Evening star., 1935-04-18

Hearing voices and seeing things
may be part of the everyday expert
ence of everybody-only one must be
crazy to know about it.
Such would be the case according
to a mechanistic theory Of hal
lucinations advanced in the latest
Medical Bulletin of the United States
Veterans Administration by DR.. l..
M. Brown. psychiatrist OF the stan.
The hallucination, Dr. Brown believes,
may be a true sensory phenomenon.
The paranoid schizophrenic OF the
psychotic ward tells wierd stories OF
hearing voices in the air threatening
to murder him because, in . sense,
he actually hears them.
Not that he has acquired any new
mental faculty. says DR.. Brown. 1t
Is rather because the protective
inhibitions, built up by experience
and which shield most persons from
such voices, have deteriorated. DIR.
Brown builds up his hypothesis Of
the real nature Of hallucinationS on
basis of the conditioned responses
of behavioristic psychology. GER
tain stimulus to the nervous system,
constantly repeated and invariably
followed by a specific satisfaction or
pain, eventually will rouse the same
nervous response as the satisfaction
or pain itself. For example. If the
ringing of q bell is invariably fol-
lowed with something to eat. after
q few trials the sound alone will
cause an increased secretion of d.
gestive juices. Or, If the sound Of
a buzzer invariably Is followed, for
few times, by an electric shock to
a finger held on a key, 1t will not
be long before the finger will be
withdrawn automatically at the sound,
even when the shock does not follow.
DIR. Browns hypothesis involves an
anatomy of thought itself. Accord
ing to the behavioristic theory, sup
ported by considerable experimental
evidence, all thought must be in words
either spoken or manifested by sub
conscious movements Of the throat
muscles Whenever we think we are
talking to ourselves. Or there may be
thinking in substitutions for speech,
such as writing. drawing. gestures, etc.
Says DR.. Brown: Imagery, or
imageless thought, If 1t takes place
at all in thinking, is probably the
exception rather than the rule. This
is perhaps proved by the overtalka-
tiveness of children even when they
are alone-they are thinking aloud.
Many adults never overcome en-
tirely this condition and articu-
late the words or move the lips
when reading or thinking. This hap
pens especially when under emotional
stress. The individual also Is more
prone to revert to the child's habit Of
overt thinking when alone"
Words are necessary for thinking.
session of words. This Is due largely,
says DR.. Brown, to the infants cir
cular ear-vocal reflex" A sound is
heard and associated with a certain
object. The sight of the object acts
in turn as stimulus for making the
sound. Thus, eventually, a certain
vocal expression, or word, becomes at
tached to q certain object or ordered
speech begins. This process may be
slow and awkward at first, but soon is
speeded up greatly and the acquisition
| of language proceeds without con-
Scious effort.
A conditioning is established where
| by the object evokes the sound. The
time comes when the word recalls the
object But any object Is associated
with q vast number Of sensory sttnnu-
| lations. AS DR.. Brown says:
Thinking may be said TO b proc