The dangers of Darwinism

Darwin did not say "Survival of the fittest" or even "Survival of the most adaptable" - possibly a colleague, Spence did. Darwin misquotes . Darwin has been misinterpreted and is being brought into arguments of which he could not have conceived.

"Darwinism" is a battle axe against "Creationism", with each assuming that one is right and the other wrong - or is it the other way round? Darwin was a Christian. If you read the old testament, the order of creation is a bit like the order of evolution. First there was light, then trees and plants, then fish, then animals, then us! You could say that Darwin was looking at the science behind Creation, as described in Genesis and wondering "How did God do that?"

This is Ricky Gervais' version of evolution ,

Nowadays Eugenisists have come to blows with Tree huggers

A plague on both your houses.

A species survives because of its diversity, and its ability to meet with changing conditions, not because it is the "fittest"

Darwin would have known this quote. "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. [Ecclesiastes 9:11]"

The species with the best DNA is the one with the most potential in it, to meet new challenges and adapt to different circumstances. If humans bring together anything it is diversity. Dogs "do things", cats "are", insects, especially ants and bees behave according to their instincts, with almost no room for "free learning". Insects have hardly changed in millions of years. They found a successful strategy and stuck to it.

A dog, whether a poodle or a St Bernard is still a dog, comes when you call (or not) and sits when you offer it a biscuit. A human can be an astronaut, eskimo, swimmer, scientist or artist, geologist, biologist, mother, auntie, grandfather, trader, gamer and poet. Not all at the same time, but of all the species on the planet, humans have the greatest range.

Many other species got stuck up a blind alley. For example Neanderthals seem to have preferred their technological stone tools to socialising, and hence when the going got tough, couldn't ask their friends for help. Early human beings kept in touch with their neighbours and sent round artefacts or presents.

Diversity or potential is the key to evolution and especially human evolution. It explains why we look after each other, and why Beethoven wasn't aborted. When we start looking at people only in terms of productive potential, we are becoming like ants.

Personality encapsulates diversity. Humans solve problems in many different ways. We talk about them, think about them, do something about them, adapt to them, accept them, look at the detail, look at them from a distance. Different personalities approach problems differently.

People have preferences. He or she prefers thinking or talking, he or she prefers doing or being, he or she likes the detail or to look at the big picture. These preferences form the basis of personality, the basis of the four major types and two minor types.

I have been struggling over the last two or more years to encapsulate what I meant by "Robust Individual" "Robust Social" "Sensitive Social" and "Sensitive Individual".

I have the solution to that knotty little problem. From now on I will use the following terms:

Bold Introvert (previously a Robust Individual) - Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Laura Croft, Hilary Clinton
Bold Extrovert (previously a Robust Social) - Stephen Fry, Camilla Parker Bowles, Piers Morgan, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama

Shy Introvert (previously a Sensitive Individual) Princess Diana, Prince Charles, Simon Cowell, Michelle Obama
Shy Extrovert (previously a Sensitive Social) Felicity Kendall, Rory Bremner, Louis Walsh

These types can be seen in everyday life, everywhere and it is the balance of these types that has given humans their edge in the evolutionary race. Later posts will give you the science behind these types.

It looks as though the Bold Extroverts (Robust Socials) are taking over. As a group, this type most resembles Androids. Androids look human but lack the thoughts and emotions that lifted the human race from the swamp of an existence to enlightenment and self knowledge.

If you want to see Bold Extroverts (Robust Socials) in action, look at the self justification of British MPs caught with their snouts in the trough of expenses. From Cameron to Mandelson, to Prescott, to Blair, these are the guys who justify what they have done with the weasle words "It was within the rules" - yes but it was hardly human.

Copyright (c) Dr. Liz Miller

http://www.drlizmiller.co.uk

Dr Rant: Swine Flu: We're all doomed!

For a colourful illustration of swine flu

Dr Rant: Swine Flu: We're all doomed!






