Flame Think, Inc.

(Flame Think, Inc. wishes to express its sincere appreciation to Dr. David Summers for sharing his hypothesis with us.)

Why do people commit suicide?  Perhaps one can surmise some mechanical apparatus of the brain suffered a gross malfunction. Imagine a group of neurons perhaps shorted out and communication with the axons and synapse got stuck in some kind of defective reverse function. Instead of working with other neural systems, the malfunction insist the mind take everything it perceives and reduces it to a land-fill of jumbled incoherent thought – nothing making any more sense than one could tell you of the origins of the broken pieces of wood, plastic, paper, and other discard of the human existence. This is in fact, what happens in severe paranoid schizophrenics.


Yet other aspects of the schizophrenic can be logical in the act of carrying out task both simple and complex, of performing works of great artistic quality and brilliance, such as the art of Cezanne and music of Wagner. What goes on in the mind of such persons? How does the mind separate the totally incomprehensible acts from those of blinding achievement?  Is it part crazy and part sane?  My thesis is the mind and thus thinking, is a binary function. I would further postulate suicide might be a mortal battle between the two mental states.  

For argument let’s accept that in “normal” thinking the left hemisphere of the brain processes the perception of reality in linier sequences of comparative logic and uses the learned vocabulary as its thought-forming inventory of remembering and explaining itself to the outer world. One does not decide to “think left-brain logic,” it’s just natural. On the other hand, the right hemisphere is the principal domain of emotional feedback which the sensory apparatus uses in evaluating the body’s response to reality, waxing poetic at a beautiful sunset or the ethereal sounds of a symphony in a way words can not convey. The right brain doesn’t store these experiences in “words.” It stores these experiences in “feelings” which evoke memories and sensations. Using the same analogy, we don’t “select” our right brain to experience these sensations. Again, it’s just natural.

The state-of-the-art in “consciousness” is to be able to maximize the potential of both right brain and left brain thinking in a state of harmony and balance. Holistic thinking if you will.  The left brain (Sigmund Fraud called it the Ego) is usually considered to be the executive consciousness of the logical thought process. The right brain is usually considered to be creative and the intuitive user of information. Fraud’s contemporary, Carl Jung called this process the “transcendent function” of the mind. In many cases, the ego dominates the transcendental preventing the enjoyment of “smelling the roses,” or becoming “raptured” with music, art, prayer and meditation. However, according to some, this bifurcation of thought and intuitive awareness was not always man’s option.

Julian Jaynes wrote a book in the 1970s which inexorably changed the thinking of the psychological world. It was Jaynes who coined the word “bicameralism” to designate the working of the dual hemispheres of the mind and to put into perspective the function each plays in modern thinking. Science has now discovered certain neural transmitters such as dopamine are more prominent in the left brain hemisphere and norepinephrine is dominant in the right, further validating separate hemispheric function.
 
To further explain the origin of this idea, bicameralism (the philosophy of "two-chamberedness") is a hypothesis in psychology which argues that in earliest development  the human brain assumed a state in which cognitive functions were divided between one part of the brain which appears to be "speaking", and a second part which listens and obeys—a bicameral mind. The term was coined by psychologist Julian Jaynes, who presented the idea in his 1976 book, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind,(1) wherein he made the case that a bicameral mentality only became the normal and ubiquitous state of the human mind as recently as 3000 years ago, or about the time of the earliest biblical recordings.

It is important to note Julian Jaynes saw early bicamerality as primarily a metaphor. He used “governmental bicameralism” to describe a mental state in which the experiences and memories of the right hemisphere of the brain are transmitted to the left hemisphere via auditory hallucinations. The metaphor is based on the idea of lateralization of brain function although each half of a normal human brain is constantly communicating with the other through the corpus callosum. The metaphor is not meant to imply the two halves of the bicameral brain were "cut off" from each other but rather the bicameral mind experienced as a different, non-conscious mental schema wherein volition in the face of novel stimuli was mediated through a linguistic control mechanism and in prehistoric man, experienced as auditory verbal hallucinations.

According to Jaynes, ancient people in the bicameral state of mind would have experienced the world in a manner that has some similarities to that of a schizophrenic. Rather than making conscious evaluations in novel or unexpected situations, the person would hallucinate a voice or "god" giving admonitory advice or commands and obey without question: one would not be at all conscious of one's own thought processes per se. Jaynes' descriptions of schizophrenia were based on the psychological "regression" theory in vogue at the time. Modern psychology recognizes schizophrenia is often characterized by “hyper-conscious reflectivity,” something which would not be available to early bicameral humans.  Jaynes thus makes the case that bicameralism simply did not exist until around 3000 BC.

Hoping I have adequately explained the effects of the divisions of the mind (or bicameralism), I would like to turn to how this phenomenon may relate to the perplexing problem of suicide, which is the reason for this web site.
 
Let’s say the unconscious mind (as Fraud termed the “Id” or the right brain consciousness) suddenly seizes operational control over the left brain or “ego.”  At that moment, the super ego communion with the “metaconsciousness” is cut off from communication. The right brain cogitative process of weighing the pros and cons for mental homeostasis, beauty, and emotional balance might become blocked and disrupted. It is as if the dream state overcomes the awakening state and one becomes trapped in an inescapable nightmare. The right hemisphere thus can not communicate valid “feelings” about the emotions attached to the logic of the left brain. Instead, it attaches senseless emotional highs and lows to logical thoughts, unable to weigh the past, present or future.
 

