Jaguars around Sydney; Jaguars in DMT hallucinations

I find it interesting that jaguars are just about the most commonly encountered entities in DMT trips and that there have been numerous reports of feral jaguars or panthers around outer Sydney. The Sydney jaguar issue has long been considered a myth but more evidence is mounting that there may be some kind of large black feral feline in the Hawkesbury area. Sydney is centred on a large basin of sandstone (and quartz), considered by some to be characteristics of places with high levels of “hallucinations”, “visions”, “UFO sightings” or whatever. Australia is also one of the richest places in the world for DMT concentrations in plants, together with naturally occurring MAOIs which allow human oral ingestion of DMT to be psychoactive: the foundation of Aboriginal Dreamtime theology. (A side note: Aborigines used to use DMT to stun - but not kill - fish in rivers in order to catch them easily; the fish have no MAOs to inhibit psychoactivity).

Politics of Mental Illness, Personality and the DSM-V

People who’ve made gigantic strides in the progress of humanity have often been classified as “mentally ill”, “hysterical” (in the words of Madonna, “Dr Freud! Analyse this!”) or “psychotic“. It‘s important to understand the prevailing definitions of the above terms, and especially to realise that “psychosis” has nothing to do with “psychopathology".

The DSM-V is on its way (which will include such “disorders” as “Internet Addiction Disorder”). Inclusion of such “disorders” will damage the authority of the DSM, a real blow in the fight for people relying exclusively on such diagnoses for things like paid or unpaid time off work. How many nomenclatures can be given to each and every dis-ease to which literate, Millennial humans will be subject? Can gay people barrack for the DSM to include homosexuality (as it did 30 years ago) for strategic political purposes? If you feel like going (late 20th Century) statistical, Bipolar Disorder is suffered by gay people at three times the rate of the general population and by transgendered people at ten times the general rate. “Borderline Personality Disorder” was a sexist refinement of Freudian “hysteria”, invented in the wake of the sexual revolution and women’s liberation; as such it’s diagnosed in women at four times the rate of men. It’s a political “disorder”, marginalising women’s emotional reactions to their continuing, subtler and thus more difficult to detect and iterate, forms of oppression. It’s no coincidence that “homosexuality” left the DSM at the same time as BPD entered it.

“Personality disorders” can be useful models for interpreting and anticipating people’s behaviours, but I don’t think someone can have a defective personality. People can have various brain architectures (to do with neuronal positioning, chemistry, electrical potentials, etc) which are completely out of their control, at least until adulthood. But if you believe that people are more than mere physical robots, then you believe in “personality” and its concomitants such as responsibility, free will, etc. Philosophical rumination on “personality” reveals that it is a non-material thing. It’s my belief that personalities (“souls”) are more or less advanced in certain facets of functioning and morality than others, not that some personalities are defective. This is one of the main reasons I’m against the death penalty.

I think Schizophrenics need to be listened to more. For some reason I encounter many Schizophrenics on trains to whom I’ve given varying levels of politeness. As someone diagnosed with another “mental illness” (Bipolar Disorder) I should try to engage more, but it’s difficult, just as I know it can be difficult for Neurotypicals to engage with me sometimes. If we could systematically establish facilities at which Schizophrenics can be afforded whatever level of life assistance they need, while professional psychologists, linguists, anthropologists, philosophers, etc try to decipher whatever wisdom Schizophrenics are trying to give humankind, then we would go a long way to becoming a civilised society.

So basically I think one of the big next steps for humankind is a re-evaluation of the etiology of neurovariation, compassionate and practical reintegration of Neurovariants into a civilised society, and most of all, an attempt to understand the meaning of neurovariation for humankind. Why does it exist, what lessons does it afford us, and what knowledge can be derived from the ramblings of people with it? Neurovariants are going to have to politicise themselves in co-operation with progressive-thinking Neurotypicals.

Bipolar Pride
Resources on GLBTI people and affective disorders
Neurotypical underestimation of Autists‘ rich inner world
Interesting discussion on bipolarity and sexuality

Neologisms: Femophilia and Mascophilia

It’s strange when journalists have to refer to people attracted to females as “men (and women who prefer women)” and people attracted to males as “females (and men who prefer men)”. The former can be referred to as “femophiles” and the latter as “mascophiles”.