Copyright 1996 John R. Moore All rights reserved.
NYC, NY (Si News Service) 5-4-96 11:32AM
At an international mental health conference today, leading authorities announced the classification of a common but heretofor unremarked, category of mental illness. The new disease is called Progressive Cognitive Disorder - A dangerous, rapidly spreading psychiatric illness (PCD) that is both an emotional and cognitive dysfunction, sometimes with psychotic features.
The following information was released for mental health professionals confronted with these troublesome patients:
DIAGNOSIS.
PCD is diagnosed by the presence of three or more of the following symptoms:
- utopian thinking - A delusional belief that the patient knows simple, side effect free solutions to all social problems. In some cases this is associated with psychotic delusions of grandeur.
-
anthroplastic ideas - a delusion that behavioral conditioning,
performed by the government, will cure all behavioral and social problems,
ie, will change all non-PCD
people into
PCD
. Implicit in this delusional system is the idea that people can be
"programmed" to be "perfect."
This symptom leads to a reflexive, vehement resistance by the patient to even the idea that people may have immalleable characteristics. The worst known example is that of Pol Pot, who attempted to remove all undesirable influences in the belief that the perfect socialist man would then emerge.
- antitheistic rebellion - an emotional antagonism against Christianity... probably caused by an abnormal persistence of adolescent rebellion... may also be related to the need to avoid counterarguments to desired policies (see utopiate thinking, above). This ranges from a mere antagonism to Christianity to a hatred of religions of all forms. Generally the more "western" a religion is, the more it is hated. Thus these patients may accept primitive and animalist belief systems.
-
naturist delusion - a sincere belief that mankind is evil and
nature is benign. The incidence of this symptom is inversely related to
the
practical experience that the patient has with nature. Self hatred is
a feature in this area. Typical thinking includes a belief that mankind is
a cancer on earth, and that earth (viewed as a feeling being) will
retaliate with a deadly virus.
The utopian view of nature is remarkable in that most patients are also believers in evolution, which has resulted in vast amounts of suffering and cruelty in the natural arena.
-
environmental spasm - the patient experiences episodes of manic activity
on
behalf of "the environment." The delusional nature of this is evidenced by
the misanthropic attacks on all works of man, and also by the focus on
visible or totemic objects... for example, the Mount Graham Red Squirrel
or the Spotted Owl.
An example of the paradoxical nature of these delusions is given by the Red Squirrel and the Santa Barbara Sand Fly. The Squirrel, a subspecies of the very common Red Squirrel, is fought for aggressively, while the Sand Fly, equally at risk and a truly distinct species, inspires little passion.
The patient usually is obsessed only with cute or cuddly animals, which is probably a displacement of the nurturing urge, itself unfulfilled due to abortion.
- control obsession - this is the tendency of the patient to strive for excessive control over others, through government action. This is probably a projection of an unconscious fear of losing control over ones' self, even though the conscious manifestation is viewed as "compassion."
- racist/feminist hypocrisy - the patient passionately advocates discrimination based on sex or race, while loudly proclaiming opposition to policies which are "racist" or "sexist."
- overemotional perceptions - the patient is far more concerned with how a social action "looks" or "feels," and resists or denies objective evidence to the contrary, This also leads to very superficial cognition about matters of significant impact, as the patient merely gets the "feel" of the issue rather than truly understanding it.
-
sexual dysfunction - the patient is highly anxious about sexual matters,
and this is manifested as:
- Obsession with sexual and gender roles.
- Passionate embrace of most non-traditional sexual preferences.
- A need to define individuals by their gender or sexual preference, and make social policy as if everyone were equally obsessed.
- A need to constantly push the envelope of indecent art.
Like other disorders such as alcoholism, most suffering is experienced by those who have to live with the afflicted. Secondary suffering is incurred by a society which must live with the effects of the delusions of the afflicted.
TREATMENT
In most patients, PCD is a refractory disorder with no effective treatment.
Some patients have been helped to overcome their disorder by one or more of:
- life in a true "socialist utopia" such as Cuba, Vietnam or China.
- religious conversion.
- military service.
- poverty.
- Conservative talk radio - Gordon Liddy, Ken Hamblin, Rush Limbaugh