Copyright (c) Dr. Liz Miller

http://www.drlizmiller.co.uk

New Post

Just a new post for the sake of it and to see what happens to a glitch on my blog




Copyright (c) Dr. Liz Miller

http://www.drlizmiller.co.uk

Psychology for All! - Saturday 14th March 10.00 - 5.00pm

The chance to find out more about MoodMapping and Matrix Psychology
2.30 pm - CG 72, at Psychology for All




Psychology for All

Saturday 14th March 2009
10:00am-5:00pm
University of Westminster
35, Marylebone Road, NW1 5LS

Psychology is too important to be kept for psychologists!

What are the ingredients of successful relationships? Look how Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have survived their storm in a tea cup of media onslaught and public scrutiny. What factors allows your relationship to survive life’s adversities? Producer, Jerry Bruckheimer charts stomach churning life’s ups and downs for the character Becky Bloomwood, in the blockbuster film “Confessions of a Shopaholic”. Her love for spending in the high street forces her to review her relationship with money. Psychology for All has the answer to these kinds of questions and many more including how to become your own therapist.

Psychology for All is a one day event for you and about you. The day is action packed with more than 40+ speakers with sessions such as lifting your moods at the flick of a playing card, the joys of positive thinking and understanding more clearly how your relationships work in your life.
Leading Psychologist, Dr Karen Williams-Powell’s says, “We’ve called it Psychology for All because there genuinely is something for everyone. It will be a fun day for people who want to take psychology further. It affects so many aspects of people’s lives”.

Dr Anna Stone, Research Psychologist recalls, “We have star speakers like comedian Ruby Wax and psychologist, Professor Richard Wiseman, of You Tube fame. Ruby Wax reveals how psychology has changed her life. Richard is sharing all on being lucky.

Psychology for All offers you the chance to participate from 30+ practical sessions, if you are up for it. Research Psychologist, Caren Frosch, sees the event as “a great opportunity for people to gain an insight into what psychology is all about”. Emily Hancock, Psychological Researcher believes the event “gives people the opportunity to learn more about the many different areas of psychology and debunks many myths”

Jon Cousins of Moodscope sums up Psychology for All “as a great opportunity for members of the public to understand more about what makes people tick.”


Admission is by ticket only. Tickets are £15 for students, £20 for adults.
Tickets can be obtained from psychology4all@bps.org.uk or telephone Amanda Rose on 0208 8744 1803.



Copyright (c) Dr. Liz Miller

http://www.drlizmiller.co.uk

Is Quietapine as good as Soma? Eli Lilly pays out $1.4 Billion for misselling Olanzapine

Soma, in Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, oils the wheels of the Brave New Society. It keeps the population happy and subdued.
“By this time the soma had begun to work. Eyes shone, cheeks were flushed, the inner light of universal benevolence broke out on every face in happy, friendly smiles. Even Bernard felt himself a little melted."

Mood depends on energy and well-being. Typical antipsychotics (haloperidol) block dopamine D2 receptors, reducing a person’s energy or arousal. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs – fluoxetine and cipramil) affect 5HT receptors, increasing a person’s feeling of well-being. Atypical antipsychotics (quetiapine and olanzapine) affect both D2 and 5HT receptors, lowering a person’s arousal level while increasing their sense of well-being. The result is a quieter, happier person, who is Calm, and that combination might be heaven on a stick.

But quetiapine, is not Soma. It has side effects. These include constipation, headache, weight gain, a fast heartbeat, dizziness, a higher risk of stroke and heart disease and abnormal movements. It lessens the intelligence or “cognitive function” of people already suffering from dementia and causes sedation.

Just as SSRIs have a “Withdrawal Syndrome”, there is evidence that quetiapine, olanzapine and other atypical antipsychotics have “Withdrawal Syndromes”. It may cause problems coming off atypical antipsychotics.

Drug licensing limits the conditions for which a drug company can promote their drug. Although quetiapine is licensed for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, doctors prescribe it “off-label” for conditions as wide-ranging as post-traumatic stress disorder, restless legs syndrome, Tourette’s, severe anxiety and as a sedative for agitated demented patients.

