Dreams by Day and None at Night!

The video below shows the trailer of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4 Episode 17 called "Night Terrors". I highly recommend this entire season to any psychology and/or science fiction fans out there. This 4th season is a little different from the others as it is full of mind games, psychopathology and insanity, and touches on subjects such as the crossing of mental boundaries between "alien species". Even though the quality of this trailer is prehistoric and gives you a different impression, it still shows you a preview of the episode and helps me introduce the topic of psychosis.

This star trek episode starts with the ship Enterprise finding another ship that is in perfect shape where the whole crew of 34 people was murdered. As they investigate the problem, the crew on the Enterprise start to experience auditory and visual hallucinations (such as snakes, seeing people that aren’t there, seeing dead people getting up), paranoia and delusions. Also, including many instances of forgetfulness and confusion. Doctor Crusher and counselor Troi soon realize that the whole crew is moving towards the realms of psychosis. This episode, even though sometimes following obvious Hollywoodian styles, is still a good suspense and keeps you intrigued especially if you want to verify if the claims made in the episode are still relevant today.

Thus, the episode is called "Night Terrors" even though it does not explicitly show the phenomenon of night terrors. To clarify, night terrors often occur in children between 4 and 12 years old, (but can easily be experienced by anyone) and consist of sudden awakenings from sleep due to intense fear and panic even though nothing is remembered from the dream itself. Night terrors are different from nightmares since they occur specifically during Stage 4 or REM sleep, whereas nightmares are independent from the sleep cycle. I would suggest watching it before reading the next part in green.

Thus, the symptoms the crew exhibit are consistent with the progression of psychosis such as in schizophrenics, involving  forgetfulness, delusions leading to full blown paranoia and hallucinations. However, these symptoms can be temporary and not due to a specific disorder, but to the environment. A possible trigger for these symptoms when people use hallucinogens, they will then experience both visual and auditory hallucinations, but will also sometimes be subject to delusions, intense panic episodes and forgetfulness.

Also, in a study by Cohen et al. (2005) it has been observed that people with the Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) were also experiencing vivid dreams, illusions (e.g. mistaking objects), hallucinations and delusions. GBS patients also have sleep disturbances. We do not know if the syndrome itself is causing the symptoms or the sleep disturbances do. In any case, it was found that patients with GBS experiencing hallucinations would have significantly shorter periods of REM sleep in their sleep cycles than GBS experiencing no hallucinations and people without the syndrome. In this case, towards the end of the episode, the crew finally realizes that they are REM sleep deprived which causes these psychotic symptoms. Remember, the episode was based on theories already developed involving dreams and psychosis. However, I was still wondering if it was relevant today.  Thus, this previous recent finding still supports the idea that REM sleep deprivation is correlated with increased hallucinations confirming the claims of the episode of 1991. Thus, other examples of peered reviewed articles, one in 1962 by Ralph J. Berger and one in 2008 by Scarone et al., are both associating REM sleep (where dreams occurs) and psychosis. Thus, this shows how across time, even though we do not fully understand the processes involving dreams and psychosis, these two states of mind  are still closely related even decades later. This subject will be further discussed in future posts.

Finally, this episode first reminded me of the movie Solaris (2002) starring George Clooney based on the book with the same name by Stanislaw Lem (1961) and which I won't discuss here either, but highly recommend to anyone!!

____________________________

Guillain-Barré Syndrome. (n.d.). Encyclopedia of Medicine. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from Answers.com           Web site:http://www.answers.com/topic/guillain-barr-syndrome.

Night terror. (n.d.). Encyclopedia of Medicine. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from Answers.com Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/night-terror.

Berger, Ralph J. (1962). Effects of sleep deprivation on behaviour, subsequent sleep, and dreaming. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 108, 457-465.

Cochen et al, (2005) Vivid dreams, hallucinations, psychosis and REM sleep in Guillain–Barré syndrome. Brain, 128, 2535–2545.

Scarone et al, (2008). The dream as a model for psychosis: an experimental approach using bizarreness as a cognitive marker. Schizophr Bull, 34(3), 515–522.

Mind Games: The solution is around your head.

Try to find as many solutions to this problem as you can. It was invented to assess and problem solving in an experimental setting*. I will explain it further and give you the statistics on it after you tried it :)


Here it is: 


"Suppose you are a doctor faced with a patient who has a malignant tumor in his
stomach. It is impossible to operate on the patient, but unless the tumor is destroyed the
patient will die. There is a kind of ray that can be used to destroy the tumor. If the rays reach
the tumor all at once at a sufficiently high intensity, the tumor will be destroyed.
Unfortunately, at this intensity the healthy tissue that the rays pass through on the way to the
tumor will also be destroyed. At a lower intensity the rays are harmless to healthy tissue, but
they will not affect the tumor either.
What type of procedure might be used to destroy the tumor with the rays, and at the
same time avoid destroying the healthy tissue?"


________________________________________
* I will post the references and credits after a few days, so you won't be tempted to look for answers or hint.

The Soloist: Movie Review *****

This is my personal review of the movie The Soloist (2009) starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.

I'm apologizing in advance if I'm revealing too much about the movie. So if you didn't see it, please read only the next paragraph (up to the video) and watch the trailer!

Thus, for those who didn't see it, I highly recommend this movie. Both Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. are amazing and are acting with humility and professionalism. This is much more than just a touching story about a homeless guy; it is also smart and thoughtful. Furthermore, the Soloist pictures the homeless, the psychotic and the ignorant. It is worth watching for it's simple, realistically written story and for it's ironic turns that represent well what our society is all about.

First of all, what I immediately loved about The Soloist is the transition from one scene to the next. At the beginning of the movie, most of the scenes are eclectic and sudden, but are consistent with how our society drives in the fast lane. Then, later in the movie, when journalist Steve Lopez (Downey Jr.) meets a homeless named Nathaniel (Foxx) and hears him play the cello for the first time, everything slows down and we see some beautiful close-ups of the instrument's strings while he plays his heart out.

Also, I noticed how accurately the journalist represented society's ignorance when dealing with the homeless and the mentally ill. At the beginning of the movie, Steve was quite arrogant and was using Nathaniel just to make a good article. As the movie progressed however, Steve wanted to help Nathaniel but didn't know how. Steve, as the majority of people in western societies, believed that the best solution was to put Nathaniel (who was in fact schizophrenic) on psychotropic drugs and in an institution. Although this solution is highly attractive and easy, Steve soon realizes that one cannot "fix" a person like one would a car.

Also, throughout the movie, Steve's problem with raccoons digging holes in his yard was a perfect metaphor for how the media brought us to believe in instant results and the unlimited power of money. Thus, Steve heard that if he buys coyote urine and hangs it from a tree, raccoons will go away. He finally falls for the idea and later realizes in shame that he invested for nothing. I loved how ironic and realistic that scene was since some solutions are nowadays so simplistic and sometimes even ridiculous without mentioning how we often invent problems that do not really exist.

Furthermore, there was this scene that frustrated me so much where Steve presents Nathaniel with a form for him to sign stating that he has schizophrenia and that he needs supervision, etc. Although the majority of people with mental disorders are NOT violent, schizophrenics do tend to act more violently than others and since they are also anosognosic (meaning of not being aware of a problem or impairment one might have), they will react particularly strongly when judged or confronted with their illness.

Overall, it was a magnificent movie leaving you with hope that humility and generosity will not only continue to help the unfortunate, but will also inspire respect of the mentally ill.