Thus, the bicameral mentality would become non-conscious in its inability to reason and articulate about mental contents through insight and reflection, reacting without explicitly realizing and without the meta-reflective ability to give an account of why one did so. The bicameral mind would thus be a "zombie mind" lacking metaconsciousness, autobiographical memory and the capacity for executive "ego functions" such as deliberate mind-wandering and conscious introspection of mental content.

When bicamerality as a method of self control is no longer adaptive in the complex world of modern reality, this mental model might be replaced by a conscious mode of thought which, is grounded in the acquisition of primitive metaphorical thought now reinforced by ever-increasing ephemeral exposure to grotesque consequential thought analogies. This might be what happens in suicide. There might be brief periods of perfect lucidity and logic, but inevitably, again and again, the “person at risk” is seized with the thought “to end it all.”

If suicide may be seen as the battle of two minds, can it not be analyzed in terms of motivations to escape from aversive self-awareness? The causal chain begins with real or imagined events that fall severely short of standards and expectations. These failures are attributed internally, which makes self-awareness painful. Awareness of the self's inadequacies generates negative affect, and the individual therefore desires to escape from self-awareness and the associated affect. The left brain tries to achieve a state of cognitive deconstruction (constricted temporal focus, concrete thinking, immediate or proximal goals, cognitive rigidity, and rejection of meaning), which blocks and prevents meaningful self-awareness and emotion. The deconstructed state brings irrationality and disinhibition, making drastic measures seem acceptable. Suicide can be seen as the ultimate step in the effort to escape from self and the world by his/her dysfunctional cognition.

Suicide can be seen as the ultimate assault of the logical mind upon the transcendental mind. It is the final stop on a train rushing into oblivion. As I said earlier, most people think depression is at the root of suicide with the mind accepting hopelessness as the final principal upon which the logical mind can act upon; the one final cogitative solution for the next moment.  With hopelessness the only option, death rather than struggle (the end of faith), is acceptable to the consciousness.

Taking our elemental understanding of the autonomy of both bicameral minds, what might we do if we are presented with helping someone caught in a suicidal web of such thinking?

First, we should understand there are excellent medicines and psychological help available in this country. Anti psychotics and anti depressants can work well after they are given time to effect obsessive thinking on the mechanical problems of serotonin uptake. Numerous serotonin selective re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) can retard the “dwell” time of this neurotransmitter upon the synaptic junction providing time for the cognitive processes to settle into a state of reduced anxiety. Serotonin deprivation at the synapse is like a combustion engine running at top speed on very lean fuel. With the modern SSRI uptake inhibitors, one can sort of “flood” the engine with anti-anxiety fuel which can not be ”ignited” to be burned away from serotonin receptors in the brain before the receptors are up-regulated.

Second, on the psychological help side, “talking therapy” can many times reveal to the impartial therapist the experiences and trauma which have damaged the emotions and judgments of the patient, enabling the patient to see and re-experience them in a healthy manner. Psychological insight can be magical producing a life change that is sometimes demonstrated by the so-called “flight into health,” similar to the “born again” experience in religion. The relief is palpable.

Finally, combine these steps with a genuine spiritual (religious) acceptance and the recognition that one is no longer bound to the chains of past experiences and trauma. This de novo life-paradigm experience of becoming cognoscenti of God’s unconditional and unbounded love is the healing of the soul. It is miraculous and there can be an immediate life-changing renewal of the inner self which never looks back to the previous life of pain and turmoil.

My only caveat is in cases of a bicameral dysfunction religious information may be blocked from awareness. In my opinion medical attention is the only option in such emergencies. Once the patient has been medically corrected (like re-setting a broken bone) a gentle guiding friendship can be established and the guiding example of genuine love and concern, slowly building esteem and self-worth for this person will overtime replace their urge to “end it all.”
 
I will offer a final word of caution. Becoming involved in the life of an “at risk person” is not for the immature or inexperienced. If one takes this “burden” on, be prepared for a possible protracted time of commitment as this person may see you as the wise and knowing elder brother or sister who helped give back his/her life.  

Dr. David Summers, 2012

1.  Jaynes, Julian; 1976, The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Conscious Mind, Houghton Mifflin Company.


About the Author: Dr. David Summers is a research scientist with a dual Ph.D. in economics combined with D.Sc. with specialty in Pharmacodynamics. His career spans over 50 years of industrial engineering and design, including 40 years experience in biomedical engineering, drug design and medical device product development. He holds over 30 medical, biomedical, drug design and industrial patents. Dr. Summers resides in Montgomery, Texas.

Image Credits:
1. Suicide Notes Brain as found at: about myrecovery.com
2. Left Brain, Right Brain image as found at: squido.com
3. Julian Jaynes image as found at: geistdergesetze.wordpress.com
4. Bicameral Mind (two faces) image as found at: oldrefrigerator.livejournal.com
5. Dr. Summers image by permission of the author.