Introduction
Behavioral management is emerging as a significant intervention in psychiatric treatment, focusing mainly on preserving order for those with clinical mental illness. In abnormal psychology, schizophrenia is seen as a severe mental condition in which individuals perceive reality in an aberrant manner. This research critique incorporates a study on the long-term, transformational impacts and integration difficulties of psychedelic experiences and offers suggestions and ideas for enhancing the quality of schizophrenia treatment. The purpose is to synthesize evidence-based psychological ideas and theories to propose new linkages and perspectives for advancing clinical psychology knowledge. The intervention is essential for providing organized behavior modification that focuses on changing and sustaining desirable states of mind.
Research Critique
Reliability
There are valid concerns that most medications in psychiatrists’ arsenals were produced decades ago when neuropsychiatric was immature, necessitating updates from more recent research. This critique assesses the dependability, validity, and generalizability of the ideas in research conducted by Victor Jivanescu Alef of the Trust and Liverpool John Moores University. The long-term transformative effects and integration challenges of psychedelic experiences, a mixed methods phenomenological study of the Romanian population, is primarily concerned with the effects of psychedelic experiences on mentally ill patients (Jivanescu, 2022). The research investigated the transformational impacts and integration difficulties of psychedelic experiences using psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide in the Romanian population. The research is credible since it continuously seeks to identify the long-term, transformational impacts and difficulties people may face throughout the integration process.
Validity
Similarly, the study is legitimate since the participant involvement and research topic has been addressed with the necessary controlled, precise, and succinct rigor. The research adopted a sequential mixed-methods approach, including qualitative interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) with six interview subjects, followed by a quantitative survey with 39 replies. The examination of qualitative data yielded a multilayered hierarchical model of themes and subordinate topics spanning from changes in self-perception to emotional transformation, spiritual transformation, interpersonal transformation, and personal, interpersonal, and cultural integration issues. The survey data made it feasible to compare the interview group to a larger national sample. The statistical similarities lent further credibility to the qualitative theme conclusions from a smaller group.
Generalizability
The study findings are relevant to several domains of mental health assistance and personal development. The study sheds light on the level of behavioral change connected with psychedelic experiences that inspire long-term transformation and enduring beneficial impacts. Conclusions from the study indicate that behavioral treatment may help persons with schizophrenia improve their social and problem-solving abilities, lessen the intensity of their symptoms, and minimize the likelihood of recurrence. The approach to care is generalizable since such interventions have applicability in the larger field of mind control.
Representation of Issues Across Other Psychological Domains
The use of psychedelics in treating mental health concerns is becoming a promising field. There have been worries that the current best drugs for treating diseases such as depression may only provide relief to a subset of individuals for a short duration. Understanding the therapeutic mechanisms of psychedelics can increase the effectiveness and safety of substances in cognitive and affective psychological domains. Given that the atrophy of neurons defines several stress-related neuropsychiatric illnesses in the prefrontal cortex, the psychoplastogenic effects of psychedelics provide ways to treatment that may address difficulties in mental health suffering.
Strengths and the Key Contributions
The study focuses on psychedelic experiences, a rapidly expanding subject that leverages the science of consciousness to solve mental health concerns. Trends indicate that using psychedelics as a medication is now one of the most intriguing breakthroughs in neuropsychiatry (Noorani, 2020). The compounds seem to generate immediate and prolonged therapeutic benefits across neuropsychiatric illnesses (Inserra et al., 2021). Researchers realize that understanding how these potent medications alter brain function requires using cutting-edge scientific methods and the collaboration of chemists, molecular biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and clinicians.
Deficiencies Exist within the Literature
The study fails to investigate the influence of the science of consciousness on characterizing the behavioral changes associated with psychedelic experiences, despite the established impact on patient care. The science of consciousness encompasses the fields of psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. The notions make it simple to describe the most common characteristics of consciousness, such as objectivity, sequentially, and limited resources. The link between consciousness and explicit memory, as well as the experience of conscious agency, are developed via awareness. Human awareness originates at the intersection of three behavioral components: communication, play, and tool use.
