Hi Nicholas,

Perhaps u and i could get something happening (a deep
discussion that is loll) on this list.

Here is an email i wrote this morning:-

I am so excited. I have been trying to get study done, but have been so tired
and didn't really know where I was going or where to begin. Sure I had some
ideas about where to start and basically what I wanted to say i.e. that while
the onset of depression may be caused by the inability to cope in an un-liveable
existential condition and therefore a social dis-ease, rather than medical
disease/illness, the subject's disengagement, cut off from the flow of being
(Deleuze), results in physical disease/illness, but it just hadn't come together
properly. I think what also hampered me, was the fact that I couldn't seem to
come up with something new and interesting to say about the subject matter and
that is what I really wanted to say.



Let me come back to "Illness, be it mental or physical is perceived by me to be
something beyond the control of the subject (without intention)".



The first breakthrough came last night. As I was switching channels with no
particular intent,

I stumbled upon an SBS Special - "The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow":



http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1063749803579204077



and further (48 minutes long)



http://www.neatorama.com/2006/12/18/the-woman-who-thinks-like-a-cow/

Dr. Temple Grandin, a highly functioning autistic, designs more humane livestock
facilities. She became famous when Oliver Sacks featured her in his book An
Anthropologist on Mars [wiki] in 1995. Because of her preternatural ability to
know how to manage livestocks, she bacame known as the woman who thinks like a
cow.

One of her most famous invention is the "hug machine [wiki]," which Dr. Grandin
invented as a teenager. The hug machine is very useful in calming down children
and adults with hypersensitivity and autism (to this day, she continues to use
it herself). See a pic of the hug machine here: Link.

Hit play or go to Link [Google Video, 48 min] to see a documentary on Dr.
Grandin's life and accomplishments - via Boing Boing. See also: Dr. Grandin's
commercial website | academic website

Please bare with me as I am thinking this through as I go loll. I watched the
above special last night and this morning on the loo I began thinking about :

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurological disorder characterized by repetitive,
stereotyped, involuntary movements and vocalizations called tics. The disorder
is named for Dr. Georges Gilles de la Tourette, the pioneering French
neurologist who in 1885 first described the condition in an 86-year-old French
noblewoman..

Can people with TS control their tics? Although the symptoms of TS are
involuntary, some people can sometimes suppress, camouflage, or otherwise manage
their tics in an effort to minimize their impact on functioning. However, people
with TS often report a substantial buildup in tension when suppressing their
tics to the point where they feel that the tic must be expressed. Tics in
response to an environmental trigger can appear to be voluntary or purposeful
but are not. ...... Although the cause of TS is unknown, current research points
to abnormalities in certain brain regions (including the basal ganglia, frontal
lobes, and cortex), the circuits that interconnect these regions, and the
neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine) responsible for
communication among nerve cells. Given the often complex presentation of TS, the
cause of the disorder is likely to be equally complex.

Please have a quick look at the rest of this article
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/tourette/detail_tourette.htm#56583231

What is also interesting is :- TS is a diagnosis that doctors make after
verifying that the patient has had both motor and vocal tics for at least 1
year. The existence of other neurological or psychiatric conditions[1] can also
help doctors arrive at a diagnosis. Common tics are not often misdiagnosed by
knowledgeable clinicians. But atypical symptoms or atypical presentation (for
example, onset of symptoms in adulthood) may require specific specialty
expertise for diagnosis. There are no blood or laboratory tests needed for
diagnosis, but neuroimaging studies, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),
computerized tomography (CT), and electroencephalogram (EEG) scans, or certain
blood tests may be used to rule out other conditions that might be confused with
TS. (Does this then mean that there are no blood tests which can prove the
patient has TS? Thomas Szasz basically suggests that symptoms which cannot be
verified as a disease through bio-chemical testing, as basically just
malingering or hysteria, later defined as mental illness.

It is not uncommon for patients to obtain a formal diagnosis of TS only after
symptoms have been present for some time. The reasons for this are many. For
families and physicians unfamiliar with TS, mild and even moderate tic symptoms
may be considered inconsequential, part of a developmental phase, or the result
of another condition. For example, parents may think that eye blinking is
related to vision problems or that sniffing is related to seasonal allergies.
Many patients are self-diagnosed after they, their parents, other relatives, or
friends read or hear about TS from others.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] These include childhood-onset involuntary movement disorders such as
dystonia, or psychiatric disorders characterized by repetitive
behaviors/movements (for example, stereotypic behaviors in autism and compulsive
behaviors in obsessive-compulsive disorder - OCD).

I wasn't sure of the spelling of Turettes and as such searched for syndromes. I
then stumbled upon the so-called yuppy disease "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome",
that's another good one to look at ;)))) :-

Once again one must question whether this is involuntary and if involuntary, it
must be an illness, BUT... is it mental or physical ? If a chemical drug fixes
the condition can it then be defined as a physical illness/disease as in part of
the medical model? Could it perhaps be both medical/social?

I haven't been able to find a general definition of the term "Syndrome". Please
could u help me out here as I know u will have better access to the uni library
than I do ;)))) I think Autism was/is considered a syndrome. Can syndromes be
proven to be an illness through bio-chemical testing? Or only through magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI), computerized tomography (CT), and electroencephalogram
(EEG) scans (activities in the brain)?

The above on TS must have been God given, after all who wakes up in the morning
thinking about TS.

This is a lot to take in when one first wakes up, but I had to get this typed
out before I lost it. The things I need to look into and remember is (1) active;
(2) reactive and (3) involuntary as in three states of experienced in being. As
to the involuntary, I remember in my studies of Jung, where with disengagement
of the subject (with drawl from an un-liveable situation, the "Self" (not the
subject) calls an end to the experiment (the experience of being in the world) -
(the onset of what Thomas Szasz defines as organ necrosis, but instead of a
Self, Szasz perceives the onset of this disease as the crying out of the subject
- body language - a sign of desperate need.

I think I have done my dash for thinking for the day loll. The old brain needs
to rest for a while, but at least I have got all this down on paper now ;))))



Love & Massive Hugs Always

Elaine


U wrote :-
----- Original Message -----
From: unfoldingalchemy
To: JungMatters@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 3:04 PM
Subject: [JungMatters] Re: Need Information


Hello Elaine,

I have not come across the book title although it sounds an
interesting concept - 'reseating' could suggest a phenomenology of
the body a la M Ponty.

I'm just pleased at last to see some movement on this list.

Nicholas
Adelaide

--- In JungMatters@yahoogroups.com, "ELAINE" <lizral@...> wrote:
>
> Someone on this forum or another loll, had mentioned the name of a
book ;))) If i remember rightly the title was something like "Re-
seating the Soul". Pleaseeeeeeeeee could someone repost details of
the book that was mentioned.
>
> Also i would be grateful for suggestions as to books/papers that
question whether mental illness is an illness or several illnesses
in light of the works of R.D. Laing and Thomas Scasz. Although i
have studied Jung, as much as i would love to, i have not read all
of what he had written. Did Jung ever discuss whether mental illness
was an illness or several illnesses? If so pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee could
u give me details of the book, i would be soooooooooo grateful.
>
> Also any papers or articles u would be able to forward to me
lizral@... or post on the forum would be very greatly appreciated.
>
> Kind Regards
> Elaine
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>





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