PARADIGM SHIFT.
Paradigm Shift: More than change, more than transformation, more than innovation.
Paradigm Shift: when Squares and Triangles become a Circle
I alluded earlier to Paradigm Shift when I defined the word CONVERSION. Conversion, as the Bible Story goes, is when Jesus turned water into wine.
Paradigm Shift in Chemistry is when constitution (or the chemical properties) of one liquid becomes another.
Water to Wine, both are liquids? At a basic chemical level, these are two substances formed by chemical reaction. But, the chemical composition of Water is NOT the chemical composition of Wine. Water-to-Wine is qualitatively different than, say, water to steam. Water to steam is change. Water to Wine is a paradigm shift.
Innovation through change is when you replace a horse and buggy (a cart on wheels) with a car (another cart on wheels). Two carts on wheels. One is drawn by a horse the other pulled by an engine. The discovery of the automobile was NOT a Paradigm Shift, although big change it was.
We live in the age of innovation (NOT conversion). Building smaller, faster, more refined cell phones. This is innovation, NOT conversion. The iphone2 is no different than the iphone 12, it’s just that 12 is faster, more refined, a better screen, greater clarity, a better camera. Both 2 and 12 facilitate communication. The change from iphone2 to 12 is NOT a Paradigm Shift.
Paradigm Shift defined: Merriam-Webster: (noun) an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a [totally] new and different way…
Paradigm Shift (WIKIPEDIA): …a concept in the philosophy of science introduced…by the American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn, is a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline. Even though Kuhn restricted use of the term to the natural sciences, …a paradigm shift has also been used in non-scientific contexts to describe a profound change in a fundamental model or perception of events.
Perception: Is the image below a duck or a rabbit? An overused image, for sure, but still, it drives home the point: A paradigm shift is comprehensive change. Note: When the image shifts, rabbit to duck, the background emphasis changes blue to yellow. Everything changes in the image even the feeling you have about the image, your memories for rabbits jumps to your memory for ducks.
Can a “Paradigm Shift” address my mental health concerns? YES
There are simple and complex answers to this question.
Simple:
A misunderstanding
You and your best friend are talking by phone. You are cut-off mid-sentence.
You conjecture from this abrupt disconnect your friend is angry with you. So angry, that your friend hung up (ghosted you in 21st Century Lingo). You worry, fret, think through the conversation again. “What could I have said to make my friend so angry?” (A paradigm shift has just occurred you were secure in your friendship, now all is lost) That night, you can’t sleep. Worry worsens, you lose your appetite. This goes on because you aren’t expecting to hear from your friend for a month. Worry turns to dread. You miss a day of work/school because of it. You feel awful. The sadness expands so fast that you feel chronically depressed: helpless, hopeless, and worthless.
At some point, your friend calls back. You learn you were cut off due to a phone connection issue. Your friend wasn’t the least bit upset or even concerned. The friend had no idea you were so worried and can’t understand why it is such a big deal. Still, the awful feelings persist, but the intensity lessens. Now, you feel fine.
In your head, you generated a Paradigm Shift. A brand new way of thinking about this friendship. Unfortunately, it was a negative way and with negative consequences. Your thoughts became global because the paradigm shift was global. In the mind’s eye, you had moved from one state of consciousness to another state of consciousness.
Psychedelic Drug Treatment
Psychedelics act on those parts of the brain where “Paradigm Shift” resides -if anything can be said to reside (or exist) in a self-contained part of the brain. Listen to reports of persons describing psychedelic experiences. What is the theme? “It was mind expanding”, “reality altering”, “I see God in everything”, “I am no longer of this world.” These are descriptions of a phenomenology of paradigm shift. In some ways they make no sense (except while the person is experiencing them). When the drug wears off, so does the paradigm shift effect.
What happened here? Answer: brain activity is rhythmic (oscillatory).