Possible Omissions and Inaccuracies
The study references the psychiatric theory of the mind and its dual nature as conscious and unconscious. There is a lack of appreciation that human consciousness levels fundamentally influence perspectives on the nature of reality. The conscious and subconscious brains determine the choices and behaviors in reaction to stimuli. In the studies, the capacity of the subconscious mind to manage conditions of psychological discomfort that induce diseases such as schizophrenia receives less attention.
Areas of Contradictions
Similarly, the study emphasizes the advantages of mind control medicines in inducing psychedelic experiences but fails to provide detailed information about the adverse effects on patients. According to studies, an overdose occurs when a person consumes a sufficient amount of a substance to cause severe side effects, life-threatening symptoms, or death (Ross, 2018). Although the effects of the majority of traditional hallucinogens are not always life-threatening, excessive dosages may induce profoundly unpleasant experiences (Moreton et al., 2018). Users of conventional hallucinogens and dissociative drugs risk severe damage due to the substantial perception and emotional changes these substances may induce.
Impacts of APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct
Despite the limitations, the researchers recognize the importance of adhering to the Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct of the American Psychological Association (APA) in influencing the research outcome. The researchers note that the Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) Research Ethics Panel granted ethical clearance (Jivanescu, 2022). The processes were developed with an awareness of the illegality of creating psychedelic experiences in several countries, including Romania.
Ethical Issues Influencing the Outcomes of the Research
Consequently, participant confidentiality and welfare were among the primary considerations. Participants could sign the permission form under a pseudonym and be permitted to turn off the camera or use face-hiding filters during interviews. The participants were told that they were free to withdraw at any time, with similar provisions in cognitive and affective psychological domains. These ethical considerations enhance the validity and dependability of the observations and results of the study.
Synthesis
Innovation in Psychology Based on Research Conclusions
There is a growing need for psychiatrists to include the notions of psychedelics, the subconscious mind, and psycho-cybernetics in mental health assistance. According to the study, psychedelic drugs help the subconscious to become aware. The subconscious is the portion of the mind that retains repressed memories, emotions, fears, and anxieties (Jivanescu, 2022). As in the research conclusions, with a deeper comprehension of the subconscious’s strength and operations, the influence of the produced changes in conciseness statistics might be investigated further in psychedelic research.
New Perspective
Understanding the mind might enhance the capacity to awaken the subconscious mind via guided transcendental meditation as a computer, which is the fundamental notion of psycho-cybernetics. In psycho-cybernetics, the experience of being connected with the conscious comprises elements of memories. Integrating these into consciousness is essential to the psychological and emotional healing process. From this vantage point, psychedelics may accelerate the healing process by repairing the subconscious mind via the concept of vision, which influences artificial memory generated by the imagination.
Evidence-Based Psychological Concepts
The psychedelic intervention for the mentally ill should be delivered with the understanding that the drugs are nonspecific amplifying agents of perceptions. In circumstances when the person under the influence is in a supportive, shame- and judgment-free atmosphere, they are more likely to be able to submit to whatever the drug is revealing to them, according to studies. One of the difficulties associated with recreational settings such as concerts, festivals, and parties is that they may be very variable and unexpected (Ross, 2018). This, when combined with a psychedelic, may produce situations in which the person cannot submit and begins to resist, resulting in a cycle of increased conflict and difficulty. As recommended, assisting a person experiencing a psychedelic experience requires providing a secure setting in which the individual may surrender to the experience and use self-affirmations through controlled imagery.
The visualization should be aimed toward the desired outcome to modify the subconscious mind. Experiments have shown that for such people, vision activates the reticular activating system, a network of neurons that functions as a filtering mechanism and aids in distinguishing between relevant and unimportant information (Shaari et al., 2019). The research reveals that the brain receives two million pieces of information every second across the five senses (Koudelková et al., 2018). However, the brain can only process and handle 126 bits of data every second (Shaari et al., 2019, p13). As a result, the brain reduces the amount of data depending on how a person manages information internally based on their views, assumptions about the world, personal values, and prior judgments.
