Brain Behavior Institute 2009 - Human Neurodiversity

Thoughts, Today:

A Beautiful Mind

Kathy

1.       Struggle within one’s self

2.       Lost and found

3.       Trust

Angela

1.       Very smart

2.       Love story

3.       People around him betrayed him; distrust

Antoinette

1.       Incredible true mind

2.       Blurred mind between real and not real

3.       Is he still alive

Judy

1.       Gift

2.       The gift became confused

3.       Lead to loyalty

Luci

1.       1.The mind can do many things

2.       2.Mind is very powerful

3.       3.Mind is very mysterious

Girl Interrupted

Kathy

1.       Misunderstood

2.       Confusion – don’t know who is wrong, her or the others?

3.       Un-liked, unloved, sadness

Angela

1.       1.Abused

2.       2.Suicidal

3.       3. Depressed

Antoinette

1.       1.I don’t know the story

2.       2.“No bones in her wrist”

3.       3.Psychologist seemed creepy

Judy

1.       1.Darkness

2.       2.Loss of control

3.       3.Insecure

Luci

1.      1. In pain

2.       2.Therapy

3.       3.Self-mutilation

General Discussion:

-          Judy: mother was schizophrenic, she was raised when electric-shock therapy was still in use (not the mild form); she lost years and years of her life, she lost her memory; Judy understands from her mom’s point of view, that in John Nash’s mind, he could tell he was gifted and also not normal.  She doesn’t consider her mother a normal individual by society’s sense, but she has learned to accept her point of view and try to see it her way.  She is sensitive to students with these kind of diverse mental issues because of her experience.  Her mother would go through phases: from 5 years old to 25 years old, therefore you never knew what frame of mind she would be in at any one time.

-          Luci

: my mother suffered from severe depression, and her mother was often catatonic in her life (not present).  She had to deal with her mom’s treatment – they simply over-drugged her mother, or under-drugged her; the drug ratio was never correct.  Father’s cancer seemed to snap her out of her deep depression, often.  She would often shift her perspective daily (sometimes sit in darkness).

-          Angela: how did this depression come?  Luci thinks it is perhaps a cultural thing: as African Americans, they felt they could fix everything, especially at home—and they refused to address mental illness.  It seems like a dark-side, like a social stigma.  As culture, we do not seek out therapy unless we are directed by a loved one; perhaps we feel mental health as being a weakness?

-          Luci: I felt a fear that perhaps this mental illness ran in the family.  Judy went to therapy early because she was afraid of getting depressed or becoming schizophrenic; she also took her children to therapy to make sure that they did not experience either of these mental health problems. 

-          Is mental health simply another part of the scheme of diverse architecture of the brain?  How do we integrate this mental health into the education system and break the social stigma?  Is it possible that we can mental health was simply a brain deviation, and not abnormal? 

o   Luci: Kids are wired differently.  Must explain to colleagues about the difference of the child’s brain.  They have an ongoing struggle which is invisible to most people – unlike a broken leg, which is a very visible and often considered more tangible.  Mental health seems invisible and we are likely to consider that differing brains are abnormal because w cannot appreciate other people’s diversity.

o   Kathy: very difficult to try to address and understand things you don’t understand and things you can’t see or feel.  All brains are different, wired very differently, and therefore all experiences are different.  Some people tend to be great learners, other great teachers – and therefore everyone has different styles and aptitudes. 

o   Angela: Can’t necessarily understand a person’s perspective. 

o   Can we try to understand or do we accept the fact that we can’t ever understand?  Can we accept the fact that having a diverse brain isn’t necessarily abnormal?  How did this social stigma actually come about where we consider something “normal”?

§  Perhaps could’ve been a superiority complex that started this social stigma

§  Antoinette: the concept of normal and abnormal is really relative because “normal” in some climates is to be a drug-dealing murder, but normal in an academic climate is not that at all, it is the complete opposite.  The concept of the fact that we have inhibitory qualities (that we censor ourselves) could be considered, in a sense, schizophrenic – we live different realities with family, different in academic environments, different in hobbies, etc.