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Winston Smith's avatar

Thanks Harrison - I love this discussion - Lobaczewski and McGilchrist are on the same page here and it's wonderfully rich to integrate both perspectives.

I wonder if you'd be able to get McGilchrist on your podcast? That would be a great show!

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Harrison Koehli's avatar

We'll definitely try. I've holding off trying to contact him until finishing MwT.

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Winston Smith's avatar

Certainly! Hope you get his attention!

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Truth Is Like Gravity's avatar

I have only started reading Lobaczewski but I’ve noticed that he discusses possible causes of paranoid or schizoid functioning in the individual. It seems to me that avoidance of emotion and empathy may arise when trauma causes pain and disconnection. Alternatively such avoidance might develop in someone sheltered by trigger warnings and safe spaces within a bubble of politically correct cultural deprivation. Schizoid or paranoid functioning may be trained by example and instruction in the home or other institution.

I am encouraged that he seems to present knowledge as a remedy for the human damage and diminishment he describes. I am interested in discovering the corrective, redemptive implications of political ponerology.

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Harrison Koehli's avatar

Thanks for the comment, TILG! Yes, he doesn't devote as much attention to it, but Lobaczewski does talk about what he calls "psychopathological induction" (inducing similar pathologies in others) and more severely, what he calls "sociopathy" (essentially creation of a full-blown personality disorder through trauma). So, there are degrees, and his central corrective is knowledge: simply knowing what is what and how things work initiates its own healing process. Enjoy the rest of the reading!

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Grant Smith's avatar

Thanks for sharing! I thought the point on Machiavelli being deliberately maligned was particularly interesting. After reading the title I immediately thought of Adam Curtis' "The Trap" which I watched over a decade ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trap_(British_TV_series) It does a good job of covering John Nash's work and indicating that it might be somewhat limited in its application for the reasons you describe here (all left hemisphere).

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Harrison Koehli's avatar

Yeah, game theory has its uses in certain contexts, but it turns out that normal people don't act with the cold, left-brain logic that guys like Nash assumed (because people like Nash actually think that way). People without emotions do, however.

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