slavery may or may not involve physical hardship, but it does require acceptance. The slave is first and foremost enslaved by his beliefs. A people can be subjugated by force, but only psychological seduction can induce someone to accept slavery. To be ruled by others, you must first surrender the sovereignty of your mind. Until an individual acquiesces mentally to his enslavement, he may be a prisoner, perhaps a prison worker, but not a slave. Once a person accepts as his fate that he be ruled by others, then he is truly a slave. Some consider religion to be an early and primitive attempt at philosophy. This is not true. Religion is a highly sophisticated system of psychological seduction. The purpose of religion is to produce an obedient populace. Religion produces the mental state that will accept slavery. In contemporary language, this mental state is called mental illness. Religion produces mental illness in the children it subjects to indoctrination. People who are mentally and emotionally depen-
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dent will obey the recognized authority of their culture. After 20,000 years of perfecting its techniques, religion is extremely efficient at this. The ancients learned that the best way to control people was to first make them mentally ill. Hyper-suggestibility, projecting parental attributes onto institutions, government worship, excessive concern with pleasing others and overobedience to authority, are just a few of the desirable qualities to have in your slaves. In the millennia prior to the industrial age, a tribes or a nations hegemony was determined almost solely by the fierceness and fearlessness of it warriors. The more they were concerned with the rewards of their martyrdom and the less they were concerned with their personal safety, the better. The tribe most capable of producing homicidal maniacs on an assembly-line basis had a strategic military advantage. Advancing technology, thankfully, levels the battlefield. The ancients discovered that the best way to make people mentally ill was to start in on them when they were young children. Turn good and evil upside down. Teach children that their self is evil and selfish and must be squashed. Promote the morality of human sacrifice and begin with the self. Teach them a bunch of superstitious nonsense and force them to believe it on faith. Faith is the antithesis of reason. To believe the unbelievable, a child must institute the process of compartmentalization. To salvage a modicum of self respect, the child will have to create a false religious self and house it in a protected mental compartment. This will ensure mental illness. This will produce a good slave but a miserable person. Religion, by this means, promotes obedience of the populace to the ruling elite. Religion, by placing itself between human beings and natural reality, creates a world of violence, murder
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and destruction. Those who advocate faith are asking that you abdicate reliance on your own mind and obey them. Faith is the precursor of magical thinking. Those who ask you to embrace selfsacrifice seek to profit from your navet. Only charlatans and con artist ask these things of others. Magical thinking and selfsacrifice are the stalwarts of young hotheads past and present. They are the attributes of true believers of every ilk and they continue to be the fodder of national ambitions around the globe.
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Chapter 21 Politics and Public Policy
t is important to realize that no peoples can acquire and maintain more freedom politically than that which they enjoy inside their minds. I believe that societal organization recapitulates mental organization. A person generally cannot conceive of greater social and political freedom than he enjoys inside his own head. The type of government a people have is a reflection of how most of them think. If a society relies on brute physical force for control, most of the citizens of that society likely display force in their psychodynamics and in their dealings with others. Only free thinkers can develop and maintain a free country. One of the consequences of the cognitive and emotional damage caused by the indoctrination of children with religion is that it causes a failure of most to mature psychologically. Most theist, throughout their life, search for the perfect parents. This parentalism makes them gullible to the promise of political and spiritual utopias. Parents, of course, come in two sexes -- mothers and fathers. Mothers tend to provide unconditional love and sup-
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port, whereas fathers generally expect self-discipline and accountability. Parentalism, as applied to socio-economics, thus has its maternal and paternal variants. Communism is a maternal system, whereas fascism is its paternal twin. In theist democracies, the political parties usually break down into these two categories. Democrats want to be your smothering and controlling mother and Republicans want to be your domineering and controlling father. Both promise to provide the parental support the masses demand, but at the cost of freedom. Politicians of course have the same heritage; they promise what they and the populace crave. The party that presents the most idealized parental proposals usually gains the most power. Eventually, the inevitable arrives and with it disappointment, dissolution, rebellion and dictatorship. In 1776, the United States was as free as it has ever been. This freedom was more or less imposed upon the populace by an enlightened elite. It is no accident that the most influential forefathers were deist, and not theist. Since that date, the citizens of the U.S.A. have consistently voted, or had their elected representatives vote, for more and more parentalism. Mountains of laws, rules and regulations to protect the children have nearly destroyed all vestiges of liberty.
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Chapter 22 Summary
ankind has gone about as far as it can go trying to practice the barbaric religious morality of selfsacrifice. Paying lip service and professing belief in this ancient and evil moral code, that cannot, and should not, be obeyed creates the mind-body dichotomy that is destroying civilization. Religion practiced conscientiously and devoutly leads to suicide and homicide. Utilizing the psychological mechanisms of denial and compartmentalization to create the hypocrisy necessary to survive this evil causes mental illness and dysfunctional societies. But it is only hypocrisy that will allow a professed commitment to religion, which espouses the virtues of poverty and the afterlife, while pursuing wealth and scientific advancement. Only hypocrisy allows a culture to worship human sacrifice and profess to a quest for death, while marketing a me generation and spending billions of dollars on life extending treatments and research. Some do pursue their faith with more uncompromising vigor and refuse the hypocrisy needed for material success. They carry the religious virtues of ignorance and poverty to
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new heights while actively seeking their nirvana in death. Religion forces an untenable alternative. A person or a culture must choose mental integration and death or mental schism and material prosperity. To the devoutly religious, wealth does not represent an opportunity to improve their standard of living with better sanitation, education, health care, housing and infrastructure. No, greater wealth is seen as a worldly distraction from their important religious purposes of suffering, human sacrifice and death worship. People lucky enough to reside in countries that allow religious freedoms are able to have their cake and eat it too. They can fool themselves into believing that they are practicing their faith by attending religious services a few minutes a week while actively pursuing wealth and health most of their time. This is religion to them and they have no appreciation of how deadly serious these ancient and barbaric beliefs really are. They look upon religious violence when it makes the news as the exceptional event perpetrated by religious fanatics. In their view, anyone who takes their religion seriously is a fanatic. The more benign practice of religion in liberal Western nations colors the perception people have of these institutions. This makes it difficult for most people to properly understand and effectively address the threat religion poses to such values as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Many people put such a positive spin on religion, that they see it as benign and beneficial. It is neither.
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POSTSCRIPT:
I believe the indoctrination of children with religious propaganda produces mental illness. Particularly destructive is the morality of self-sacrifice. In this book I have outlined the mechanisms by which I believe this occurs. Respecting childrens cognitive processes and giving them the freedom to develop those processes can accomplish the prevention of mental illness. The indoctrination of children with religious dogma must cease.
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REFERENCES 1. Hoeber (1979). Selected Writings of Sir Charles Sherrington: A Testimonial Presented by the Neurologists Forming the Guarantors of the Journal "Brain" Oxford University Press 2. Snyder, Solomon H. (1974) Madness and the Brain New York, McGraw 3. Szasz, Thomas S. (1961) The Myth of Mental Illness New York, Hoeber-Harper 4. Rand, Ayn (1966) Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology New York, The Objectivist, Inc. 5. Rand, Ayn, & Nathanial Branden (1964) The Virtue of Selfishness New York, Penguin 6. Fenichel, Otto (1946) Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd. 7. . Freud, Sigmund (1938) The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud translation by A.A. Brill, New York, Modern Library.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
r. Henry E. Jones was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1939. He was raised in the small northeast Louisiana town of Wisner where he finished high school. Dr. Jones attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, graduating with a BS in zoology. He then attended L.S.U. School of Medicine in New Orleans, receiving his M.D. Degree in 1965. He did a mixed pediatric internship at Charity Hospital of New Orleans. Dr. Jones finished the first two years of a psychiatric residency at Warren State Hospital in Pennsylvania. He completed his psychiatric residency at Herrick Memorial Hospital in Berkeley, California in 1969. Dr. Jones opened a private psychiatric practice in West Los Angeles in 1970. He also worked as an instructor in psychiatry at University of Southern California-Los Angeles County Hospital. He practiced psychiatry exclusively for a few years, and then entered a Family Practice Residency at the Santa Monica Medical Center. In 1974 he completed this training. For several years, he limited his practice to psychosomatic disorders. In 1976, Dr. Jones returned to Louisiana to practice in Ouachita Parish. During the next 25 years he practiced both psychiatry and general medicine. He served as Chief of Staff of one hospital and as chief of the Department of Family Practice, as well as Director of the Inpatient Psychiatric Unit of Saint Francis Medical Center in Monroe. In 2001, Dr. Jones closed his Louisiana practice and moved back to California. He again practiced psychiatry exclu-
sively until retirement in 2004. For almost 40 years Dr. Jones interviewed and treated patients suffering mental illness. Over this period, he has evaluated and analyzed well over 2000 psychiatric patients. This book is the result of what he learned from these individuals.

