Psychosis: Making and Inhabiting a Different Reality

Professor Fletcher discusses the topic of psychosis. It has many causes and manifestations and it poses major challenges to our understanding.
A lecture by Paul Fletcher, Bernard Wolfe Professor of Health Neuroscience at University of Cambridge, 19 February 2019
www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-an...
One of the most mysterious experiences that we come across in psychiatry is ‘Psychosis’, which refers to a loss of contact with reality. It has many causes and manifestations and it poses major challenges to our understanding.
Professor Fletcher proposes that it can be understood in terms of the normal functioning of the mind, which seeks to construct a working model of reality even though it has very little direct contact with that reality.
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[@coolworx]

What a fantastically empathetic man.

[@mjcard]

Thank you for this. I had a 'psychotic break' many years ago. I couldn't describe it. This has helped me understand perhaps, something. Companionship is a blessing perhaps because in relation to another individual also lurking in the dark of their brain, you get to test the functioning of your perceptual faculties and either confirm or counter the data. Makes you feel more secure and confident when you feel like your perceptions are not going to lead you into danger on some way.

[@zxwmabcdef5439]

I was honestly physically sick. It turned out the root cause was watching news.

[@zxwmabcdef5439]

We have a problem with psychiatry here in the US. If you have a legitimate medical complaint like depression its really hard to get an appointment. I was having weird symptoms and suspected it was depression and it took 4 months just to see the nurse practitioner

[@ashkuigp]

“It is not much but that what i ve got”. That is humbleness and bit of self-debasement. The last insight from this talk may be a crucial to improvement of pedagogical, psychological and rehabilitation methods used in psychiatry today. What be cool to hear more about broader scope of schizophrenia research and especially about negative symptoms.

[@starkillermatt91]

I have suffered from psychosis - it was a thrill ride.

[@invictus327]

Excellent lecture. Thank you.

[@JJ-ls8jo]

Wow..The human brain never ceases to amaze me & we are the proud owners of this complex organ!. It does so much & what we know about it is very little in comparison I think. Been listening to a fair few lectures on human emotions, mental illnesses,moods etc & the brain is cunning & can fool you into auditory & visual hullucinations. This is where we hear the stories of seeing/hearing ghosts etc. The brain is also the bearer of religion & beliefs, ie pattern recognition & the fear of death in my humble opinion. ✌🧠.

[@jonathanlohn4376]

Psychosis is an outside object inhabiting me, not me inhabiting it. I am the castle.

[@emankcineht497]

This is incredibly interesting. Thank you for your work in this direction, it should absolutely be continued.

[@CopperKettle]

Interesting, thank you

[@WildBillCox13]

A very interesting lecture. I will look into Hellblade.

[@zxwmabcdef5439]

I'm not a doctor but I have seen animals that were psychotic. My grandfather had some cows that were psychotic they would watch people who came within 1/4 mile and attacked anything that moved. My parents adopted 2 dogs that were taken from an abusive household. It took 2 years before they would let me pet them.

[@zxwmabcdef5439]

Is psychosis different from hallucinations caused by an infection? I had a round of bayou virus about 12 years ago and I had auditory hallucinations at night for several days. I would hear a loud roaring noise like a train. In people who have psychosis do they know if a hallucination is a hallucination? I guess I shouldn't say I heard a noise because I knew it wasn't real and was caused by the infection.

[@WildBillCox13]

I listened without watching and distinctly heard "Bah". The first couple were uncertain, but all the subsequent intonations were "Bah".

[@blibloblab]

I had exactly the same experience.

[@zxwmabcdef5439]

I honestly think the 2 dogs were paranoid and thought that people were out to abuse them. They still won't let strangers pet them.

[@dirkbruere]

Still can't see the horse and woman in the black and white

[@BubbaHotepMothership]

Not much improvement over his 2011 psychosis lecture. I associated that video with the novel Gravity’s Rainbow & incoming V-2 word bombs. It’s even funnier to see that the Gresham College grasshopper on the insignia is exactly what I saw with eyes closed after what was probably a cerebral spinal flush while I was completely awake for almost a year. My brain cleaning itself out? My insides lit up for a half second then the grasshopper image. No street drugs needed or wanted. The “insomnia” was after stopping a menu of anti-psychs. V-2 voice bombs still hitting me but now I’m “allowed” to sleep at all the wrong times.

[@Kyrani99]

He constantly says "brain or mind", which is the same as saying the brain is the mind. While ever they go there they will never understand psychosis. The brain is as part of the body allows a conscious being to have physical experiences. But we can perceive ideas by direct mental means presented to us in the Mind (a non-physical realm of information that forms the foundation of the Universe and everything in it.). Psychosis can happen in a number of ways but most common and especially where there is distress, it is underhanded abuse by some related, inhumane people. This is why an intervention uses tranquilizers, which they fancifully call anti-psychotics.

[@markcaseon7136]

Psychosis will skyrorcket because of popularity of virtual reality.

[@merlepatterson]

If you take your car into the shop for a simple oil change, the mechanic may find bad brakes, worn bushings, and a leaking radiator in order to make a few more dollars on your visit, when in reality, all you really did need is just a simple oil change. The profession of Psychiatry has been known to engage in similar practices. And dentists have been known to drill and fill perfectly good teeth. Sometimes, even those we expect to have the most ethics fail in that department.

[@pyromaster10000]

I am sick of this topic, because no one can articulate this disease properly.

[@slappy8941]

Alternate title: A look at the Democrat party.