Before MAHA Can Really Become A Reality?

In A Silent Way / Miles Davis

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John Fraim

A New Paradigm For An Addicted Culture

I saw an ad for Addiction Control Centers on TV the other night. (Wondered if one could become addicted to them?) Surprised that I haven’t seen a lot more of these types of ads. But then, there is not much money to be made today in curing the addictions of the most addicted culture in history. American culture. Trump is dealing with this and certainly RFK,Jr. is dealing with this.

I’m certainly for the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement but I think that mind change comes first before food change. The challenge is dealing with an over-dopamined culture, addicted to more things than any time in cultural history. Social media just one of a crowd of addictions. This is what the Department of HHS is dealing with. Not just the pharmaceutical companies. But an entire population the pharmaceuticals have helped shape to such a great extent.

Paradigm for Modern Diseases/Disorders

The current way diseases are viewed is within the particular paradigm of a culture at its stage in life. This was stated for the first time In one of the key books of the 20th century, Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. It’s a book about the history of science by the philosopher Kuhn. Its publication was a landmark event in the history, philosophy and sociology of science. Kuhn challenged the then prevailing view of progress in science in which scientific progress was viewed as “development-by-accumulation” of accepted facts and theories.

Kuhn argued for an episodic model in which periods of conceptual continuity and cumulative progress, referred to as periods of “normal science” were interrupted by periods of revolutionary science. The discovery of “anomalies” accumulating and precipitating revolutions in science leads to new paradigms. Websters defines paradigm as : a philosophical and theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them are formulated. Ex. the Freudian paradigm of psychoanalysis. Not a lot of help.

Perhaps the best way to view a paradigm is as the perspective of the world within a community at a particular time. Thomas Kuhn picked the scientif community and the “models” that they creat their science around. They are ideas so ingrained in thought that they are invisilbe and behind thought. The accepted scientific structure of the world. Defined by current scientists.

What was the greatest paradigm change in history? Of course when the paradigm of the sun circulating around the earth was changed to that of the earth circulating around the sun. But there have been many others changes in other paradigms over the years.

The Spectrum Paradigm

Paradigms come and go. Of course some have tried to guess these comings and goings and charge a hefty fee for doing this. New paradigms then ask new questions of old data, move beyond the mere “puzzle-solving” of the previous paradigm, alter the rules of the game and change the “map” directing new research.

The spectrum paradigm is in the spotlight today with the RFK,JR. study on autism coming in a few months. Many questions might be answered at this time. In fact, the paradigm of the “autism spectrum” is the current structure to view many diseases and disorders today. Of course the autism spectrum is most familiar. Yet there are many other spectrums for disorders today. 

Problems With Spectrums / Linear to Dimenional Shift Needed in new Pschotherapy

The problem is that spectrums are linear and two-dimensional (moving between oppositions) while consciousness is multi-dimensional existing beyond the two-dimensional spectrum paradigm of modern psychoanalysis. Much symbolism is involved, and we are just beginning to understand some of this thanks to pioneers like Jung and others.

One of the major laws of symbolism is the law of correspondence. It is one of the major laws of symbolism. The term was coined by the 18th-century theologian Emanuel Swedenborg in his Arcana Cœlestia (1749–1756), Heaven and Hell (1758) and other works. It suggests a relationship between two levels of existence. Heaven (what is above) and Hell (so what is below). These two levels of existence go far beyond the linear “spectrum” boundaries of psychotherapy, or whatever one calls it these days. 

Placing symbolic correspondence into psychotherapy is one of the most important endeavors for modern individual therapy. It presents the possibility of showing the multi-dimensions of the personality, the emotions, feelings, hopes, fears. Anxieties of the individual. It is one of the major ways of pulling psychoanalysis out of the linear spectrum of paradigm and into one using symbolic correspondences. 

AI & Connecting Correspondences

And yes, AI could be a grand help in this area. That is, the area of analyzing the correspondences within the life of a particular patient. The present state of this person. This would be a reading of their overall mental health. One thing AI is good at is connecting common things not apparent on the outside. Another word for this might be that it is good at connecting the hidden aspects of life. Somewhat like the redundant connections in out of date computers running on old technology, barely able to hang on to the modern demands for information sharing and transfer.

