Category: Professor-robert-sapolsky

COMING TO TERMS WITH NOT JUST BIOLOGICALLY BASED MENTAL ILLNESSES --BUT BIOLOGICALLY BASED HUMAN BEHAVIOR

7/16/2020

Moral judgments are a lot of what people use to protect themselves. Recognizing BIOLOGY doesn't get us out of that, but it does inform it.
In Stanford Neuroscientist and Biology Professor Robert Sapolsky's book "Behave: The Biology of our Best and Worst Selves" -- the point Sapolsky is making goes beyond saying there is a biological basis for BAD BEHAVIOR -- he is making an EXPERT's ARGUMENT that there are extremely COMPLICATED BIOLOGICAL BASES for HUMAN BEHAVIOR.

PARSING A LITTLE MORE

Sapolsky spends a lot of time in a lengthy book fleshing this out.
Further, the most current research is that SOCIAL BEHAVIOR is greatly impacted by the IMMUNE SYSTEM -- Who Knew?*.
When you get an ARCHAIC "Anti-Social Personality Disorder Diagnosis" running rampant as CODE for Go Ahead and PUNISH -- that leads to HORRIFIC MORAL PROBLEMS within the Criminal Justice System.

INTEGRATION & SUPPORT

Probably the most URGENT NEED is to FULLY INTEGRATE mental health with physical health -- and integrate Mental Health Centers into larger HOSPITAL and Primary Care settings
That INTEGRATION needs to extend to FORENSIC INTEGRATED PHYSICAL/MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES.
RIGOROUS VOLUNTARY DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS of those within the CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
SYSTEMS that provide for the HIGHEST LEVELS of Community Safety and Humane Treatment
A PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH to Criminal Justice.

*University of Virginia researchers are the ones that discovered the important role of the Immune System in the Social Behavior of Mice.

Less than 10 years ago, National Institute of Health funded researchers discovered Immune Pipelines into the brain where none were previously known to exist.

Personality Disorders, Developmental Differences Conceptualization Matters--- It Matters A Lot In The Criminal Justice System

5/27/2020

Personality Disorders are Largely Pejorative Labels we use for Behavior We Don't Like When We Don't have another Label

How this becomes so clear is when someone gets tagged with a "personality disorder" and the diagnosing professional has failed to actually even apply the flawed criteria in the DSM.

How are "personality disorders" treated in the Criminal Justice System (generally, anti-social personality disorder): pretty much an official and "scientific" stamp of approval of MORAL REBUKE and justification for often HARSH PUNISHMENT.

I'm not for putting anybody at risk or ignoring legitimate safety concerns, BUT a lot of what we have going on in the AMERICAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM amounts to TORTURE -- that is ADSEG, but it is not limited to that.

This is what is so frustrating about the AMERICAN JUSTICE SYSTEM -- in most cases (not all) the real issue is PUNISHMENT -- if we provide humane alternatives that sufficiently address safety -- a lot of these cases would go away.

INTEGRATION OF PHYSICAL & MENTAL HEALTH -- INTEGRATION OF BIOLOGICAL & ENVIRONMENTAL EXPLANATIONS OF BEHAVIOR

What we have traditionally been very sympathetic to is a history of "TRAUMA" -- often regardless of what danger or risk the person actually poses. I saw this played out in a case in which a young man had been physically abused by his step father and ultimately killed his stepfather.

The young man was acquitted -- unfortunately there were very serious needs that did not get addressed and he came back on a subsequent serious charge.

    Certainly prosecutors make moral arguments against these defendants BUT the issue is really does this person present a risk and has that risk been adequately addressed.

    Further, it is really the BIOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES of TRAUMA that can most directly contribute to the BEHAVIOR -- and that can be very individual. I would submit that BIOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES are the PROXIMATE CAUSE for both the act and the mental element of the crime.

    So it appears I'm really arguing in some senses for the integration of the ACTUS REUS (the act) and the MENS REA (mental element) of the crime.

