MY THOUGHTS ABOUT “ANXIOUS,”
a book by Joseph LeDoux
LeDoux feels that what we call “anxiety” and what we call “fear” are two different phenomena that are managed differently by the amygdala and brain connectome.
He speaks of the “split brain” research he did with Gazzaniga, in which it was vividly demonstrated that if one side was shown something, it could name and identify it accurately. If the other side was shown the same thing, they couldn’t name the images but derived a kind of feeling from them and explained it creatively. Consistently, one side could say what something actually was and the other side would “explain” it by inventing a story. This has been distorted by some theories, calling it female/male, etc.
Our culture insists that only humans have consciousness, that consciousness is a matter of words, that consciousness (self-awareness) is “better” and “higher” and is the same as “thinking”, which to them is the management of relationships among words. The sensorium is assigned “poetry,” which is a language of art, sometimes considered fantasy, invention.
It seems that the difference between anxiety and fear is that anxiety is a felt emotional concept, a state of being, and fear is focused on a legitimate threat to survival and suggests something to be done about it, according to the identity of the individual and the resources of the culture. The object of fear can be named and addressed, but anxiety is a feeling that lacks a story but drives the person to look for one. Maybe what psychotherapy does is resolve anxiety by finding a convincing object of the fear and suggest ways to resolve it.
LeDoux feels that fear and anxiety are addressed by two different connectomes or systems: one that responds to internal felt emotion and one that responds to the sensorium, raw neural information. Behavior can come out of either or both.
I relate this to “spirituality” which is a felt experience that is hard to name or describe (liminality, transcendence, numinous, sublime) versus “religion” which offers named entities to fear (God, the Devil, atheists, “Commies”) and a narrative in which to embed them. Thus, I suspect that spirituality relates to the same connectomes as anxiety while religion is about named threats that a theological system can explain.
Today there are so many rational threats that religions should be booming, but the offered naming and abating are not working -- they are only effective for those who live in a world that has passed. Some “religious” wars are about trying to restore that world. Even in supposedly peaceful settings, there’s a craving for writing and relationship as a source of surrogate authority. There is also much felt anxiety that is going unnamed in relationships, economics, government. We’re aware of how much is secret or not what we expected (the internet) and how many of the institutions of reassurance have been dispersed (unions, families, school).
It seems to me that spirituality is a creature of images (sensorium) we can feel, but that religion is verbal, often adversarial, and both narrative and logical but logic that takes introspection as a source rather than the sensorium. This is at the heart of the “Western” religions.
These ideas generated by LeDoux and team seem to lead somewhere instead of shutting down discussion or new evidence. Whatever the amygdala has to do with it (which seems hard to pin down), it would be a mistake to assume we already know. The very long bibliography and discussion of various theories show how hard it is to resist closure.
A FIVE-STAGE ACCOUNT OF
HOW HUMAN BEINGS DEVELOP
Keep in mind that as each new ability or understanding comes “on-line,” it then loops back to connect with everything previous and that creates new synergies that weren’t possible earlier.
I.
Human beings are self-unfolding, pulling in what they need from around them, and creating their own internal order. The drive to do this is kindled at conception and guided by the genome, the epigenome, and the womb environment which connects to the mother’s molecular status and reactions.
So the first stage of fear/anxiety is in the mother, whether she is safe and peaceful, or aroused and frightened. This affects not only the state of the baby -- when the fetus is old enough she will feel its movement and know how much it participates in her emotional state as expressed in the blood according to the secretions of her organs -- but also the development pathways as the baby’s organs are created and calibrated. Adrenaline, cortisol and so on can influence gender, both whom to desire and gender identity, to say nothing of genital formation.
Once outside the womb, the baby begins develop its sensory systems, not just eyes, ears and so on, but awareness of gravity, nearness, velocity, and some estimate maybe several hundred other things related to what is outside the body/skin. As soon as something is perceived, it is built into the “map of the world” of the baby. At this early point the new entity forms an opinion of whether the world is trustworthy, but there are also genetic factors. If some genes are missing, the baby has no fear. This anomaly will not last long in an unprotective world. The original genes were meant to promote survival by wariness. It is also possible that an epigene might turn off this gene. There is a named syndrome in females, who are more likely to be protected and even treasured for their fearlessness, NOT the kind that is learned, but rather innate, an innocence.
The development of emotions at this stage is unfocused and unnamed inside the person, but identified and treated differently by the care-giving persons. Some feelings could lead to abuse, which can cause suppression of emotions with internal consequences.
II.
Once all the senses are in place and the skeletal and muscular body has developed, the adrenals activate puberty, a whole new system of hormones and organs that adds new capacities, but also new reasons for worry. A changing body can be hard to manage and can evoke predatory attitudes from others. Increased awareness of other people’s emotions means realizing the state of the marriage on which the family is based, the restrictions and requirements of school, and possibly larger forces like racism, or war.
By now the impact of the world outside the skin is causing emotions the person is able to name and that the culture will treat according to its way of labeling and managing. Suppression, soothing, rage, laughter or mocking -- these will teach the person about the world. The autonomic nervous system, combined with hormonal signals, are felt but perhaps not named nor accurately understood.
III.
By this stage the brain is doing a lot of sorting and filtering. The person can reflect on what they see, actively reject some things and fasten onto others. Not until the early twenties are they able to get to the meta level of thought, understanding why things happen, what ought to be done, make introspective inquiries, consider revolution.
This is the most obvious stage, the one we are aware of and act on. But I begin to realize how many people never step outside their cultural boundaries or even know there is anything out there. If it intrudes or if they much leave the familiar, they are both anxious and fearful.
IV.
This level is meant to refer to the person’s ability to connect to others. When there is a threat, to look to see whether the others take it seriously. As personality dictates, to respond in concert or in defiance. To assume a responsible role, like a teacher or soldier, and react according to what is one’s duty. The body of learning from experience is enlarging all the time. Mirror cells, empathy, bonding, team-building, there’s no way to evade being a social animal.
V.
Cosmic awareness Transcendence. Not everyone seems to have this direct experience of “being,” but for those who it can be “the mysterium tremendum and fascinans” that overwhelms with the power of the universe, or the “oceanic feeling” of belonging to everything reassuringly. Not only is it a felt and emotional concept, trying to define it into a theological system will end it.
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