Oscillation facilitates ”brain structure synchrony.” Hallucinogens diminish (or disrupt) brain structure oscillation. Desynchronosis (Dsync) is the consequence. When Dsync happens, there is an initial system-level flexibility translating into rapid cognitive, emotional, and perceptual shifting. This phenomenon produces a sort of ‘ego-disintegration’ (I’m in touch with the whole world, I’m having an out-of-body experience) and a feeling of dis-reality (time changes, size changes, think Alice in Wonderland). The brain tries to interpret this from within the individual and in single environment POV, but it can’t, so what gets activated is a kind of psychic-cognitive-emotional experience akin to a profound religious (or “Ah Ha!) awareness, or a deep personal sensitivity, sometimes there are demands that come from within you “stand on your bed, jump out the window”. This can be from memories or from present circumstances. All of this is a grand, but temporary, paradigm shift. Things are comprehensively and qualitatively different (good or bad in this state, for example, is incomprehensible).
As the drug wears off, the regular oscillation returns, synchrony is re-stablished, and you are left with only rough or vague memories to interpret. These experiences DO NOT generalize into real life even though at the time they are happening that they will feel like they are life changing. Psychedelics are a TEMPORARY paradigm shift. That’s why their use in the treatment of depression is uncertain. I call them a “simple” paradigm shift.
Complex
War. At a macro-level, War is a complex paradigm shift. It is generally permanent, at least for one lifetime, or the effects are permanent. Bombs fall, missile’s strike targets obliterating people and structures. Otherwise friendly, normal people, become aggressors and lethal threats as soldiers. These people are no longer the same people they are the enemy (think duck-rabbit paradigm; friend-enemy for no reason you can understand). War upends lives, it upends communities, towns, cities and World War upends nations. Things are out of control, but they are also under control. Propaganda proliferates as truth, truth is viewed as lies. Who knows who is right or who is wrong. Everyone is good and bad. It seems chaotic except there seems to be a macro order to it. The closer you get to the center of war, the bigger and stronger the paradigm shift becomes. The atomic bomb, once launched and exploded, ushered in a World-Wide paradigm shift of mutually assured destruction. This, before the bomb, was an incomprehensible event.
A Mental Breakdown. At a micro level, A Mental Breakdown is a complex paradigm shift. What happens when a person says, “Dr. I’m having a mental breakdown.”
I’ve worked in several inpatient settings through my career, one, in a large urban area where our inpatient unit had a helicopter that transported out-of-control individuals for maximum-hold-inpatient-treatment. Individuals coming in (and there were many) were, at times, locked in a padded cell with no chairs or tables, no windows or doors, nothing but mattress-like walls ceilings and floors, totally indestructible. This was for the most out-of-control persons, and some individuals stayed in this setting for 24 to 48 hours until they could be stabilized on medication/psychotherapy/or they would simply calm down with time. These individual were experiencing a massive, complex, paradigm shift. It was not good by virtue of the fact that they were a danger to themselves and others while in the world, but were temporarily safe while in this containment space. They received 24/7 intense and continuing professional care and supervision. I spoke with many afterwards - treated some - and their memory of the antecedent conditions leading up to the event was usually difficult if not impossible.
Intellectual/perceptual shift. The World is Round, not Flat. From time immemorial people could see the curvature of the earth especially if there were vast distances that could be observed (on a quiet ocean), but there were barriers, some religious, some tradition, that argued against it. When it was first proposed, the proposers were ridiculed and persecuted, but over time, the reality of the situation became clear. “The World is NOT flat AND The Earth is NOT the Center of the Universe.” If you look at the picture below you instantly think, this is ridiculous, not correct, not possible. Still, there are a few today who believe the World is flat, but for the most part, the spherical world is general knowledge. This shift in thinking (and perception) is a Paradigm Shift. Your life is somehow different before and after your are exposed to a new reality.
