Art / EEG Biofeedback

[paulhope]

This week I rediscovered (again...) the joy of making art. I warmed up earlier with a late evening of pen/brush and ink before launching into a big Halloween costume project involving chicken wire and cloth

Comments

[unnamed525]

I wonder if schizophrenia is curable through this method.

[paulhope]

I would investigate it if I were you. This was obvious anecdotal evidence, but it sounds pretty miraculous. This guy has gone off any kind of medication, has totally gotten a grip on his life, etc.

[anosognosia]

No, or at least there's nothing in the science or clinic to support such a claim. There are a variety of other psychological interventions being used to treat schizophrenia. The US chapter of the International Society for the Psychological Treatments of the Schizophrenias and other Psychoses may be able to direct interested people to relevant resources in their area.

[everabridged]

my therapist told me about this for ADD, and i wanted to try it, but it is not covered by insurance last i heard and thus not worth it for me. but it sounds so cool!

[paulhope]

Obviously a personal question, so feel free to ignore it, but I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on ADD some time.

[booksoverbombs]

this is a case of an agent being empowered to literally transform themselves through a technical understanding of their own mind. That is awesome.
Not to tie this around the neck of a dog you don't necessarily have in this fight, but this is exactly the kind of thing proponents of eliminative materialism have been pointing to/prophesying as instances of our lives made better through the abandonment of the view the mind as an arena of beliefs, desires, intentions, &c. Good for him.

[paulhope]

Yeah, eliminitivism isn't my dog. I don't think my friend has abandoned the conception of his own mental states either. One of the things he said to me, which I thought was quite powerful, was,

"I experience non-crippling anxiety for the first time the other day."

I don't think this is something you can say if you're an eliminitivist.

[booksoverbombs]

Well, I had meant that as acknowledgment of the fact that I had taken the mention of your friend's recovery as grist for the Leibnizian mill, as it were.

But why can't an eliminativist say that? Good heliocentrists can still speak of sunrise and sunset, though the sun proper does no such thing. Maybe a better example would be feeling sanguine: the term remains even after we discovered that there was no physiological basis, at least in terms of humors, that unified all the instances in which we would call someone sanguine.

[paulhope]

But why can't an eliminativist say that? Good heliocentrists can still speak of sunrise and sunset, though the sun proper does no such thing. Maybe a better example would be feeling sanguine: the term remains even after we discovered that there was no physiological basis, at least in terms of humors, that unified all the instances in which we would call someone sanguine.

Hmm. Ok, just reeducated myself about the eliminivist thesis. Point conceded.