research paper RD1

Marc Anthony Novillo

Exposition & Argument

Erin Kelly

November 15, 2016

Research Paper Intro

            “Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality” ~Jules de Gaultier.

The power of the mind is one of the most beautiful, complex, interesting and fascinating systems known to mankind, where it is indeed possible for the fantastical to exist. The mind is an extremely powerful agent against the evils of reality such that it is built with defense mechanisms that encourage the formation of such outlandish yet comforting strands of a story. These stories are put together by our minds in an attempt to escape the fears and anxieties of the here and now. The brain can be rewired to perform these processes, so much so that the senses can be enhanced when approached with physical trauma such as blindness. “The Mind’s Eye,” by Oliver Sacks, details how the brain physically rewires itself to compensate for blindness, exemplifying the physiological and biological feats the brain can perform in order to operate at full potential. Similarly, Robert Thurman’s “Wisdom” discusses the importance of being open to the ever-changing environment and allowing for experience to mold a person into a specific “self.” This molding is one of many rewiring techniques of the brain, suggesting a certain plasticity evident in the minds and brains of everyone, assuming the person has a healthy and normal brain. Plasticity, rewiring, and molding all contribute to the manner in which humans biologically cope dissociatively, as mentioned in “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday,” by Martha Stout. The idea of a divided consciousness is present in everyone who has experienced trauma at some point in their lives. Divided consciousness, the separation of mind from reality, allows for a temporary state of imagination where all is typically okay, and this serves as the basis of an example of how humans cope with trauma and issues such as stress, emotional damage, mental challenges, etc. The imagination is an escape route; the mind presents an opportunity to step out of reality and enter a realm of bliss and eternal possibilities. With that, the deep inner minds of people are reflections of the true self, the true person a human is but will never be fully understood as. The way a person thinks, feels, interacts, and emotes reflects the imaginative and dissociative mind of the individual; a mind so affected by the trauma and issues once experienced.

            In a very linear sense, before a complex interaction occurs between humans, a physical, biological, and chemical factor must be played out. “The amygdala receives sensory information from the five senses, via the thalamus, attaches emotional significance to the input, and then passes along this emotional “evaluation” to the hippocampus. In accordance with the amygdala’s “evaluation” of importance, the hippocampus is activated to a greater or lesser degree, and functions to organize the new input, and to integrate it with already existing information about similar sensory events. Under a normal range of conditions, this system works efficiently to consolidate memories according to their emotional priority” (Stout, 421). What this means is that all information is tagged with an emotional significance, a ticket saying “this is how I felt when this happened.” Every event and action, stimulus and trigger presented after a specific moment is tagged a certain way and the emotion experienced is now fundamentally the associated trait of the action. Each and every time a similar stimulus is presented, the associated emotion is recalled and retrieved. As a prioritization tool, the brain will organize memories based on emotional importance. Psychologically, the brain can “remember” events that never actually happened in an effort to make a cohesive story out of the bits and pieces that are missing from long term memory. In a physical sense, electrical signals are sent just like normal recall, with chemical signals being induced and emotional memories being formed. In a complex sense, the imagination will form vivid representations of what should have or what one wanted to happen. This occurs to make sense of old memories and cope with events that bring about many strong emotions. Events that call forth strongly felt emotions will conduct an interesting process in the mind. What one felt at the moment will affect the perception of the actual situation, forming strands of made-up memories of things that never actually happened, simply based on the fact that a certain emotion was felt strongly at the time. For example, person A and person B may get into a heated argument and person B may say, “Nothing will get resolved if we don’t think rationally.” Nothing is particularly wrong with that statement, but if person A interpreted those words as “You’re irrational and won’t let me solve the issue,” then they may easily ‘remember’ person B calling them irrational and using hurtful or offensive words. Even if it did not happen, it is remembered that way, and this is a simple coping mechanism when it comes to threatening or traumatic experiences (not necessarily petty arguments). When the situation is in regards to something traumatic, for example a divorce, remembering the situation as being completely against you is a coping mechanism that the brain naturally activates. In other words, no matter whose “fault” it may have been, it is a completely normal and acceptable process to first say, “It was their fault, not mine!” That is simply a stage that is necessary to first calm the many mixed emotions flowing through the mind and body. Of course, this is not an excuse for prolonging of said stage!

            Communicating issues to others serve as a temporary buffer for emotional pain, but the most important player in the game of self-healing is imagination. “…exposure to trauma may temporarily shut down Broca’s area…the means by which we most often relate our experience to others, and even to ourselves” (Stout 421). Not knowing how to relay emotions calls for a mechanism to be practiced that is tailored to the individual, built so in a way that makes an individual feel best because of its specific and personal qualities. That mechanism is of course imagination. The way a person will relate the experience to himself/herself will be through interests, a certain comfortable medium that does not ignore the experience and its pain, but does indeed make it interesting and slightly easier to cope with. For example, a comic book fan might look at a terrible situation such a domestic violence as a superhero. Acting like the hero themselves in their own head, they may interpret the situation as a battle with a villain and that though they may be down now, someday they will win the fight. This imaginary response does not deny the fact that damage is present but it allows for a more positive outlook of the future of the ordeal.