Eat nuts

I have finished a short MOOC[1] about ‘Good Brain, Bad Brain: Basic’. I was obliged to study ‘properly’[2]. I scored 94%[3]. I now know much more about synapses and neurotransmitters, and about the many ways in which they can malfunction.

BUT - I realize that (a) I have only touched the surface and (b) I am not yet in the mood to write stuff.

There is a feeling that I might be a bit psychotic and schizophrenic. Big Pharma flourish by making pills for normal conditions which they define as abnormal[4]. And, set against that, is the antipsychiatry movement pioneered by R D Laing et al.

BUT - I am happy to be back with the ‘improper’ system of non-egoic flow in which the unconscious is left to churn out its stuff. Note that although words have not been forthcoming the doodles carry on.    

I have been re-reading Eagleman’s ‘Incognito’. He is pushing brain science to its limits which lie well outside the finer points about action potentials and neuro-transmitters. There is the possibility of consilience with evolutionary psychology, social psychology and behavioural economics.

AND – coming back to earth in a holistic way – there can be consilience with regard to nutrition, exercise, and mindfulness meditation.

SO – sit till and eat nuts

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[1] Massive open online course

[2] Make notes and don’t mention ‘I’

[3] Just a few multichoice questions

[4] The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, offers a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. It is used, or relied upon, by clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, the legal system, and policy makers together with alternatives such as the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, produced by the World Health Organization. The DSM is now in its fifth edition, DSM-5, published on May 18, 2013.