    [Of course, the real practical answer is HOUSING, SERVICES and PLACEMENTS to SCALE.]

Economist Thomas Sowell is now almost 90 years old and a Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institute -- Wikipedia

Val's Take: I'm not quite so harsh as Thomas Sowell, mainly because I make plenty of mistakes and I think most people do.

On the other hand, the Mental Health Profession is really paying no price for failing to address a scientifically invalid Diagnostic Manual -- now maybe the Mental Health Profession doesn't understand the consequences of that -- BUT the National Institute of Mental Health does.

At least NIMH understands the scientific ramifications -- they probably don't know the criminal justice ramifications.

NIMH wants to completely solve this -- We're for it! BUT it appears that is going to be SEVERAL YEARS -- MEANWHILE we need INTERIM PROCEDURES to prevent further INJUSTICE.

"CATEGORIES" AND HUMAN BEHAVIORAL BIOLOGY

10/9/2019

This is a very interesting video of acclaimed Neuro-endocrinologist, Stanford Professor and Author -- Robert Sapolsky on Behavioral Biology.
He really starts by questioning the use of "CATEGORIES" in our "REASONING" regarding Behavioral Biology.
   I'm not sure we get away from the need for "CATEGORIES" --- but it does seem pretty clear we are as Sapolsky argues MISSING THE "BIG PICTURE."
  That picture is that human behavior is caused by a lot of different things and those things are BIOLOGICALLY DRIVEN.
  So our poor use of "CATEGORIES" is NOT just a problem in discussions of pop science -- IT'S A PROBLEM FOR OUR SOCIETY.
It has led and it is CURRENTLY leading to some pretty amazing UNETHICAL CONDUCT by our Society -- especially given our current knowledge.
   Now a BIG part of that knowledge does come from SCIENCE -- but currently SCIENCE can't provide us all the answers.
    I think the need to use our REASON is part of what Sapolsky means by looking @ "THE BIG PICTURE."
    So we need SCIENCE AND REASON.
We would maintain, probably unlike Sapolsky, that we need -- FAITH to help us fill in the blanks the SCIENCE AND REASON don't answer.
SCIENCE, REASON & FAITH are NOT perfect and we must constantly revise them to accommodate new knowledge.
   Finally, we must use our SCIENCE, REASON AND FAITH to REFORM our CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM -- whose "CATEGORIES" couldn't be more "out of date."

Trauma, Intergenerational Trauma, the Complicated Nature of Mental Disorders & Human Behavior --- & Due Process of Law

4/8/2018

Trauma is an extremely important factor in mental illness-- it is one of many complicated factors.
What do findings on "Intergenerational Trauma" and just the complicated nature of mental disorders and human behavior have to do with the criminal law.
Well, it means we still have to provide safety for the community. BUT letting go of punishment and make placement decisions based on our best assessments of safety is really ethically and morally required.
How can we say we are providing due process, if we're pretending to knowledge regarding human behavior we don't have?
There are a lot of things that can assault our immune systems and ultimately our brains and those assaults over a lifetime may be more individual than a fingerprint --- hence, the incredible need for personalized integrated physical and mental health care.
"Lives Are In the Balance" -- let's address the problems -- including Safety -- and let go of punishment.

Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a professor of biology, neurology and neurological sciences, and neurosurgery @ Stanford University

"You are never really going to understand what is going on if you get it into your head that you're going to be able to explain everything with this is--

the part of the brain
the childhood experience
the hormone
the gene
or the evolutionary mechanism

---That explains everything.

"It doesn't work that way. Instead any behavior is the result of biology that occurred a second ago, hours ago, days ago -- a million years ago."
. . . .

"O000h it's complicated. Well, that's very useful.

