Dec 9, 2022·edited Dec 9, 2022Liked by Gary Sharpe
I read an interesting thing in Joaquin Farias' Limitless book. He mentioned that the pre-frontal cortex is still evolving. So it's basic function, that of inhibiting the activity of older brain circuitry, is still adapting to the relative group size we perceive ourselves as belonging to. Given that this is expanding considerably, as tech enables us to consider ourselves global citizens, I think extensive recalibration is to be reckoned on. As I think you mention, learned strategies like fawning are a mix of older, nervous system responses which then can engage longer term strategies developed by the frontal lobes.
It has been a long time since I read that book. Interesting thoughts. I also see signs of lots of people wanting to recalibrate their environment rather than their brains, and move back to more local, smaller communities.
Dec 11, 2022·edited Dec 11, 2022Liked by Gary Sharpe
Since reading that the prefrontal cortex is actually still evolving, according to the environment that it is immersed in, my own brain has slowly been developing a new theory about why our world is currently changing so much.
When the atom bombs were dropped in 1945, we were thrown into the possibility of MAD, and so compelled to think more globally. The prefrontal cortex will presumably have been developing under this pressure for some 75 years and may now have adjusted to the point where it is no longer easy for a sufficient number of people to not consider global concerns.
Most psychological or neurological theories revolve around the central idea that the brain is fairly fixed as hardware but this may not be the case for certain, crucial areas of the frontal lobes.
As a non adaptor, I see your intellectual adaption as joining the “rat race.” This is an old cliche but seems even more appropriate today. I grew up in a densely populated area and discovered joy in rugged individualism. Thank God for that.
Dec 12, 2022·edited Dec 12, 2022Liked by Gary Sharpe
Great insights. Think this should be added to the mental health terninology especially when focusing on group dynanics as a linking piece to neuroception and all the linking pieces to expression of fear up to Stockholm syndrome. It is odd but I have worked with ths latter syndrome, i kept thinking of John McCain and never seemed to understand why he came to mind so often. This will need to sit with me but appreciate the depth in your perceptions.
Great article! I can attest to that being true with my history of trauma. The book by Gabor Maté is an invaluable source. Thank you for your valuable work!
Fawning is otherwise named "trauma bonding" or "attachment" in the SRA-mind control literature. It is a known and much exploited factor by the trauma-based mind control using cults, probably the worst kind of "Stockholm syndrome" there can be.
These poor children get bonded to their abusers and will protect them and be loyal to them... at least until an opportunity to tear down the illusion occurs.
This is the best presentation of fawn and appeasement I've come across. I have heard of them, in addition to fight flight freeze. But not so thoroughly put together. Still thinking about all the socioceptions! Most, all this stuff !!! these not-fully-us parts of ourselves.
Thank you, means a lot coming from you. I am currently thinking of the implications of how this scales up to authoritarian regimes - when the state is the parent or the power imbalances are against the people, or when institutions are the predators. Can we see "co-dependency" behaviours arising in whole sections of the populace arising due to this?
Well...we can see it in subsections, for example in governments, ngo's and institutions (and, topically, Twitter) where the power system establishes a comply-or-die system. The power seems not to be vested in a physical entity or even a perceived physical entity, but in the identity of the brand, that has somehow established itself in minds. Folk allow themselves to be controlled and maybe imprisoned by something they have created in their own minds...for what purpose? An absence of self and a need to beling?
Reviewing the background material for this has helped me understand better why something has been triggering me so much lately.
Which is, not only that such a large proportion of the populace are still unwilling to hold our "experts" and "leaders" to account, but also they are actually actively defending, protecting, excusing and letting off the hook those who are paid the bug bucks to hold the positions of power and responsibility, from being responsible for the consequences of their decisions and actions.
Why is it that so many ordinary people want to shield and defend the most corrupt people in our society? Who do they go along with trying to silence, ridicule, demonize, character assassinate, and censor those who are standing up for our rights and speaking truth to power?
