I have been thinking about responding to Assam.org recent e-mail. Somebody is writing nasty anonymous letters attacking several community members in a cruel way. They don’t have the courage to write their name. As if it is okay to act out if you are not getting caught. As a psychiatrist I encounter a lot of people who act out in this way and enjoy doing so. We call them having super ego lacuna (or Swiss cheese super ego). They are also short sighted. When ever we act out it always backfires in some ways. If you have a conscience it will get to you or you will get caught eventually.
Today, I just saw an article in one of the Psychiatric Journals “Understanding Joy of Aggression”. The article discussed how American people have been shocked and embarrassed by photographs from Abu Grab Military Prison in Iraq. American soldiers were humiliating and abusing Iraqi prisoners. Most remarkable was the joy in Americans faces. This article was published in the July issue of Current Neuroscience News, by Dr. Higgins who has interest in Neuroscience development. He talked about Nucleus Accumben, the pleasure center in our brain.
Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that activates it. Substance abuse like, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and activities like, gambling, bulling others, listening to violent music, pornographic materials, attacking people by writing bad letters, all of these causes a change in your Dopamine level. Pleasurable feelings is what a person gets from these behaviors or substance abuse produces these feeling. In some cases people can’t resist the urges.
This whole situation reminded me of a very disturbed 16 year old male patient. Who came under my care about twelve years ago. He was brought to the hospital by his parents. Both parents were college educated. his older sister was attending an out of state college. The night before he was admitted his parents couldn’t go to sleep as he was talking about elaborate plans to kill his parents and lots of other people.
This happened long before Colorado’s Columbine incident. But, his thought processes were not far from Jeffrey Dunn’s. He would get excited by just listening to music with violent themes or imagining how he could disintegrate in a suicide attempt. His parents were not on his island. He was all alone, separated from others. His self esteem was low. He had a learning disorder. He felt he was abused by other kids. He was just not threatening, these violent thoughts were meaningful to him and he got pleasure out of it. He ended up with an extended stay in the hospital for two weeks.
His parents were very involved in his treatment and co-operated with us fully. All the violent music and movies were removed. With minor stress this patient would regress with paranoid and homicidal ideas. He even had thoughts of killing. So, his progress was slow with relapses in between. After his initial hospitalization he made one serious suicidal attempt. Gradually, though, his parents were on his island (I got a place there too—what a big relief). This patient has not been hospitalized in the last twelve years. He is in remission, taking his medicine regularly. He is far from being cured, but he is living a normal life.
This is an extreme case. However there are some common themes here, to help us understand why people enjoy hurting others. In recent emails among Assamese people most of us are feeling uncomfortable and keeping silent. While we are just human and we all make lots of mistakes in our lives, in this case we need to emphasize that this email attack is socially and personally unacceptable. As a responsible citizen of the community we can’t tolerate this behavior.
On another note, who ever is involved in these writings may not realize they are loosing their bran cells. Positive thinking and activities repair your brain cells. My suggestions: By dealing with people honestly, and in real ways makes you humble. Try to get involved in simple pleasures.
These are my thoughts.
By Elly Barua Bhuyan, St. Louis, MO
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