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llamprou's picture

Hallucinations and Cognitive Function

Jean made a very interesting point that got me thinking about the hallucinations provoked by drugs, other substances and mental “disorders” such as schizophrenia. In class we discussed how Dickinson wrote in her poem that “The brain is wider than the sky…The one the other will include/With ease, and you beside”. I am wondering what class hallucinations fall into? If the outer world that we experience every day is all constructed by our brain, what we touch, who we see, the behavioral cues we interpret from others, then what creates the inner world? Schizophrenia is classified by some to affect cognitive functioning, but if we believe that the brain creates everything then is it not safe to say that schizophrenics are actually not “different”, their brain is just interpreting the world differently from someone else. But for some reason the majority of the population do not see a car crash unless it actually happens, and do not hear voices that aren’t being spoken. After all this rambling what I want to really say is that I do not understand where mental illness falls in neurobiology. It is blatantly clear when one individual is not “behaving normally” but if our brain creates everything catered to each individual then what is normal? Should those with cognitive disorders be dubbed gifted?

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