I think I get now. It may be because it is frightening to contend with the knowledge that the people we have trusted to protect us, don't really have our best interests in their hearts. It is terrible to know that no-one is coming to save us and there is no-one we can rely on. It is horrible to contemplate that everything we are told, and not told, by the media is all half truths and lies.
It is also energetically costly and stressful, I know from experience, to have to think for oneself, do ones own research and take responsibility, and have to advocate, for oneself.
I would refer to Freud, and his concept of Repetition Compulsion. This behaviour originates in childhood and, tying into your analysis of fawning, you could consider that it might be neccessary for a child to attach their fear to the BRAND that is 'father' or 'mother' or 'teacher' and so on, in a type of splitting (Klein) so that they can go on to love the person that has authority over them and who is meant to protect them, but direct their fear and negative emotions to the brand, or figure that person represents ie the father, the mother etc? You don't get many people say 'I hate the person who is Jane Smith', they say 'I hate my mother'? Maybe this carries on and makes it impossible for some to call out individuals, because of the same factors involved in repetition compulsion? Maybe there has to be attachment, and we know that society os drastically fragmented now, and fearful to detach from whatever remains (real or perceived) for them to hang onto? 🤷♀️ idk 🤯
ianleslie in his substack today 'the struggle to be human' touches on this area, and considers the drift of humans towards becoming intellectual property. worth a read imo.
I love this information, Gary! I was particularly drawn to your new word, "socioception," and to this statement:
"As the reliant person masks their own physiological state, emotions and feelings, this is not a true socially engaged state of both people being relaxed and feeling connected, and since it is still a form of stress response, it does not convey the benefits to health, restoration or growth that true social engagement and connectedness does."
That is exactly what's been going on with the scamdemic and beyond. Those people who give their power over to "experts," "authorities," and "officials" literally *mask* their psychological state and tend to look at free-breathers / free-speakers as the ones with the problem. Of course, this does not make for a healthy social situation, as they are disconnecting from truly open discourse. Then, folks like myself who refute germ theory altogether often have to *feign* in order to maintain important relationships, like clients, family members, and others.
And that's really the most maddening and saddening thing about it: That the people in fear are somewhat in control of both individual relationships, small groups, and society at large! I have done my best to speak my mind but must assess if/when it is appropriate in doing risk analysis. Thankfully, my husband and I are on the same page with all this.
I am wondering if those who are feigning as a survival strategy, see those of us who don't suck up to the elites, as dangerous, afraid we may antagonize the powers that be, who will then collectively punish us.
I believe that they inherently do that to maintain their position and strategy. It is easy to think of them as manipulative, but they depend on others for their existence and in that sense they even depend upon those of us who are independently conscious. Jealousy is a driving force even in animals.
Yes, they have unhealed trauma from parents, teachers, et al who were punitive to the collective for one person's "outburst," which is of course how governments work with their broad-strokes laws and enforcement. Ancestral trauma — and lies like germ theory — must be stopped in order for truly healthful, free living.
I had a boyfriend in my late twenties who said to me, "You're dangerous because you speak the truth."
Whoa ... this post was particularly engaging. I would have been socially naive even in my home culture, but the moment I hit the shores of Japan some 40 years ago, the probability of successfully navigating life rapidly dropped for my incapacity to be attuned to the Japanese equivalence of the above. It has been about 10 years now since resigning in protest from a tenured position in a Japanese college, and I had no idea of the social consequences of giving up an official position, regardless of how much of a token-foreigner charade it was. Alas, hindsight is 20-20.
Although I tried to use it as a filter through which I could interact with work-colleagues, Doi's insights appear to apply mostly to in-group members. Though foreigners might be able to integrate with empathy-driven communities in Japan, it is nearly impossible for an non-ethnic Japanese to integrate with rule-driven institutions ... and yet, few would call Japan a "racist" country.
I am flagging this post for several repeated readings. Thanks again Gary.
