When Jesse Nicol thinks that he has killed a man, he expects:
"'Psychocorrection. Neural alterations, re-education, elimination of [his] potential for violence. [His] inmost self castrated, a poet and adventurer changed to a placidly contented citizen.'" (p. 123)
In the Technic History, a woman who murdered her husband has been enslaved and explains that her buyer has paid to have her mind corrected:
"'How grateful I am! I was a murderess, do you hear, a murderess.'"
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 339-606 AT II, p. 360.
This mentally corrected murderess urges Kossara Vymezal:
"'Ask them to correct you too. You committed treason, didn't you say? Beg them to wash you clean!'" (ibid.)
In the Psychotechnic History, would this kind of psychocorrection be part of the practice of the Psychotechnic Institute? (I hope not.) Surely scientific psychology can be used to give everyone, not just convicted criminals, the opportunity to understand their own motives - and should not be used to control/manipulate/eliminate motivations?
23 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I am skeptical of the alternative you prefer ever being PRACTICAL, whether voluntarily undergone or not, if it does NOT directly affect the mind. Otherwise it does not seem to be more than the stereotype of lying on a couch baring your neuroses to a shrink!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I meant not baring our neuroses but being told exactly why we have those neuroses and what we might do about them.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!!
But that was exactly what I had in mind! With exactly analogous procedures which doesn't seem to do that much good. I mean counseling and advice.
So, unless "psychocorrection" somehow directly affects the mind as we see it being done in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS and HARVEST THE FIRE, I don't see it as being much different from what we already have.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But what we might do about it would be freely agreeing to beneficial treatment, with which we could cooperate, instead of having merely negative outcomes imposed on us.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Again, but that is exactly what we have now, at least with some patients. I'm sure lots of patients freely listen to such advice. And mere counseling and advice does not directly after the BRAIN or mind.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But I meant treatment that would affect the brain provided that it was done only with the patient's understanding, knowledge and agreement.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Then you meant the "brain channeling" of that convicted murderess we see in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS. I agree about the need for knowledge, understanding, and consent for that kind of drastic treatment.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But that sounded as if she had merely been pacified, not as if she had been helped to understand anything. Of Course she said, "Now I understand..." but Kossara was repelled.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Well, the murderess did claim to now "understand" how wrong her crime was. She stated her former master paid for her "psychocorrection." That was bad if she had not consented to the "brain channeling."
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
OK. I have reread the passage. In fact, the phrase that the woman uses is "Now I know-" The others edge away. Kossara thinks, "Brainchanneled..." and her skin crawls. The woman is quite calm about being sent to a brothel. Her buyer had her mentally corrected merely as a safeguard, not as a way of helping her.
It is quite clear that she has merely been conditioned against further violence, not helped to understand and respond to her own previous violence.
Paul.
Violence isn't necessarily a sign of psychological problems; it can be perfectly rational.
Kaor, Paul!
As Mr. Stirling said, to be violent is not always irrational or a sign of psychological disturbance.
The "corrected" woman Kossara met was sentenced to life enslavement for committing murder. So, while she was only "conditioned" against further violence, she probably still had an intellectual understanding that murder was still wrong. Note what else she said: "I was a murderess, do you hear; a murderess. I took it on myself to decide another human being wasn't fit to live" (Chapter II of KNIGHT). I do agree that was only "implanted" into her mind, rather than something she came to understand and accept on her own.
Ad astra! Sean
Agreed. We may need help in dealing with/responding to any irrational violence.
Note that rational doesn’t mean -good-. Sticking a gun in someone’s face and demanding their wallet is perfectly rational.
Note that a disproportionate share of the people who escaped in the Titanic’s lifeboats were women and children: that was because the men, including some of the richest and most powerful in the world, -didn’t- take their places. They put them on the boats and deliberately stayed behind to die.
A rationally violent man can be charged with a crime. An irrationally violent man needs medical treatment.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Mr. Stirling: And I have only respect and admiration for those men who chose to die on the TITANIC rather than take seats women and children could occupy. I doubt I would have been so brave!
Paul: If by "An irrationally violent man" or criminal a who was truly and clinically mentally ill, I agree. But a genuinely mentally ill criminal also needs to be prevented from again harming others. Institutions for the criminally insane.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
On the Titanic, we would have repaired to the chapel, if there was one, then to the bar for what time was left.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I don't know if the TITANIC had a chapel, but I have read of how a Catholic priest traveling to America spent those two hours of terror and panic giving what comfort he could to passengers and crew.
Ad astra! Sean
It had several chapels, IIRC… and numerous bars.
Paul: medical treatment is what Poul is gruesomely describing!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I'm not surprised TITANIC had both chapels and bars! They were serving different human needs.
And I will expect space liners, once they become practical, to have chapels and bars.
And "psychocorrection" was a kind of medical treatment after all. Tho not a very widely used one it seems.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul, Sean, and Mr. Stirling!
There are issues of how we should define rationality, irrationality, and “mental illness.” As Mr. Stirling says, armed robbery can in some cases be perfectly rational, although amoral. Suppose, though, that someone responds to a verbal insult with major violence. Is this irrational, or is this rational, because he lives in a society where he would be considered contemptible, and safe prey, if he did not defend his honor in this manner? What if the man does not live in such a society, but his genome has been shaped by many thousands of years of ancestors living in such societies? What if his attitudes have been shaped by stories of knights or Wild West gunfighters who fought for their “honor”, as well as for tangible goals?
What about murderous violence committed out of sexual jealousy? This may be called irrational in a world of safe and effective birth control, but before the Pill, being, and being seen as being, the kind of person likely to commit homicide out of jealousy probably improved one’s chances of passing on one’s genes.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
Thanks again for leaving comments here.
I would argue, however, that however much a human being might have been "shaped" by his culture and genes, he should still be intelligent enough to observe what he could or could not do if he came to live among very different people. E.g., in Anderson's THE GOLDEN HORN (the first volume of THE LAST VIKING), Harald Sigurdarson was astonished the Russians in the trading ship in which he arrived at Constantinople (in the AD 1030's) did not leave sentries or watchmen in their boat. Because, at that time, the Byzantines still had an efficient police force capable of controlling crime. Societies which had similar institutions would discourage criminal violence caused by rational cupidity or jealousy.
Regards! Sean
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