The current administration promotes physical health. Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). Yet, are they putting the old cart before the horse. In other words, before people can consider physical health, perhaps they must first consider mental health. Physical health might be little more than a pipe dream unless the mental state of the nation changes. There are many groups that support physical health. But what about mental health? Not as a goal but rather as a step on the road to physical health. 

Subjects like psychotherapy and collective consciousness and other disciplines charged with helping people cope with the world today are rarely heard from in the madness of information overload. In the 60s, this was all one heard about. Any type of reflection about life, it seems, pretty much gone from today’s psychotherapy. For the few who still come to it. Still buy the books of the old hippies.

Connecting Corresponses With Neuralink / A Broader Purpose?

One of the most exciting projects today is Musk’s Neuralink. It is an American neurotechnology company that has developed, as of 2024,implantable brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). It was founded by Elon Musk and a team of eight scientists and engineers. Neuralink was launched in 2016 and first publicly reported in March 2017. 

In January 2017, Musk proxies approached Pedram Mohseni and Randolph Nudo, who owned the rights to the name “NeuraLink” and the prototype that Musk’s company based its work on. These two neuroscientists strove to create an electronic chip to treat traumatic brain injury. They made significant progress and completed preliminary testing but had not received enough support from investors to continue. “The pair of longtime neurotech researchers had developed a device that might help people with brain injuries. But their initial contacts with investors hadn’t advanced very far when a stranger approached them offering tens of thousands of dollars for their company’s name and prototype. They accepted. No one mentioned that Musk…was behind it.”

The company is based in Fremont, California with plans to build a three-story building with office and manufacturing space near Austin, Texas, in Del Valle, about 10 miles east of Gigafactory, Texas, Tesla’s headquarters and manufacturing plant that opened in 2022. 

Since its founding, the company has hired several high-profile neuroscientists from various universities. By 2019, it had received $158 million in funding ($100 million was from Musk) and had 90 employees. At that time, Neuralink announced that it was working on a “sewing machine-like” device capable of implanting very thin (4 to 6 µm in width … 1,000 µm is equal to 1mm) threads into the brain, and demonstrated a system that reads information from a lab rat via 1,500 electrodes. It anticipated starting experiments with humans in 2020, but later moved that to 2023. As of May 2023, it has been approved for human trials in the United States. On January 29, 2024, Musk announced that Neuralink had successfully implanted a Neuralink device in a human and that the patient was recovering. 

The company has faced criticism for the large number of primates that were euthanized after medical trials. Veterinary records of the monkeys showed complications with surgically implanted electrodes. 

In September 2024, the company announced that its latest development effort, Blindsight, would enable blind people whose visual cortex is undamaged to regain some level of vision. The development received “breakthrough” status from the U.S. federal government, which will accelerate development. 

Neuralink & Psychotherapy

The prospects of Neuralink, beyond its initial use, offer potentials for breakthroughs in the mental health field and the coming merger of AI with mental health analysis. 

In effect, doing things somewhat similar of what the DOGE team has done in DC. Making connections where none were before. Pulling out redundancies, inefficiencies, and corruption from the government. 

The efficiency model used by DOGE might have application to some new program that combines Neuralink in accessing current mental health.

Current methods of working with patients seeking psychotherapy have not changed all that much. Yet, technology – like AI – certainly has changed. Now it is possible to have AI as a Therapist rather than one you’ve had – like a baby blanket – for eight years.

The Magic Chip

The Neuralink chip was made to treat traumatic brain injury. Yet, might its larger purpose be to perhaps take a type of MRI of the mental condition of the individual at a point in time. 

Perhaps the main problem is that communication between a patient and a mental health professional today is usually verbal and/or written. Yet, what of the possibility of having it look at the various levels of  – correspondences – going on in one’s mind? The social media of the person? The words they search for? The relationships of the person. The age and location and all the other things our marketing people use to work their magic. These things are hardly every shared between patient and therapist. So, they are far from the current paradigm of communication of disorder and disease of putting disorders and diseases on a linear spectrum. 

An AI system would simply hook up with the person and know what is really going on with the person. Levels not connected before, are now shown to have connections and perhaps common purposes. I think you might view the typical person who might seek out therapeudic help as someone who has a number of disorders and phobias. combined under one. Before, they were all left scattered around out there so this seems to be a good thing for analyzing mental conditions today. 

You Can’t Trust Words

One of the problems is that modern therapy depends on words when words are disguises or symbols of something else. False fronts on a movie set.