Computation Theory of Mind perspectives
The alteration of the subconscious mind by imagery and psychedelic intervention is best comprehended through the lens of the computation theory of mind. According to the computational theory of mind, the mind is a computer system realized by neuronal activity in the brain (Cole & Millett, 2019). The theory changes significantly depending on how the word computing is interpreted. Commonly, computation is defined in terms of Turing machines, which modify symbols by a rule and the machine’s internal state. Critical to such a computational model is the ability to abstract the physical features of the machine carrying out the calculation. For instance, the proper computation might be implemented by silicon chips or biological neural networks as long as there is a succession of outputs based on manipulations of inputs and internal states that are carried out by a rule. The computational theory of mind asserts that the mind is not only comparable to a computer program but is, in fact, a computational system with input and output correlations.
The Emerging Research in Neuropsychiatry
In mind control electronics, such as Neurolink research, the effects of technology and the notions of computers controlling human behavior are investigated further. Currently, Elon Musk’s Neuralink gadget intends to tackle neurological ailments such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, and epilepsy, as well as other medical problems like as strokes (Buonomo et al., 2021). Trends indicate, however, that the Link might combat anxiety and despair, which are at an all-time high. Installing a Neuralink device into a patient brain with an anxiety or depressive disease might assist the sufferer’s experience (Touserkani et al., 2018). The technique can bring an influx of optimism into the lives of individuals afflicted with debilitating ailments. There is a growing understanding that the technology’s capabilities and potential might assist in combating many medical conditions that influence daily living.
As anxiety and depression rates rise, and healthcare expenses rise, Neuralink technology has the potential to provide a cost-effective solution for those without access to vital medical therapy. Neuralink has created an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) to produce a recording system with 1,536 channels (Lee et al., 2021, p613). This system comprises 256 independently programmable amplifiers, analog-to-digital converters inside the chip, and peripheral circuit control to serialize the resulting digitized data (Lee et al., 2021, p613). The implementation is intended to transform neuronal data into a comprehensible binary code to acquire a more profound knowledge of brain activity and the capacity to excite these neurons back. Currently, however, electrodes are too large to capture the firing of individual neurons. Representatives from Neuralink feel that this problem might be minimized algorithmically. However, it is computationally costly and does not yield perfect results. Neuralink might stop soaring anxiety and depression rates and reduce the number of suicides that claim lives before aid is available if sufficient research and development are conducted.
Emerging Controversies
Despite the insightful approach to solving the challenges faced by people suffering from mental illnesses, both psychedelic experience and Neuralink technology face backlash from the scientific communities. For instance, several neuroscientists and publications criticized the Neuralink technology, with scholars arguing that the demonstration provided no evidence that it has the potential to treat depression, insomnia, or a dozen other diseases that the research and development team claim (Strickland & Gallucci, 2022). Similarly, psychedelic experiences have been associated with the active ingredient in magic mushrooms disrupting communication between brain regions (Johnstad, 2021). The researchers acknowledge that recent studies have demonstrated that drugs like psilocybin, the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms, play all sorts of tricks on the mind. They distort the perception of time, space, and self and even untether the senses. To address some of these challenges, the alternate opinions would require research on non-intrusive technologies in electronics mind control and research in managing the impact of drug injection psychedelics.
Conclusion
Behaviorists appreciate that human mental states are substantially affected by an individual’s life experiences and are closely related to the condition of the subconscious mind. There is a growing need to study more sophisticated notions in psychology and the pathology of unconscious forces to treat persistent mental health conditions such as schizophrenia. It has been suggested that psychedelic experiences have the potential to enhance the life experiences of mentally ill persons. Integrating the notions of psychedelics, the subconscious mind, and psycho-cybernetics into the care of susceptible patients’ mental states seems necessary. However, there are rising worries about the long-term ill effects of invasive interventions such as those described by Neuralink research, including drug abuse and brain deterioration. Despite its limitations, psychedelic research provides crucial insight into the conscious and subconscious mind’s operations. Integration of the science of psychedelics, the power of the subconscious mind, and psycho-cybernetics are required for furthering the quality of psychiatric treatment.
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