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release from Dr Niall McLaren MD Attention: Editor 11/8/08 cyber 1 Computer science Practical theories
of the mind based largely on computer science will enable psychiatrists
and psychologists of the future to better treat and cure patients with
mental disorders. This is a
prediction of Dr Niall McLaren MD, an innovative psychiatrist based in
Australia whose radical theory of mind has been accepted so far by only
a few psychiatrists around the world. Dr McLaren says,
“Computer scientists and psychiatrists need to work together to
develop practical theories about how the mind works so that they can
better treat and cure patients.” He has explained
his own theory in a book published in 2007 titled “Humanizing Madness:
Psychiatry and the Cognitive Neurosciences” and has lectured on the
subject this year at several universities in the United States. Dr McLaren says,
“Like computer processing, a substantial part of human mental life
consists of the silent, rapid manipulation of information. “Normal mental
function falls quite readily into two distinct realms, the phenomenal or
experiential, and the psychological or knowledge-based. “The differences
between what we know and what we experience is exclusive: knowledge is
acquired gradually and can be conveyed to another person, whereas the
phenomenal contents arrive immediately and are wholly private
experiences. “I call the
overt, reportable level of the psychological realm the ‘cognitive
contents’, and name the silent, unreportable level of the
apprehension, storage and manipulation of information as the
‘cognitive analyzer’. “The great
majority of the decisions on which we base our daily lives are fully
automated. “Decisions are
made at the level of data manipulation by the neuronal architecture of
the brain,” he says. “This manipulation of coded information is
rapid and silent, utterly unreportable. “We make our
myriad daily decisions by the complex interaction of a range of data
inputs processed according to pre-existing rules coded in the brain.
“While some of
these rules are explicit, that is they can be reported, many others, if
not most, are implicit,” he says. “That human
behavior is non-random proves that some such organizing principles are
operating during the generation of behavior. “What we see of
each other’s behavior is determined in the psychological realm. Dr McLaren says,
“We can clarify the relationships of different types of conscious
experiences. There appear to be at least three types: the ordinary
senses, the emotions, and those experiences related to cognitive
function. “Their
similarities far exceed their differences, and they ought to be
considered as but different forms of the same basic process or
processes. “For the ordinary
senses, the triggering events are normally external but the triggers of
emotions are events in the psychological realm. “Speech is
non-random,” he says. “The organizing principles that generate its
regularity consist of information coded in the neurological substrate of
the psychological realm. These principals are therefore part of that
realm. “We can call them
‘rules’,” he says. “Some rules are acquired explicitly, other
implicitly, but, whatever the case, they function very quickly, silently
converting incoming information to the sorts of instructions that allow
the speech centers to activate the organs of speech. “While the data
are being processed, a further and simultaneous reprocessing of the same
data by more complex ‘programs’ will generate a ‘virtual
machine’ which is or gives rise to experiences. “Critically
important beliefs are acquired gradually,” he says. “They are
acquired by the same processes, both explicit or implicit, by which one
acquires any other belief, attitude or rule. “Broadly speaking, they consist of a set of propositions about the nature of the world, about one’s physical and mental attributes and their worth, and about the interactions between the two realms. “Manipulation of
information within an immaterial realm amounts to a causally-effective
‘virtual machine’ arising from, but ultimately inseparable from, the
physical realm.” Dr McLaren says,
“To understand automated decision-making, we need to go back 55 years
to one of the seminal papers of the revolution in information
technology, Alan Turing’s paper entitled Computing Machinery and
Intelligence. “A Turing machine
consists of an input tape, a memory, a read-write head and an output
tape. The input tape is simplified to the point of inanity, such that
the data can be in one of only two forms, a one or a zero. “All the machine
has to do is read each datum sequentially, compare it with the memory
store and decide whether to leave it as it is or change it,” he says.
“A person’s
central nervous system is most definitely of a form that would support a
universal computing function. “The central
nervous system meets the requirements of Turing’s machine,” he says.
“It consists of receptors that receive energy inputs from the external
world and convert them into a flow of digital data in the afferent
nerves. The data flows are then manipulated at a series of points on
their way back to the brain where further manipulation takes place.” Dr McLaren says,
“We have working models of unconscious decision making in every
desktop calculator. “The brain has
sub-functions that do not cease even when the integrated whole we
normally call consciousness has been interrupted. “Decisions are
made either immediately before or simultaneously with the conscious
experience but quite independently of it.” Dr McLaren says,
“An important point of the universal Turing machine is that, with
sufficient memory and computing power, it can generate virtual machines. “This property of
computers has long been exploited,” he says. “Most work on parallel
computing, for example, is done on suitably programmed serial computers.
Online auction houses like eBay and all internet banks are virtual
machines. “Virtual machines
are all independent of their substrate,” he says. “Everything we
know about the structure and function of the nervous system supports the
notion that it processes vast data inputs by cascades of stereotyped
computation.” Dr McLaren says,
“So my theory is that the mind has two irreducibly mental components,
cognition and conscious experience, which together account for the whole
of mental life. “This theory
allows us to rely on known principles of physically based data
processing in accounting for the ability of the mind to make the near
infinite decisions on which daily life is based. “It states that
each person’s explicit and implicit belief states govern his mental
life, that humans are sentient, rule-governed creatures. “This is wholly
and irreducibly a mentalist account of human behavior, yet it is firmly
based in the physical structure of the brain.” Dr McLaren says,
“Unlike previous psychological theories, it takes account of the
structurally defined limits of the central nervous system.” Although the doctor
has been promoting his theory through public speaking, in his book and
on his web site at http://futurepsychiatry.com
for nearly a year, he says other members of his profession in Australia
seem reluctant to accept it. He
says this is because it contradicts the theory of the Royal Australian
and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP), which is the
governing body of psychiatrists in the two countries. “Humanizing Madness” (ISBN 1-932690-39-5) by Niall McLaren, MD, is published by Future Psychiatry Press and distributed by Baker & Taylor, Ingram Book Group. This book is available on the internet at http://lovinghealing.com/humanizing-madness . #end Photo
of Dr Niall McLaren for web or print reproduction at http://www.wbpublicity.com.au/nm/booknm.htm
. Media
contact: Dr Niall (Jock) McLaren – phone 61 08 89 455 399, fax 61 08
89 455 866, email jockmcl@octa4.net.au
; or publicist Wal Baker, phone 61 02 94167111, email wal@wb-pr.com . Dr
Niall McLaren NORTHERN
PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES Pty Ltd, ACN 077 835 557
PO Box 282, Sanderson, NT, Australia, 0813. Phone:
(08) 89 455 399 Fax: (08) 89 455 866 Email:
jockmcl@octa4.net.au
Web: www.futurepsychiatry.com
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