Eli Lilly, manufacturers of olanzapine, ran into trouble with the US department of Justice. Eli Lilly were fined $1.4bn dollars in January because its representatives were promoting it “off-label” for sedating patients with dementia. For people trying to live a normal life, sedation is an unpleasant side effect, but for patients with agitated dementia that makes ordinary nursing all but impossible, it was seen as a bonus.

The case reminds us that we are closer than we think to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

“[Dr. Shaw].. then let her have what she wanted. She took as much as twenty grammes a day. "Which will finish her off in a month or two," the doctor confided to Bernard. "One day the respiratory centre will be paralyzed. No more breathing. Finished..…." "But aren't you shortening her life by giving her so much?" "In one sense, yes," Dr. Shaw admitted. "But in another way, we're actually lengthening it…. Every soma-holiday is a bit of what our ancestors used to call eternity."

Copyright (c) Dr. Liz Miller
http://www.drlizmiller.co.uk/

Borderline Personality Disorder, Asperger's and Robust Individuals

The labels Borderline Personality Disorder, Asperger's and Robust Individual seem to refer to the same personality type, depending on gender and class. At their best, their positive characteristics include

Detached, Direct, Decisive, Independent, Fearless, Determined, Objective, Responsible, Vigorous, Self confident, Enthusiastic, Team orientated, Goal orientated, Persistent, Self motivated

Women of this type are labelled, "Borderline Personality Disorder"

Men of this type are labelled, "Asperger's Syndrome"

and if they work for government services including the NHS they are called, "Trouble makers"

A psychiatrists once defined a person with Borderline personality disorder as someone who could not get with their psychiatrist.
A first year psychologist can tell you that personality is not related to gender. Ergo - these labels are sexist.

I like to call them "Robust Individuals". Robust Individuals tend to see and analyse the world from a distance, rather than living in the moment. They struggle to find an instant reply to the well prepared jibe of a Troll or other nasty. They think, rather than feel. They can always see a way to do it better and these guys keep going when everyone else has given up.

Robust Individuals are primarily reactive, they have long, inelastic strings. On form, they are tolerant, and will put up with a situation for a long time, until they decide to act. They wait and watch, in a calm and unflustered state and then, when they act, they act with all their force. They are capable of incredible feats. These men and women are the Legions of the world. They are the squadrons of bombers, the troops that fight for the truth and for what is right.

In a world that is going badly wrong, where everyone is out for themselves, these people stand out like sore thumbs. And they are paying the price. The Trolls are after them, and they call them names like Borderline Personality Disorder and Asperger's.

Robust Individuals are motivated by their need to do better, they never feel good enough - that is their torment and their strength. In battle these are the guys who will carry the day.

Despite my initial hopes for The Gordon, he has shown himself to be a Troll or Sensitive Individuals, as is every major western politician, apart from Obama, - selfish, self interested and based in the short term. It is time to bring back the Churchillian strengths for which the British are renowned.

Relationships -

Robust Individuals should avoid Sensitive Individuals (Trolls and Politicians) at all costs. They need to be in a relationship with a Sensitive Social (Helpers and Babel Fish) whose characteristics are

Sensitive, Observant, Mischievous, Wary, Amiable, Supportive, Cooperative, Warm, Amenable Loyal, Empathic, Reserved, Gullible

(because we love you to bits, and you make us feel safe ;-)

Alan Sugar shows what happens to a Robust Individual when he marries a Sensitive Individual. Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis show how happy a Robust Individual man can be when he marries a Sensitive Social. Who would you rather work for?

Copyright (c) Dr. Liz Miller

http://www.drlizmiller.co.uk

The difference between a Robust and Sensitive Individual - Room 101

The difference between a Robust and a Sensitive Individual lies deep in a person's core. Is the person dominated by their emotions or by rational thought ? When the chips are down, where do they go? Do they go to their head and do what he or she believes to be good and right regardless of personal safety or do they go into their frightened soul where he or she is concerned only for their own survival?

When the chips are down, we are all frightened. But in those moments that define destiny, what dominates Gordon Brown's thinking and behaviour? his vision of what is right, regardless of his personal fears and ambitions, or his fear of blindness, betrayal and loss of legacy? I suggest it is the latter.

