SHEsaysWITHaSMILE.blogspot.com

CAN SOMEONE GET ERIC ON THE PHONE... ORIGINAL POST 2/10/2010

i woke wanting to call eric kandel -or at least re-look at his book

but almost all of my books are in the garage in boxes -who knows which books in which box

but i was going over in my head, the distinctions between habitization and sensitization

his interview on the charlie rose show, quite a while back

and it struck me

that when he was striking the table, -when he was explaining about how when he struck the snail

k-

well crudely speaking

habitization = a trauma, where the aftermath, the result, is a toughing up, if you will

so that if you could measure the severity of the trauma -and measure the severity of the reaction

well, with habitization you would have to increase the severity of the trauma now to get the same reaction.

so, say if someone hit you monday -that hurt.
when they hit you again tuesday, with the same force as monday -hurt, but not as bad as on monday
wednesday, they hit you with the same force as monday/tuesday, -and now it hardly hurts at all
by friday, in order for the pain to match monday... they would have to really whop you one!

and the opposite is true of sensitization

someone hit you monday... -that hurt
hit you with the same force on tuesday "-THAT HURT!"
and they even lessen the force of the hit on wednesday, but the reaction is even more ~sensitized ~
so by friday, with barely a tap now, the reaction is tears, great pain... "you're killing me"


and when i watched this interview with eric kandel and charlie rose the 1st time, it was my understanding that it was the severity of the initial trauma that determined whether the result was habitization or sensitization


but! i woke up realizing that the severity of the trauma is only a contributing factor -not the determing factor

the status; the state of well being, so to speak, of the organism experiencing the trauma is probably the greater factor

i think when i first saw this interview, and read his book -the experiment was communicated where the severity of the trauma was the variable, but the organism on the receiving end of the varying degrees of trauma was presented as a constant

so, all things being equal -initial severity of trauma = habitization or sensitization

but!

all things are not equal

unless we can also measure/identify the state of the living organism on the receiving end of varying degrees of trauma

if you applied the same force -keep the level/force of the initial trauma constant

but vary the state of being of the organism... infant; youth; adult; infant/healthy; infant/ill; youth healthy; youth weak; adult healthy/adult sick...

you get the same result, i imagine -habitization for some; sensitization for others

but now add on, that both always vary

because in actual, practical day to day life with human beings, not snails

no two people, and no two traumas are exactly alike.

this gives me peace of mind! -because so often, two people experience a similar trauma, and one thrives, while the other one struggles

then you hear, "but so n' so figured out how to move forward...heal -why can't you?"

and i think the answer to that question has to do with realizing it is not just the severity of the initial trauma which results in habitization or sensitization -it is quite a combination.


and it is really worth the time and effort to communicate this to the public at large, because there are so many traumatized people

many of them ~sensitized~ but treated as ~bad habits.

and it could very well be that in his book, eric kandel already covered this and i either missed it; or didn't retain it /can't find the book.

but i've got it now

so can go have breakfast and get the kids ready for school.

TBTG! ~amen.

posted by SHE @ 8:57 AM