A new system using Neuralink could be created for individual psycho-analysis. Undoubtedly, it would face severe feedback from the other side, against Musk these days. But an AI/Neuralink interface with mental health might be the true first step towards the goal of so many in America … Make America Healthy Again. In other words, making America Healthy Again might mean getting it off other addictions other than non-healthy food. Perhaps getting Americans off these other addictions first? Before the real battle for health can truly be waged in a serious manner.

It is such a tough battle. The greatest advertiser on TV and the greatest lobby and powerbroker in DC. The most crossover between executives in food industry and DC lobbyists. No wonder that nothing healthy gets done in the food industry.

The Food, Medicine, Medical Complex

President Eisenhower talked about the “Industrial-Military Complex” in the 1950s. But today, there is another great complex much more hidden than than other common associations in DC. This is the “Food/Medicine/Medical Complex” or the FMM.

It is the most powerful at its base simply because of the percentage of the American budget spent on food, medicines and health today. Yet, beyond this base, the true power of this complex comes from its symbiotic interaction with its other parts: food, medicine, medical. Each part contributes to the growth of the other part. The complex that RFK,Jr. and his department are going after represent an even larger force than that in the words “food, medicine and medical.”

The system is set up with the basic proposition that the unhealthy industry is much more profitable to be in than the healthy industry. Unhealthy foods cause diseases which require medicines and medical attention. The system needs all three major segments of food, medicine and medical. There is perhaps no political force in DC equal to this complex.

Of course there are many wonderful doctors out there. But they can only do so much with the the way things are … what modern health has brought them. The U.S. ranks low on the world chart. One observation is that there is far less medicine and medical intervention with a healthy populace compared to an unhealthy populace. A healthier population threatens many parts of the pharmaceutical industry as well as many parts of the current medical industry in that it does not require their intervention.

Is The Word Pyschotherapy Important? Or Something to be Trashed?

At the end of our article, we return to psychotherapy and whether we might be enterting a new age of it and, more importartant, whether anyone really cares. The word has gone somwhat missing and we don’t hear about it much these days. In the 60s, psychoterapy was all we heard about.

The word psychotherapy is not part of the Food/Medicine/Medical Complex. At least there is not a direct input into it. It makes a lot of money in the medicine department above but usually things don’t go beyond this area into medical except for prescriptions.

One wonders if any progress can really be made in the area of Making America Healthy Again if there is not a change in mind first. Some of my friends argue with this and suggest that a change in health can change one’s mind. Many have set out to prove this. I’m interested to hear from them.

Before progress can be made on the FMM Complex, it is important we enter the battle with the realization of the addictions of our modern culture. These additictions make it more difficult to leave unhealthy habits.

For example, social scientist researchers Eva Berger, Professor of Media Studis at COMAS in Israel, warns an alrming connection between autism and the use of social media that do the job of establishing context for one. Her book Context Blindness suggests that social media apps are coming to replace a person’s understanding of context.

A New Erea Of Psychotherapy

A new era of psychotherapy could be upon us that could move towards RFK’s goal of making America Healthy Again. Using AI for the first time in interacting with the mental states of individuals. Sure to become a huge political battle. But why not let modern AI technology into becoming the modern AI Therapist. It’s not that our current system has done all that well.

Whether some type of therapy is needed in the battle to Make America Healthy Again is something that can and will be debated. Or, perhaps just implemented by some individualist. The question: does the mental condition of the American population allow for them to buy into and accept the new food standards? In effect, it asks an addicted population to change their ways.

Why not a test out there. All American markets are stocked with the most healthiest of foods. This applies from the huge markets to the small mom and pop stores. All food sold is uder government scrutiny.

What Comes First? Mental Clarity or Physical Fitness

In the end, getting into the right state of mind – turning away from addiction – is an important aspect of the success of RFK’s MAHA movement. RFK, Jr. was addicted but found an answer beyond. Will others be able to do this? Will others – even first – admit their additiction? RFK as a former heroin user. Here is one who understandstand addiction far more than most.

At the end of the day, the ability to see things from a new perspective – a new AI psychotherapy – should ideally be the first step in confronting the Food/Medicine/Medical Complex. It is not just another step in the battle against this Complex. Rather, it should be the first step in the battle. In my opinion. Mind comes first in battling addictions.

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