I've read and re read Peter Walkers book on CPTSD and certainly recognise the fawning behaviours as a survival strategy when folk are faced with fear of another more powerful figure. It is akin to servitude, to become useful and therefore be "spared". I think it comes about more from a result of a chronic fear activation state, that you get from hypervigilence. Indicative if being "trapped" with a perpetrator of abuse OR an abusive organisation/situation (could be school, or work environment etc) It doesn't seem to happen so much from a standard "trigger" response - standard amygdala response to threat. The fawn response is definitely linked to the nervous system, it's less apparent in a truly relaxed state. Obviously these are just my thoughts on the matter.
You see Parentification very frequently in one or more siblings in a family with a parent (or both parents) who are Cluster-B types and/or alcoholics/addicts. Each of these two sorts is very low on empathy.
From a very early age, a parentified child becomes precociously responsible. All-giving and all-doing. It is a role reversal. They caretake, provide for, save, and attend to the deadbeat parent(s) in every way. Also caretaking and protecting siblings along the way. Extended family and neighbours often pile-on and expect to take advantage of this too.
Problem is, no one does it for them, the parentified child. Which leaves them unable to develop their own lives and sense of Self, or assert themselves in the outer world once adulthood comes along.
"However, when these social functions of the Nervous System are recruited for defensive purposes, the anti-inflammatory pathways are blocked by stress. "
It is a common phenomenon within the world of Cluster-B type/Codependent to find that the Codependent suffers from one or more serious autoimmune disorders, either during the relationship with the Cluster-B type, or upon the discard.
I have also heard of autoimmune disorders arising in cases where a child has been abandoned by a parent in one way or another -- the parent walks out or the parent meets an untimely death. The child's sense of safety often leaves with them.
"In particular, we are interested in those responses or strategies that recruit the 'social engagement' functions of the threatened person’s Nervous System, including facial expression..."
I think here of flattened facial affect which might be seen in persons under threat. Flat affect and anxiety are frequently seen together.
Fawning is one of the responses frequently seen in children of Parental Alienation situations -- a form of Family Totalitarianism.
For instance, they may work themselves to the bone to earn money for lavish gift-giving to the predatory parent. They usually make themselves accessible at all times to this parent -- to be an attention-provider and the fulfiller of demands. A parentally-alienated daughter of any age will generally become the constant companion of a predatory male parent. And so on.
Hello Gary -- In terms of Peter Walker, I read his Complex PTSD book when it first came out. I think it went over well with readers because for many it was their first exposure to these ideas and the ideas opened another layer of self-understanding.
I had had a brief email discussion with Peter (about these issues) a number of years ago. He was polite and decent; kept to the topic. Then we each went our merry ways. I was a bit surprised when in recent weeks I received another email from Peter Walker denigrating Trump, and saying that some Psychiatrist had "diagnosed" Trump with mental deficiencies. With links to further such bashing-pieces.
I am afraid that whatever good Peter Walker's ideas on the 4Fs had done, went down the drain at that arrival of that email. So Peter is one of the WOKE, carrying out marching orders to ensure a further Democrat coup. Disappointing.
I read an interesting thing in Joaquin Farias' Limitless book. He mentioned that the pre-frontal cortex is still evolving. So it's basic function, that of inhibiting the activity of older brain circuitry, is still adapting to the relative group size we perceive ourselves as belonging to. Given that this is expanding considerably, as tech enables us to consider ourselves global citizens, I think extensive recalibration is to be reckoned on. As I think you mention, learned strategies like fawning are a mix of older, nervous system responses which then can engage longer term strategies developed by the frontal lobes.
It has been a long time since I read that book. Interesting thoughts. I also see signs of lots of people wanting to recalibrate their environment rather than their brains, and move back to more local, smaller communities.
I am absolutely in favor of this, as adapting our intelligence to big numbers in general is not likely to happen soon!
