CHAT: wrapping it up (Re: Define mental illness?)

I agree that this thread is no longer relevant to conlanging, so this'll be
my last post on the subject.


> > The Main Point:
> > Mental illness is a bodily condition, not a personality problem.  It ma=
y
>=20
> This is somewhat of a false dichotomy--at least, if one is a psychologica=
l
> naturalist.  Example: some types of depression can be caused by low level=
s
> of seratonin.  This can occur for any number of purely physiological
> reasons; however, seratonin levels also decrease when external events
> provoke sadness.  Either one of these, or a combination of both, can caus=
e
> similar conditions in the brain.  How then is it meaningful to call one
> physiological and one emotional?
>=20
> Of course, if one believes in a seperate mind/soul/whatever than your
> argument is more valid.

Odd as it may seem, my work in AI has led me to a very useful dichotomy whi=
ch
parallels the mind/soul concept in some ways -- two distinct though intrica=
tely
intertwined components of consciousness.  I can't prove it (my AI Hugh only
makes use of the one, roughly speaking) and I won't ask you to accept it,
but I've found it a productive way of thinking of the human mind.  In the
abscence of such a distinction then it's an especially hazy and unhelpful
split between physiology and psychology -- and this isn't quite the split
I'm talking about anyways -- emotions I see as a dichotomy in themselves.
Of course, ANY and every generalization about the human mind is a
simplification, just as any economic theory or any meteorological theory is
a simplification, and no-one's ever going to entirely agree about what sort
of model is best for describing such a complex system.  There's no hard fac=
t
in intelligence theory (ok, psychology -- but intelligence theory is the on=
ly
aspect I'm very interested in; if an artificial mind can be made to behave =
in
a similar way as a human mind, based on a certain model, then the model's
good enough for me!) like there is in, say, mathematics or physics, but tha=
t's
part of the reason I'm so attracted to AI -- it's as much an art as a scien=
ce.


Josh


To Nik: yes, external events very often do trigger or worsen serious depres=
sion
  (unfortunately they almost never alleviate it, at least not in a severe
  case), and thoughts and beliefs can have a strong effect on the illness,
  but it's the basic pre-disposition to become depressed which is physiolog=
ical.
  Having an optimistic or pessimistic attitude about life can make the
  difference between a really soul-destroying and/or fatal experience, and
  a condition which can be dealt with as a physical ailment.  The thing is
  that the physical ailment does not go away no matter how positive your
  outlook; there's a certain minimum component of the illness which is
  strictly a bodily phenomenon.
 =20
 =20
> Ah, finally back to conlanging!  :-)  At the risk of starting a
> flameskirmish, those "better and less problematic" languages are only
> "better and less problematic" in our current culture.  When our culture
> changes (as it must, culture is never static), it will cease to be so
> good and unproblematic.
No, no, no -- I'm talking about languages which are entirely independent of
our current culture, like Aroven for example :-)
Aroven doesn't name anything which isn't pretty much a constant for the Ear=
th,
everything else it *defines* (use the word if it fits, rather than invent t=
he
word to fit) -- if you read my Lingua Ignota post you'll recall that the
language doesn't have any "native" names for real-world entities such as
presidents, pastors and parliaments; these are all loan words.  Aroven trie=
s
to sift out the fundamental elements which would be common to any human
culture on planet Earth (moving to a planet where there are no oaks, limest=
ones,
zebras and such would be a problem!).  It's also the language of the fictio=
nal
Aroel and that means a lot of extra words for specifically Aroel subjects,
but that's different -- it's just an additional set of words to the base
vocabulary of standard Danoven/Aroven.

btw. my website just celebrated its first birthday yesterday!  Would've bee=
n
a good time to upload a lot of new stuff to my page, including the Aroven
Handwritten font but, well, I haven't.  I'm finishing up some phonology
(not phonology -- what do you call patterns which determine which sounds ca=
n
be grouped together -- for instance I've decided to forbid the [au] sound
in words ending with [l] or [r]) revisions, I'll probably upload the new
Danoven pages when I'm done with those.


        _/_/      _/_/  _/_/_/_/   Joshua Shinavier            =20
         _/        _/  _/         Loorenstrasse 74, Zimmer B321=20
        _/        _/  _/_/_/_/   CH-8053 Z=FCrich              =20
 _/    _/  _/    _/        _/   Switzerland                 =20
_/_/_/_/  _/_/_/_/  _/_/_/_/   jshinavi@g26.ethz.ch

Danov=EBn pages: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/5555/ven.htm