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RELIGION:

THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

Henry E. Jones, M.D.

THE HUMAN BRAIN

Henry E. Jones, M.D.

Copyright 2006 by Henry Jones M.D. All Rights Reserved

68 70 72 74 77 80 82 84 87 89 91 94 100 103 104 106 110 114 118

122 124 127 129

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

SECTION I: THE HEALTHY MIND

CHAPTER 1 Anatomy of the Human Brain

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

ANATOMY OF THE HUMAN BRAIN

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

ANATOMY OF THE HUMAN BRAIN

CHAPTER 2 The Human Forebrain, The Mental Computer

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

Software with which the human mind is programmed. That

THE HUMAN FOREBRAIN, THE MENTAL COMPUTER

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

THE HUMAN FOREBRAIN, THE MENTAL COMPUTER

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

THE HUMAN FOREBRAIN, THE MENTAL COMPUTER

SECTION II: THE MENTALLY ILL

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21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26.

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

CHAPTER 5 Perversion of Motivation

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

CHAPTER 6 The Religious Self

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

THE RELIGIOUS SELF

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

CHAPTER 8 The Dialectic Effect

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

also true in the mind. Abstractions that are unconnected to

THE DIALECTIC EFFECT

CHAPTER 9 Perversion of Cognition

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

THE DIALECTIC EFFECT

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

SECTION III: CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY

CHAPTER 11 Psychiatric Symptoms

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

CHAPTER 12 Outline of the development of the Fundamentals of Mental Illness

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

OUTLINE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF MENTAL ILLNESS

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

CHAPTER 13 Psychiatric Syndromes

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

1. Syndrome of Major Depression

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

2. Syndrome of Bipolar Disorder

RELIGION: THE ETIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

3. Alcohol Abuse Syndrome