Since reading that the prefrontal cortex is actually still evolving, according to the environment that it is immersed in, my own brain has slowly been developing a new theory about why our world is currently changing so much.
When the atom bombs were dropped in 1945, we were thrown into the possibility of MAD, and so compelled to think more globally. The prefrontal cortex will presumably have been developing under this pressure for some 75 years and may now have adjusted to the point where it is no longer easy for a sufficient number of people to not consider global concerns.
Most psychological or neurological theories revolve around the central idea that the brain is fairly fixed as hardware but this may not be the case for certain, crucial areas of the frontal lobes.
As a non adaptor, I see your intellectual adaption as joining the “rat race.” This is an old cliche but seems even more appropriate today. I grew up in a densely populated area and discovered joy in rugged individualism. Thank God for that.
Yes, true.
Yes! The pre frontal cortex is like having computer logic that is adjustable, depending on environmental conditions.
A lot of what psychology thinks they found out has already changed from the past...
https://robc137.substack.com/p/the-milgram-experiment-and-how-we
Cheers, Rob. I'll check your piece out. Thank you
Great insights. Think this should be added to the mental health terninology especially when focusing on group dynanics as a linking piece to neuroception and all the linking pieces to expression of fear up to Stockholm syndrome. It is odd but I have worked with ths latter syndrome, i kept thinking of John McCain and never seemed to understand why he came to mind so often. This will need to sit with me but appreciate the depth in your perceptions.
Great article! I can attest to that being true with my history of trauma. The book by Gabor Maté is an invaluable source. Thank you for your valuable work!
Fawning is otherwise named "trauma bonding" or "attachment" in the SRA-mind control literature. It is a known and much exploited factor by the trauma-based mind control using cults, probably the worst kind of "Stockholm syndrome" there can be.
These poor children get bonded to their abusers and will protect them and be loyal to them... at least until an opportunity to tear down the illusion occurs.
SRA?
Satanic Ritual abuse
Oh!
Social Research Assn? maybe 🤷♀️
Thanks for casting light on the concept of co-dependency.
This is the best presentation of fawn and appeasement I've come across. I have heard of them, in addition to fight flight freeze. But not so thoroughly put together. Still thinking about all the socioceptions! Most, all this stuff !!! these not-fully-us parts of ourselves.
Thank you, means a lot coming from you. I am currently thinking of the implications of how this scales up to authoritarian regimes - when the state is the parent or the power imbalances are against the people, or when institutions are the predators. Can we see "co-dependency" behaviours arising in whole sections of the populace arising due to this?
Sounds like a very interesting exploration. I think you need to take into account stuff like what could be called "engineered co-dependency." Do you watch a lot from Catherine Austin Fitts? Lots there, I would say. I will be posting something else from her soon, starting from this brilliant discussion: https://gospelnewsnetwork.org/2022/10/13/catherine-austin-fitts-mass-formation-a-decoy-for-digital-concentration-camps-with-dr-peter-breggin-video/
Well...we can see it in subsections, for example in governments, ngo's and institutions (and, topically, Twitter) where the power system establishes a comply-or-die system. The power seems not to be vested in a physical entity or even a perceived physical entity, but in the identity of the brand, that has somehow established itself in minds. Folk allow themselves to be controlled and maybe imprisoned by something they have created in their own minds...for what purpose? An absence of self and a need to beling?
Reviewing the background material for this has helped me understand better why something has been triggering me so much lately.
Which is, not only that such a large proportion of the populace are still unwilling to hold our "experts" and "leaders" to account, but also they are actually actively defending, protecting, excusing and letting off the hook those who are paid the bug bucks to hold the positions of power and responsibility, from being responsible for the consequences of their decisions and actions.
Why is it that so many ordinary people want to shield and defend the most corrupt people in our society? Who do they go along with trying to silence, ridicule, demonize, character assassinate, and censor those who are standing up for our rights and speaking truth to power?