"How 'bout, 'OOOh it's complicated and you better be really careful and really cautious before you think you understand the causes of a behavior, especially if it's a behavior you judge harshly.' "
. ------Prof. Robert Sapolsky Stanford

Suicide Ideation and Attempts among First Nations Peoples Living On-Reserve in Canada: The Intergenerational and Cumulative Effects of Indian Residential Schools

Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (June 2017)

Conclusion:

Findings support the existence of linkages between intergenerational exposure to IRS [Indigenous Residential Schools] and risk for suicidal ideation and attempts and for a potential cumulative risk in relation to suicide attempts across generations.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5455875/

Trauma, mental health, and intergenerational associations in Kosovar Families 11 years after the war

European Journal of Psychotraumatology
(2013)

Conclusion

Eleven years after the Kosovo war, the presence of posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in civilian adults and their children is still substantial.

As symptoms of parents and children are associated, mental health problems of close ones should be actively screened and accounted for in comprehensive treatment plans, using a systemic approach.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3744842/

Physical and mental health of Afghan, Iranian and Somali asylum seekers and refugees living in the Netherlands.

BMC Public Health (2004)

A greater number of traumatic events was associated with all health outcomes, and more post-migration stress and less social support were associated with PTSD and depression/anxiety symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS:

Both physical and mental health problems are highly prevalent among refugees and asylum seekers in the Netherlands.

Although higher prevalence rates for most health outcomes were found among asylum seekers, both the specific health services for asylum seekers and the general health services in the municipalities should be aware of these problems.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC385239/

"They're NOT One of Us"

3/26/2018

Getting Beyond Incomplete, Artificial Categories to the Complexity of Human Biology

Our Scientifically Invalid DSM 5 is NOT Helping

Now the Statement above ["They're NOT one of us"] wasn't even made regarding people who had committed some heinous crime -- the statement above was made by one our best friends regarding people with "Substance Use" issues.
The truth is there is a lot of "Dual Diagnosis" -- people with mental health issues and substance use issues. Further, the National Drug Institute refers to Drug Addiction as a "mental illness."
How we consider "mental illness" is a matter of much public debate because how we define that reverberates in the Criminal Justice System and throughout our society and our definitions of "Disability" and access to financial and medical benefits.
There are a lot of HUGE FLIES in this OINTMENT -- one of the biggest being we don't have a scientifically valid DSM 5.
Unfortunately, that doesn't stop us from making all kinds of scientifically invalid judgments in our society, including judgments that involve "punishment."
One of the hardest things for us to come to terms with is that people who engage in bad behavior or crimes are people AND ARE ONE OF US.
BUT they are NOT necessarily behaving like us, and there are REASONS for that beyond the person is "bad" or "evil" -- even though it may be pretty clear that the behavior is "bad" or "evil."
How are we going to make decisions regarding the consequences for "BAD" or "EVIL" behavior when we have imperfect knowledge:

Are we going to convince ourselves that we have knowledge we don't have?
Do we already know we DON'T have the knowledge, but this is just the ROLE we have to play?
Do we think to protect the community, we have to pretend to knowledge we don't have?

"Mental Illness," "Developmental Disability," and "Brain Injury" are all enormously broad constructs mixing societal concerns with imperfect human scientific knowledge.
In the end what we are concerned with is the COMPLEXITY of HUMAN BIOLOGY and how that plays out in SOCIETY and what we need to do to make those SOCIETIES, COMMUNITIES, FAMILIES, & INDIVIDUALS SAFE.
Some of our outdated contructs like the DSM 5 are really getting in the way of:

acknowledging the complexity of human biology; &
acknowledging we don't know it all.

  Ironically, pretension to knowledge we don't have is making our societies, communities, families, and individuals LESS SAFE.
The goal ultimately is to get everyone into society's "IN GROUP."    BUT it is pretty hard to do that if we don't recognize there are COMPLICATED REASONS FOR BAD, DANGEROUS, or EVIL HUMAN BEHAVIOR such that punishment won't get to the ROOT CAUSES.
If we don't know how to get to the ROOT CAUSES, punishment is still bad because it generally makes the behavior worse.
There are people who can't live in the community right now -- BUT punishment is a counter-productive remedy.
We really are all HUMAN BEINGS -- the best and worst of us are part of that IN GROUP.

Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a professor of biology, neurology and neurological sciences, and neurosurgery @ Stanford University:

"You are never really going to understand what is going on if you get it into your head that you're going to be able to explain everything with this is--

the part of the brain
the childhood experience
the hormone
the gene
or the evolutionary mechanism

GLEE: "One of Us"

Fly In the Ointment
Where's that Scientifically Valid DSM?

Dr. Thomas Insel, then Director of the National Institute of Mental Health
"This Is A Time of DISCOVERY."

(Dr. Tom Insel, then head of the National Institute of Mental Health states the DSM-5 "lacks validity" :

"The weakness is its lack of validity. Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma, or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure.

"In the rest of medicine, this would be equivalent to creating diagnostic systems based on the nature of chest pain or the quality of fever.

"Indeed, symptom-based diagnosis, once common in other areas of medicine, has been largely replaced in the past half century as we have understood thatsymptoms alone rarely indicate the best choice of treatment.

"Patients with mental disorders deserve better. NIMH has launched the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project to transform diagnosis by incorporating genetics, imaging, cognitive science, and other levels of information to lay the foundation for a new classification system."

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/directors/thomas-insel/blog/2013/transforming-diagnosis.shtml

Bishop Carlton Pearson says he received a religious message that there is No Hell.

Hair Analysis, Psychological Analysis, the Criminal Law & the Ethical & Moral Imperative to Pull Back

Even A Dog Distinguishes Between Being Stumbled Over & Being Kicked

Above is a TedTalk on a REALLY IMPORTANT topic -- the Biology of Our Best and Worst Selves. Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a professor of biology, neurology and neurological sciences, and neurosurgery @ Stanford University.

Last Updated July 27, 2022

CO Injustices & the Need for An Inclusive CO Olmstead-Stat Addressing Among Many Other Things -- "Dangerous" Behavior

3/23/2018

Human beings do terrible things and we do have to protect vulnerable people, ourselves, and our communities from dangerous behavior.
We do need to get really worked up about this to do what needs to be done.
But the ENERGY spent in punishing people for "bad" or "dangerous behavior" largely:

doesn't work,
is counter-productive,
often leads to additional trauma for people who already traumatized, and
turns the perpetrators of some of the worst behavior into BIZARRO CELEBRITIES -- think Charles Manson.

I think it is pretty normal to want to understand "Bad" or "Dangerous Behavior," and it is really a wonderful calling for those who try to provide treatment.
A serious problem comes when we don't have good treatments --- THEN WE REALLY DEMONIZE PEOPLE.
Further, we have come up with about a dozen pretty UNSCIENTIFIC PERSONALITY DISORDERS to register our DISGUST with certain behavior while @ the same time largely having LITTLE INSIGHT into appropriate treatment.
Well, what about that -- people who are behaving really badly and we don't have good treatments?
Is the logical conclusion that those people just belong in prison?
Well, that is and has been our conclusion for sometime in many cases [especially, regarding anything more subtle than florid psychosis]-- except, it doesn't work very well.
It also doesn't work very well to have people who are abusing or harming family members or strangers in the community.
What happens when somebody in the Criminal Justice System pretends to be "psychotic" for an incompetency to preceed or insanity evaluation?
Well, most of the time they are NOT successful -- BUT in a few cases they are.
What happens when they have been in the hospital a long time, and they want to get out? Typically, they are not released because they have a "mental defect."
So there's a lot more going on with people than what our Criminal Laws and Justice System will recognize as a defense.
AND we think that is because we're afraid people would get away with the crime.
The truth is there may be some people who are pretty seriously dangerous, we don't have good treatments -- and a term of years for an individual act of violence or depravity is really pretty disconnected from the long-term issues presented.
BUT does it logically follow that punishment is appropriate? No, it doesn't logically follow that punishment is appropriate, BUT SAFETY is ESSENTIAL if we are going to have a healthy, vibrant community.
That means a much greater recognition of "invisible disabilities," the social determinants of health, and the mind-boggling immensity of factors affecting human behavior.
If you've got that recognition, you probably already know how important:

the Social Determinants of Health,
Community Mental Health,
Sophisticated therapy for Brain Injury,
Community Supports for People with Developmental Disabilities
the Integration of Physical & Mental Health
Communities that are Physically & Emotionally Accessible & Inclusive
Housing
Institutional Mental Health,
Supported Employment
Inclusive Olmstead Planning

---REALLY ARE. Colorado is doing a lot, BUT not enough to prevent the incarceration of thousands of Coloradans with "Bad" or "Dangerous Behaviors"

We can't ignore those behaviors -- but we can't ignore the injustices wrought be many of the sentences that are handed down in Colorado Courtrooms everyday.

We need to turn C-Stat into an Inclusive CO Olmstead-Stat and get @ the ROOT CAUSES of these problems.

Kenisha Godin sentenced to 8 years for abandoning her children in a locked room for days.

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/03/19/kanesha-godin-child-abuse/

Crap Justice,
Crap Services

Personality Disorders

C-Stat

Above is a REALLY LONG video on a REALLY IMPORTANT topic -- the Neuroscience Behind Behavior. Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a professor of biology, neurology and neurological sciences, and neurosurgery @ Stanford University:

"You are never really going to understand what is going on if you get it into your head that you're going to be able to explain everything with this is--

the part of the brain

the childhood experience

the hormone

the gene

or the evolutionary mechanism

---That explains everything.

"It doesn't work that way. Instead any behavior is the result of biology that occurred a second ago, hours ago, days ago -- a million years ago."
. . . .

"O000h it's complicated. Well, that's very useful.

"How 'bout, 'OOOh it's complicated and you better be really careful and really cautious before you think you understand the causes of a behavior, especially if it's a behavior you judge harshly.' "
. ------Prof. Robert Sapolsky Stanford

Val's Blog

COMING TO TERMS WITH NOT JUST BIOLOGICALLY BASED MENTAL ILLNESSES --BUT BIOLOGICALLY BASED HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Personality Disorders, Developmental Differences Conceptualization Matters--- It Matters A Lot In The Criminal Justice System

"CATEGORIES" AND HUMAN BEHAVIORAL BIOLOGY

Trauma, Intergenerational Trauma, the Complicated Nature of Mental Disorders & Human Behavior --- & Due Process of Law

"They're NOT One of Us"

CO Injustices & the Need for An Inclusive CO Olmstead-Stat Addressing Among Many Other Things -- "Dangerous" Behavior

Above is a REALLY LONG video on a REALLY IMPORTANT topic -- the Neuroscience Behind Behavior. Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a professor of biology, neurology and neurological sciences, and neurosurgery @ Stanford University:

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Val's Blog

COMING TO TERMS WITH NOT JUST BIOLOGICALLY BASED MENTAL ILLNESSES --BUT BIOLOGICALLY BASED HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Personality Disorders, Developmental Differences Conceptualization Matters​--- It Matters A Lot In The Criminal Justice System

"CATEGORIES" AND HUMAN BEHAVIORAL BIOLOGY

Trauma, Intergenerational Trauma, the Complicated Nature of Mental Disorders & Human Behavior --- & Due Process of Law

"They're NOT One of Us"

CO Injustices & the Need for An Inclusive CO Olmstead-Stat Addressing Among Many Other Things -- "Dangerous" Behavior

Above is a REALLY LONG video on a REALLY IMPORTANT topic -- the Neuroscience Behind Behavior. Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a professor of biology, neurology and neurological sciences, and neurosurgery @ Stanford University:

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Personality Disorders, Developmental Differences Conceptualization Matters--- It Matters A Lot In The Criminal Justice System