Suicide or a paradigm shift. I have encountered and dealt many times with client issues of suicide. As I described in the previous entry about suicide, a person may threaten or ideate around suicide, attempt suicide, or even follow through and commit suicide. The latter instance is the rarest. There are times when a person expresses a desire to commit suicide or has suicidal thoughts, but what the person is really seeking is a paradigm shift. To the the one with suicidal thoughts the world is bleak, something outside or within themselves is terribly wrong and the person can’t imagine the situation will change, feels trapped in a conflict of which there is no escape. Their world is “black” when the individual wants the world to be different (maybe “white”). There is a scream, not for death, but for a paradigm shift. A failed suicide attempt can initiate an entire system paradigm shift. I recall a person who had overdosed on a psychoactive medication and while this person was being taken to the hospital, the person wanted the driver (spouse) to be sure that their child, the baby (and everyone including the suicide attempting person), was wearing a seat belt. If death was the object, why would such a person want to be wearing a seatbelt on a fast and furious run to the emergency room?
The reason: I don’t think it was a suicide attempt, but rather, an indirect demand for a paradigm shift. I’ve seen this same thing happen over and over again, care taken for one’s own safety at the same time one is also attempting suicide. It may seem ironic (concern for one’s own safety while at the same time attempting suicide) unless a deeper motive for the suicidal overture can be discerned, perhaps it is a cry for a paradigm shift or a massive change in one’s world and one’s own situation. A cry for help (not death).
Developmental Life-Change. I was meeting with a client I had seen for a long time; years, and during the session I read my notes of him, how he was thinking, how he was acting, what his problems were one year prior. Then, I read my notes from the previous session. The notes were written by me. They were remarkably different. It was almost as if I was describing two persons. Person A (one year ago) and Person B (today). What happened?
This is an example of a developmental paradigm shift. Developmental processes frequently work slowly. You can’t judge the effect of developmental change on a day to day basis, but over a long period of time, it is possible to perceive radical change. This is a paradigm shift. The figure below attempts to capture how a developmental paradigm shift works, although it is an oversimplification. Life-change paradigm shift requires input and interaction with the environment. As a therapist, I’m clued into the factors operative in paradigm shifting.
Question: CAN I ENGAGE A LIFE-PARADIGM SHIFT?
Answer: YES
Follow-up question: HOW?
STEPS FOR GENERATING A PARADIGM SHIFT
Familiarize yourself with the concepts discussed earlier in previous blogs about The Subjective and The Objective.
Mostly, you see the world from the POV of The Subjective, but start practicing switching Subject and Object. How? In a simple sense, this means take the other person’s point of view and imagine what it would be like (how it would feel) to actually hold that POV.
Then, recall your own POV and juxtapose your POV to the other POV.
Begin to develop a lifestyle where you can have an open mind. For example, a person who is experiencing alcohol addiction cannot have an open mind. Alcohol puts a person in developmental stasis, precluding open-mindedness. If you are using alcohol in excess - quit it for a while. However you can figure out to quit. You are now on the road to an open mind. I use this as one example, but there are more subtle aspects of closed mindedness that require addressing prior to a paradigm shift. For example, anxiety = fear = closed mind. You can’t have an open mind if you are fearful, so finding a way to reduce or eliminate your fear is important for being in the right state of mind for a paradigm shift.
Explore both sides of every issue, really explore these. Suspend judgement (The World is Flat). Is a judgement. It closes down the option of exploring the world in any other way but Flat. To judge is to close down. Sometimes closing down is needed and OK, but discriminate when this is the case and when it is not.
Build your sense of perspective. Perspective, simply stated is the long view. Human aging, our own aging, can help us develop the long view because we accumulate experience and we can reflect on our own experience and the experiences of others. Do this with an open mind and ask yourself about meaning from the point of view of the other or The Object (What does this mean from my POV) versus The Object (What does this mean from the other’s point of view).
When very young, we treated all “things” (mother, father, siblings, our crib, food) as objects. We had not developed far enough to reframe cognitively or emotionally that an “object” can also be “The subject.” As we age and mature, this true human capability emerges within you. Empathy, for example is defined as: “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” I focus on several words here: 1. ability, 2. understand, 3. share, 4. another. You were NOT born with empathy.
How do these four words (within empathy) bear on The Objective and the Subjective?
If you can answer this question, then you are on the road to a personal, life-changing, developmental Paradigm Shift.