210 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
None of us likes to become sick, especially when our physical
problems—notice the annoying influence of that physical body again—are
accompanied by the nagging
feeling that we might be
responsible for our unpleasant
situation. I suggest that a great
way of removing this feeling of
guilt is with a syndrome. The
Greek plays told stories of gods.
Our syndromes are propagated by
medical doctors—individuals
who often appear godlike both in
their eyes and in the eyes of
others. Like the theater of tragedy, the syndrome does not move mental
furniture. Rather, it accepts facts with great precision and accuracy. The
only twist occurs with the Perceiver link between cause and effect. If our
medical condition can be blamed upon a chemical imbalance, a genetic
predisposition, an environmental factor, or any other objective cause
sufficiently removed from me and Mercy identification, then we can
suddenly feel much better about our problem.A
Our method of the syndrome is much more effective than the tragedy
plays of the Greeks. Their „repair‟ jobs were often limited to the more
obvious flaws: Aristotle suggested murder within the family as the best
material for his plays—not what I would call the most subtle subject. On
the other hand, with our knowledge of neurochemicals and our ability to
form images of thinking itself with brain scanners, we can find syndromes
everywhere. Because the brain operates chemically, all of our failings can
be attributed to an imbalance of some brain compound.
In fact, I suggest that if the model of the mind presented in this book is
accurate, then all major personality defects can be traced to some physical
syndrome: If the mind really can be divided into seven different rooms
with each room corresponding to a different region of the brain, then when
mental modes are inadequately programmed, we will see on a scanner that
the corresponding parts of a person‟s brain are not operating properly.
Therefore, the habitual criminal no longer has a damaged conscience,
instead, his frontal lobes are under-activated. He is not responsible for his
behavior—he has a syndrome.
A Medically speaking, the syndrome is a valuable concept. A syndrome is a
collection of symptoms which occur together, and the first step in curing
an illness is learning to recognize the symptoms. However, I suggest that
Mercy identification often uses the syndrome as a tool for escaping
feelings of guilt.