A Sensitive Individual will do whatever he or she has to in order to feel better. A Robust Individual goes down with their ship, doing what he or she believes to be right.

Room 101 is a place in the book 1984, by George Orwell. It is the place where you meet your worst fear and in Room 101 you succumb to your fear. By giving in to fear, you betray and are betrayed by the person closest to you. For each of us, Room 101 is our own individual most vivid nightmare. It is the place your torturer takes you. For Winston in 1984, it was having his face eaten by rats, for Gordon Brown in 1968, it was going blind.

The story of Gordon's eye is worth repeating.

As a young and talented teenager, Gordon Brown played Rugby. At the age of 17 he was at the bottom of a scrum and got kicked in the head. A month later he noticed he had lost the sight in one eye. The retina (the part of the eye that records the pictures we see) had come away from the back of they eye. He had a number of operations but his sight in that eye was lost and he remains blind in that eye.

A few weeks later, he started to get symptoms in his remaining eye. Just as had happened in his blind eye, the retina in his good eye was beginning to come away and without treatment he would go blind. He had already had a series of unsuccessful operations on his other eye.

It is impossible to know what was going through his head at that time, but hearing Gordon talk about losing first one eye and being on the verge of complete blindness, it is possible to understand a little of the impact that this had on him.

Gordon is a young man, ready to go to University, with everything Scottish in his favour, facing his first serious crisis that means he is going to be blind for the rest of his life. His career, his future is in ruins, and it is not fair. Someone kicked him, he probably knows who it was, it may even have been someone on his own team. With that kick, his vision of his future hangs on a surgeon's knife. Thanks to Dr Chawla, the surgery was successful and Gordon's remaining sight was preserved. But the psychological scar is more difficult to assess than his vision.

Alistair Campbell's book is helpful. Emily Parkes, the facially disfigured young woman is frightened of anyone seeing her in daylight. She leaves her flat only to shop at the local corner shop. This gives us a clue as to how deeply Gordon Brown is wounded. Emily's scars are permanent and there for all to see. By inference, Gordon's psychological scars are permanent and there for everyone who looks closely to see. And with hindsight they are.


Once fear wins, fear comes to dominate every aspect of a person's life. It is my belief that Gordon Brown gave in to his fear. From that time his life has been haunted by fear and by betrayal. He switched off his emotions because his feelings for people reminded him of the time someone, perhaps deliberately, kicked him in the head. Without emotion, a person enters the shadowy world of the psychopath where only their personal thoughts, feelings and fantasies matter. He gives a superficial appearance of being human but inside he knows he is flawed and he lacks the courage to face a bleak future. It is almost as if by writing about other peoples' courage he could somehow acquire his own. What appeared initially to be a calm, if somewhat inappropriate but intelligent exterior, is on closer examination the unfeeling, emotionally detached interior of Dr No.

It is my opinion that Gordon Brown is not a Robust Individual, but a Sensitive Individual who has switched off feelings for his fellow beings. He was kicked in the head as a teenager by a person or persons known or unknown. He has held onto his hurt, fear and resentment. Over the last year he may have learnt some human gestures but he has failed to grow or develop as a human being. The following video clips below the separation of his voice, facial expression, body language and the words that come out of his mouth. This is psychopathy, or for those staying within the bounds of the criminal law, a Sociopath.

Bare faced Liar
Complete insincerity
Giggling at the wrong moment
More giggling and lying
Sulking ie too angry even to talk
Detached from reality
Patronising
Lying
Lying again - signing away human rights
Smiling in the face of tragedy
This is serious
Lying and manipulation

PMQ, to Cameron on lying about elections

Making Cameron look caring
The first 500 years
Laughing at the economic plight of this country

Finally
Be warned
Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

MatrixPsychology: It is a mistake to assume that the same, small group of thoughtful, committed citizens are working for the good of humanity, rather than for themselves.


More clips here

I missed this

Gordon's worst nightmare may be coming true. Detached retina and early cataracts can be associated. Thanks, alikelman.

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http://www.drlizmiller.co.uk