This was the title of my inaugural lecture as Visiting Professor at the University of Bolton UK, on 10 March 2023.
The video captures me fairly well, but the slides, and indeed some of the video clips are not so easy to follow.
The full video is at
The text of the slides follows below.
Professor Bob Johnson
Bolton University Inaugural lecture 10 March 2023
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A message from my sponsor – my hero.
“I freely admit”, said Immanuel Kant in 1781, “that it was David Hume’s spark that
first, many years ago, awoke me from my dogmatic slumber”.
“Ich gestehe frei: die Erinnerung des David Hume war eben dasjenige, was mir vor vie Jahren zuerst den dogmatischen Schlummer unterbrach”.
We need another spark, to wake ourselves up, all over again. . .
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Using Warmer Emotions To Melt Past Traumas
Theme 1 - SHOCK
Science crushes the mind.
Ø Science is like technology – fab when it works, an utter pain when it doesn’t .
Ø Our minds understand machines that work like Clock-Work.
Ø So our Universe needs to work like a clock, for us to understand it.
Ø It doesn’t – and we can’t.
Ø We can pretend it is a Clock-Work Universe.
Ø IF IT’S NOT CLOCK-WORK – then we need to wake up.
Ø Hume said it wasn’t in 1739 – Kant was the only one who listened.
Ø Heisenberg said it wasn’t in 1920 – Einstein wouldn't listen.
Ø In 1980, a psychiatric text book used Science to ditch minds,
Ø Who’s listening?
Ø Today, we need to talk emotions – are you listening?
~~~O0O~~~
Theme 2 – AWE
Peace-of-mind is awesome .
Ø The mind isn’t Clock-Work –- the LOAF theory
Ø Trauma blocks it by inflicting Speechless-Terror –
Ø Being Speechless – you can’t talk about it – BUT warmer emotions can melt the terror,
Ø when you can talk, then the trauma fades –
Ø Ask the right people. Stop being Speechless – regain peace-of-mind
Ø Brainscans proved this scientifically 30 years ago – no one’s listening.
Ø Speechless-Terror is like a curable autoimmune (emotional) disease
Ø E.g. “Alec”, a serial killer, who took 24 months to grow up emotionally. When Alec was 4, his father threw his mother downstairs. So – four points –
Ø (1) Was Alec’s father wrong? YES.
Ø (2) Could Alec tell his father this (aged 24)? NO.
Ø (3) Should he have been able to? YES. And
Ø (4) Did he know that all his symptoms of serial-killing came from his inability to tell his father this? NO. But when he did, they went.
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All psychiatry in 3 words
Children are impressionable
Abuse a child – he stays abused all his life
Neglect a child – she stays neglected all her life
But not if you start –
USING WARMER EMOTIONS TO MELT PAST TRAUMAS –
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The human infant responds socially within minutes of birth, if not before.
Cue Ethan.
·
19 12 1999 14:08:06
· Ethan born 14:08:24
n 19 12 1999 14:25:14 17 minutes old
Ethan protrudes his tongue clearly . .
VIDEO PLAYS
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Using Warmer Emotions To Melt Past Traumas
Arguably the most significant psychiatric dialogue in 40 (120) years . . . .
Video Interview Between Dr Johnson And A Prisoner On 'C' Wing Parkhurst Sept 11th 1991
Dr Bob: Say your mother was sitting over there, what would you
say to her?
Lenny: I'd say "Mother you can't hit me any more. I am an adult".
Dr Bob: And you believe that?
Lenny: Yes, partly.
Dr Bob: You partly believe it and partly don't?
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More from that video Sept 11th 1991
B: How would you describe to someone who doesn't know anything about it, what
questions I am asking you and what we are doing?
L: Well it's about my Mother, how she used to batter me when I was a kid.
B: What effect did this have on you?
L: Well it made me frightened.
B: Did it?
L: Yes.
B: What's happened to the fear?
L: It's embedded.
B: It's still there is it?
L: Yes.
B: It doesn't help you does it?
L: No.
B: What effect does this embedded fear have?
B: Being an adult. Can you tell her you're an adult?
L: Yes, I could try.
B: Would you find it difficult?
L: Yes.
B: You would, wouldn't you?
L: Yes.
B: Do you find that surprising, that you find it difficult to tell your mother you're an adult?
L: Yes. Very surprising.
B: It is isn't it? So what will stop you? Say your mother was sitting over there, what would you say to her?
L: I'd say "Mother you can't hit me any more. I am an adult".
B: And you believe that?
L: Yes, partly.
B: You partly believe it and partly don't?
L: Yes. I don't know whether I could say it to her or not.
B: What would stop you?
L: Fear.
B: Fear of what? What is she going to do?
L: Well she might get up and clout me.
B: Might she?
L: Well she might.
B: How old is she?
L: 85.
B: And she is going to do you an injury is she?
L: Oh she's still lively.
B: 85. How big is she?
L: 5 feet 2 inches.
B: And how big are you?
L: 6 feet 31/2 inches.
VIDEO HERE
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NOVEMBER 11 1991 – extract –
L : You can't hit your own mother. Whenever she battered me, I'd never dream of lifting a hand to hit her. Even when I was 21, she slapped me across the face. And me Dad came in. And I ran out of the house. And slammed the door, and then just went and got pissed.
B : And bottled it up
L: Yes
B: But now you would stop her, if she came to hit you ?
L : There's no way she would hit me now
B : What would you say ?
L: I wouldn't have to say anything -- if she went to slap me, I'd just hold her hand. [both laugh]
B: well you didn't have the confidence to do that before
L : If this had've happened years ago, where a doctor had taken an interest say when I was in my twenties and said what you'd said and we'd conquered it, and then I went to the house. And say I came in late, and she said blah blah blah and she went to hit me, I'd say mother youcan't hit me love -- I'm a grown up. You can't do it. You can kick me out of the house
B : Because it's your house
L: But you can't hit me -- don't try and hit me
B: But you've never said that up until the last month or two
put a person in a brainscan machine and played an audio tape of a car crash or gun shot, and the speech centre (Broca’s area), and the frontal lobes went off line Speechless-Terror
VIDEO PLAYS HERE
Endpiece
When you're a toddler, being angry at your parent is murder – but if this befogging emotion doesn’t vanish when you're an adult (which it needs to), it will underpin all strifes, all crimes, all wars, and far too many mental diseases. Buried anger is toxic, as my next book (now completed) explains.
From Friendless Childhoods Explain Wars — The title of my forthcoming book.