I think I get now. It may be because it is frightening to contend with the knowledge that the people we have trusted to protect us, don't really have our best interests in their hearts. It is terrible to know that no-one is coming to save us and there is no-one we can rely on. It is horrible to contemplate that everything we are told, and not told, by the media is all half truths and lies.
It is also energetically costly and stressful, I know from experience, to have to think for oneself, do ones own research and take responsibility, and have to advocate, for oneself.
I would refer to Freud, and his concept of Repetition Compulsion. This behaviour originates in childhood and, tying into your analysis of fawning, you could consider that it might be neccessary for a child to attach their fear to the BRAND that is 'father' or 'mother' or 'teacher' and so on, in a type of splitting (Klein) so that they can go on to love the person that has authority over them and who is meant to protect them, but direct their fear and negative emotions to the brand, or figure that person represents ie the father, the mother etc? You don't get many people say 'I hate the person who is Jane Smith', they say 'I hate my mother'? Maybe this carries on and makes it impossible for some to call out individuals, because of the same factors involved in repetition compulsion? Maybe there has to be attachment, and we know that society os drastically fragmented now, and fearful to detach from whatever remains (real or perceived) for them to hang onto? 🤷♀️ idk 🤯
Yep it's a survival mechanism
https://robc137.substack.com/p/the-psychology-of-the-big-lie
ianleslie in his substack today 'the struggle to be human' touches on this area, and considers the drift of humans towards becoming intellectual property. worth a read imo.
I love this information, Gary! I was particularly drawn to your new word, "socioception," and to this statement:
"As the reliant person masks their own physiological state, emotions and feelings, this is not a true socially engaged state of both people being relaxed and feeling connected, and since it is still a form of stress response, it does not convey the benefits to health, restoration or growth that true social engagement and connectedness does."
That is exactly what's been going on with the scamdemic and beyond. Those people who give their power over to "experts," "authorities," and "officials" literally *mask* their psychological state and tend to look at free-breathers / free-speakers as the ones with the problem. Of course, this does not make for a healthy social situation, as they are disconnecting from truly open discourse. Then, folks like myself who refute germ theory altogether often have to *feign* in order to maintain important relationships, like clients, family members, and others.
And that's really the most maddening and saddening thing about it: That the people in fear are somewhat in control of both individual relationships, small groups, and society at large! I have done my best to speak my mind but must assess if/when it is appropriate in doing risk analysis. Thankfully, my husband and I are on the same page with all this.
I am wondering if those who are feigning as a survival strategy, see those of us who don't suck up to the elites, as dangerous, afraid we may antagonize the powers that be, who will then collectively punish us.
I believe that they inherently do that to maintain their position and strategy. It is easy to think of them as manipulative, but they depend on others for their existence and in that sense they even depend upon those of us who are independently conscious. Jealousy is a driving force even in animals.
Yes, the psychology of fear is multi-layered.
Yes, they have unhealed trauma from parents, teachers, et al who were punitive to the collective for one person's "outburst," which is of course how governments work with their broad-strokes laws and enforcement. Ancestral trauma — and lies like germ theory — must be stopped in order for truly healthful, free living.
I had a boyfriend in my late twenties who said to me, "You're dangerous because you speak the truth."
Whoa ... this post was particularly engaging. I would have been socially naive even in my home culture, but the moment I hit the shores of Japan some 40 years ago, the probability of successfully navigating life rapidly dropped for my incapacity to be attuned to the Japanese equivalence of the above. It has been about 10 years now since resigning in protest from a tenured position in a Japanese college, and I had no idea of the social consequences of giving up an official position, regardless of how much of a token-foreigner charade it was. Alas, hindsight is 20-20.
You might have heard of one of the books that attracted my attention for awhile ... Doi, Takeo's "The Anatomy of Dependence". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anatomy_of_Dependence
Although I tried to use it as a filter through which I could interact with work-colleagues, Doi's insights appear to apply mostly to in-group members. Though foreigners might be able to integrate with empathy-driven communities in Japan, it is nearly impossible for an non-ethnic Japanese to integrate with rule-driven institutions ... and yet, few would call Japan a "racist" country.
