Lovecraft sipped his tea, obviously framing his answer carefully. “One doesn’t have to believe in Santa Claus to recognize that people will exchange presents at Christmas time. One doesn’t have to believe in Yog Sothoth, the Eater of Souls, to realize how people will act who do hold that belief. It is not my intent, in any of my writings, to provide information that will lead even one unbalanced reader to try experiments that will result in the loss of human life.”
That’s a great way to make them lose their trust in medical professionals indefinitely. It’s probably not a good idea to reinforce their delusions, either.
Fair point, and I don’t mean to endorse the quote as psychiatric advice (nor do I believe the quote was intended as such). I took is as an amusing expression of a general principle, that people with deluded beliefs may be quite rational in following the consequences of those beliefs, which should be taken into account when dealing with them.
The authors also don’t seem to be aware of Jerusalem Syndrome, a form of psychotic religious delusion that afflicts about 100 visitors to that city each year. In [a] fascinating Journeyman Pictures video on Jerusalem Syndrome, the head of the city’s Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center describes some of the many sufferers he has encountered and treated over the years — dozens of people claiming to be Jesus or the Virgin Mary, and even one Canadian tourist who claimed to be Samson and who tore out the bars of a window to escape his hospital ward. (Note: When treating mental patients who think they’re Samson, cut their hair before putting them in the locked ward. And keep them away from stone pillars.)
Doesn’t this only allow ‘patients’ who correctly think they have superpowers to escape? How is this a net improvement in holding only patients who are actually insane?
How is this a net improvement in holding only patients who are actually insane?
A patient who believes they are Samson inaccurately believes they have a weakness: their hair being cut. By cutting their hair, you trigger their imaginary weakness, which decreases the amount that they resist, and thus you do not have to pin them down with orderlies.
On the other hand, a patient who believes they are Samson may resist having their hair cut quite forcefully, at least if you do it while they’re conscious. A non-superpowered individual struggling to prevent someone from wielding scissors about their head may be quite a bit more of a liability than a non-superpowered individual struggling against facilities built to contain crazy people.
If I were going to cut the hair of a patient who believed they were Samson, I would definitely want to do it when they were sedated, but then, a patient who believed they were Samson who had their hair cut in their sleep might be highly aggrieved and become aggressive in response.
(Keep in mind that the biblical Samson physically destroyed the building in which he was being contained, at the cost of his own life, when he entreated God to return his strength for a final act of vengeance after he was betrayed and had his hair cut.)
Keep in mind that the biblical Samson physically destroyed the building in which he was being contained, at the cost of his own life, when he entreated God to return his strength for a final act of vengeance after he was betrayed and had his hair cut.
Actually, his hair had regrown at that point- his captors thought that he was powerless because they had blinded him after Delilah delivered him to them, and apparently Delilah never told them the real secret to his strength.
Think of PCP-driven berserkers flipping cars with their mere, ordinary human strength, fully unleashed without regard to injury or death, and you’ve got some notion of the problem posed by a delusional man who thinks he’s Samson.
Presumably in the same spirit, when treating mental patients who think they’re Superman, expose them to glowing yellow rocks. That said, does this sort of thing actually work in real life?
Honestly, it would surprise me if either of those strategies worked (or failed) as one might naively expect, since I mostly expect pathological delusions to involve some seriously atypical connections between observations and conclusions. But I bet there’s people on LW with experience in the field, or at least who have read up on case studies.
I used to have a wrestling coach that used the very un-PC term “retard strength” to refer to the ability of an opponent to apply lots of force from angles you wouldn’t think they could a priori (as a compliment, not a slur).
--Fred Clark
— Wilson and Shea, Illuminatus!
That’s a great way to make them lose their trust in medical professionals indefinitely. It’s probably not a good idea to reinforce their delusions, either.
Fair point, and I don’t mean to endorse the quote as psychiatric advice (nor do I believe the quote was intended as such). I took is as an amusing expression of a general principle, that people with deluded beliefs may be quite rational in following the consequences of those beliefs, which should be taken into account when dealing with them.
I didn’t think you endorsed it, but if an analogy is problematic, then the principle it’s trying to express might be too.
Is the point to keep them from injuring themselves while trying to break the walls down?
The quote in its original context:
Doesn’t this only allow ‘patients’ who correctly think they have superpowers to escape? How is this a net improvement in holding only patients who are actually insane?
A patient who believes they are Samson inaccurately believes they have a weakness: their hair being cut. By cutting their hair, you trigger their imaginary weakness, which decreases the amount that they resist, and thus you do not have to pin them down with orderlies.
On the other hand, a patient who believes they are Samson may resist having their hair cut quite forcefully, at least if you do it while they’re conscious. A non-superpowered individual struggling to prevent someone from wielding scissors about their head may be quite a bit more of a liability than a non-superpowered individual struggling against facilities built to contain crazy people.
And… problem solved! Whew, that was easy.
(Also, why scissors, and not an electric razor? Way safer for everyone involved.)
If I were going to cut the hair of a patient who believed they were Samson, I would definitely want to do it when they were sedated, but then, a patient who believed they were Samson who had their hair cut in their sleep might be highly aggrieved and become aggressive in response.
(Keep in mind that the biblical Samson physically destroyed the building in which he was being contained, at the cost of his own life, when he entreated God to return his strength for a final act of vengeance after he was betrayed and had his hair cut.)
Actually, his hair had regrown at that point- his captors thought that he was powerless because they had blinded him after Delilah delivered him to them, and apparently Delilah never told them the real secret to his strength.
His hair had regrown, but he still had to pray to God to restore his lost strength, because cutting it at all broke his vows as a Nazirite.
That would be nothing that medication doesn’t temporarily fix, no need to render the patient unconscious.
I wouldn’t endorse this hair cutting approach, really.
Think of PCP-driven berserkers flipping cars with their mere, ordinary human strength, fully unleashed without regard to injury or death, and you’ve got some notion of the problem posed by a delusional man who thinks he’s Samson.
Presumably in the same spirit, when treating mental patients who think they’re Superman, expose them to glowing yellow rocks. That said, does this sort of thing actually work in real life?
Reinforcing their beliefs might work for making them even more insane.
Honestly, it would surprise me if either of those strategies worked (or failed) as one might naively expect, since I mostly expect pathological delusions to involve some seriously atypical connections between observations and conclusions. But I bet there’s people on LW with experience in the field, or at least who have read up on case studies.
Do you have evidence that car flipping really happens?
There is at least evidence that people who think they are Samson can tear out the bars of their windows to escape a mental ward.
That evidence seems to be hearsay, so really weak. Must have been weak bars too.
I used to have a wrestling coach that used the very un-PC term “retard strength” to refer to the ability of an opponent to apply lots of force from angles you wouldn’t think they could a priori (as a compliment, not a slur).