Where The Holistic Rubber Meets The Scientific Road

Is The The Age Of Anxiety? – 2

I was not too surprised that the article in the last issue about anxiety would strike some raw nerves. I think we are truly living in “The Age Of Anxiety”. See the previous article here: Alternative Doctor: The Age Of Anxiety

To increase your understanding, I have reproduced here a page from alternative-doctor.com It’s been up there for years. But I have transferred it to another of my important sites. So do go over there and comment… please! You can read it here: The Age Of Anxiety – 2

You’ll see, I think, an amazing parallel between cats which are stressed and they learn to cope with alcohol, just like we do at cocktail time!

Very Human Cats

In 1950 Dr. Jules H. Masserman, MD Psych, Associate Professor of Nervous and Mental Diseases at Northwestern University, published a highly significant article in Scientific American magazine (March issue, pp 38-43). Entitled “EXPERIMENTAL NEUROSES”, in which:

  1. cats learn complex patterns of behaviour
  2. are subjected to contradictory influences and
  3. develop neuroses which are relieved by psychotherapy.

Masserman’s paper sheds a great deal of light on the question of choices — and the disastrous results of misinformed, contradictory and conflicting beliefs which are buried within our psyche. It will help the reader understand neuroses better and also alcoholism (and other drug dependance). It could enable practitioners to devize intelligent and specific programmes which rapidly solve anxiety, compulsive behaviour, neurosis and alcoholism. In fact addictive behaviour of all kinds.

The Scientific American article supplemented an earlier film “Neurosis and Alcohol: the induction and cure of alcoholism in cats” made by Masserman as part of a doctorate thesis, at the University of Indiana in 1948. Bob Ross, developer of the Power of Choice programme, saw the film in the summer of 1953, as part of a seminar on Korzybski’s General Semantics at Bard College, New York. This could be said to be the beginning of the program proper.

Masserman’s film showed cats being made overtly neurotic: it showed the development of a wide range of symptoms from mild to severe (uninterested in normal games and sex play up to and including a case of waxy catatonia); it showed the cats being introduced to alcohol; it showed cats preferring spiked milk to plain milk; it showed cats who began each meal by lapping up a small amount of milk spiked with alcohol. And it showed some cats who would drink only spiked milk until they fell over, dead drunk, i.e. confirmed alcoholics; and finally the film showed the cats being forced or persuaded to confront the contradictory stimuli (pain or fear plus the smell of tasty food).

Altogether it was a VERY fascinating experiment and I have blogged the full details on my FoodForTheMindAndFireForTheSoul.com site.

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