I am flagging this post for several repeated readings. Thanks again Gary.
And happy holidays to you.
steve
Thanks... I will check out the link... and happy new year to you!
I've read and re read Peter Walkers book on CPTSD and certainly recognise the fawning behaviours as a survival strategy when folk are faced with fear of another more powerful figure. It is akin to servitude, to become useful and therefore be "spared". I think it comes about more from a result of a chronic fear activation state, that you get from hypervigilence. Indicative if being "trapped" with a perpetrator of abuse OR an abusive organisation/situation (could be school, or work environment etc) It doesn't seem to happen so much from a standard "trigger" response - standard amygdala response to threat. The fawn response is definitely linked to the nervous system, it's less apparent in a truly relaxed state. Obviously these are just my thoughts on the matter.
Socioception explains why people trusted authorities. They spoke in a psychopathic calm voice about the lockdowns, treatments, and vaccines.
The false sense of calmness that sociopaths and psychopaths exude is very effective to make a damaged person trust them.
Here's a quote I saved about how this mechanism also keeps people from acknowledging that they were fooled... Survival mechanism
https://robc137.substack.com/p/the-psychology-of-the-big-lie
You see Parentification very frequently in one or more siblings in a family with a parent (or both parents) who are Cluster-B types and/or alcoholics/addicts. Each of these two sorts is very low on empathy.
From a very early age, a parentified child becomes precociously responsible. All-giving and all-doing. It is a role reversal. They caretake, provide for, save, and attend to the deadbeat parent(s) in every way. Also caretaking and protecting siblings along the way. Extended family and neighbours often pile-on and expect to take advantage of this too.
Problem is, no one does it for them, the parentified child. Which leaves them unable to develop their own lives and sense of Self, or assert themselves in the outer world once adulthood comes along.
"However, when these social functions of the Nervous System are recruited for defensive purposes, the anti-inflammatory pathways are blocked by stress. "
It is a common phenomenon within the world of Cluster-B type/Codependent to find that the Codependent suffers from one or more serious autoimmune disorders, either during the relationship with the Cluster-B type, or upon the discard.
I have also heard of autoimmune disorders arising in cases where a child has been abandoned by a parent in one way or another -- the parent walks out or the parent meets an untimely death. The child's sense of safety often leaves with them.
"In particular, we are interested in those responses or strategies that recruit the 'social engagement' functions of the threatened person’s Nervous System, including facial expression..."
I think here of flattened facial affect which might be seen in persons under threat. Flat affect and anxiety are frequently seen together.
Fawning is one of the responses frequently seen in children of Parental Alienation situations -- a form of Family Totalitarianism.
For instance, they may work themselves to the bone to earn money for lavish gift-giving to the predatory parent. They usually make themselves accessible at all times to this parent -- to be an attention-provider and the fulfiller of demands. A parentally-alienated daughter of any age will generally become the constant companion of a predatory male parent. And so on.
It becomes a master-slave relationship.
Hello Gary -- In terms of Peter Walker, I read his Complex PTSD book when it first came out. I think it went over well with readers because for many it was their first exposure to these ideas and the ideas opened another layer of self-understanding.
I had had a brief email discussion with Peter (about these issues) a number of years ago. He was polite and decent; kept to the topic. Then we each went our merry ways. I was a bit surprised when in recent weeks I received another email from Peter Walker denigrating Trump, and saying that some Psychiatrist had "diagnosed" Trump with mental deficiencies. With links to further such bashing-pieces.
I am afraid that whatever good Peter Walker's ideas on the 4Fs had done, went down the drain at that arrival of that email. So Peter is one of the WOKE, carrying out marching orders to ensure a further Democrat coup. Disappointing.
Thanks for the heads up on this.
Excellent reread and reminders. Thanks for reposting. Speaking for myself, timely significance..