No offense, Econlog contributors, but it's a reaction to Robin's post on deprogramming at Overcoming Bias:
The difference between the exit counselors and [famous deprogrammer] Ted Patrick seems to be one of commitment, much like what Pavlov worked on for the later years of his life. Pavlov is famous for his work with dogs, bells, and saliva, but his lesser known work with dogs and stress is applicable here. Pavlov spent the last part of his career testing the effects of stress on dogs. He started because one day a flood almost killed all of his dogs that were stuck in their cages. Pavlov found that after experiencing tremendous stress, the dogs stopped behaving like that previously had. Dogs that liked him before didn't anymore, and so on. From Poor Charlie's Almanack (2005):
"[He] spent the rest of his long life giving stress-induced nervous breakdowns to dogs, after which he would try to reverse the breakdowns, all the while keeping careful experimental records. He found (1) that he could classify dogs so as to predict how easily a particular dog would breakdown; (2) that the dogs hardest to break down were also the hardest to retrun to their prebreakdown state; (3) that any dog could be broken down; and (4) that he couldn't reverse a breakdown except by reimposing stress" (pp 435).
I'll be pondering these disturbing claims for days to come.
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The "he couldn't reverse a breakdown except by reimposing stress" part is particularly disturbing :-)
Fascinating info...
PTSD. The hardwired parts of the brain get rewired. Makes sense that the rewiring can only be done by reapplying stress.
Isn't this the whole purpose of Marine Corps boot camp?
A perfect illustration of Schopenhauer's dictum, that if animals had a religion, the earth would be its hell and mankind the devil.
Poor dogs
Anybody who watched The Office last night got to see Jim program Dwight to reach for an altoid upon hearing a particular computer sound. Pretty good stuff; great show.
From the Psychology of Brainwashing (Time Magazine, 1957):
I'm hungry. Let's get a taco.