On psychosis and memetic reconstruction, rebooting culture and the brain

Memes enter the brain and take up residence in the brain through long-term potentiation of neural network patterns. Endemic (cultural) memes introduced in childhood are strongly potentiated as they are repeatedly introduced during a period when the filtration system for meme introduction is immature, and form the basis of a priori prejudice or predispositions that we call cultural traits. These cultural memes naturally co-opt genetic imperatives for food, sex, and dominance and form strong mutually supporting memeplexes.

Some individuals have a tyrannical selfplex that is severely repressive because it is very fragile and constantly in a state of threatened overthrow. The subversive selfplex in such a brain may be an even more repressive and depressive one, a repository of all unacceptable and derogatory memes. When such a fragile selfplex is overturned through new meme infusion (e.g., failure memes) under stress, the new selfplex may manifest severe depression. Such a memetic revolution may also result in a paralysis of the executive function, i.e., the ability to manipulate memes, resulting in psychotic disorganization.

The crack-up and subversion of the dominant memeplex and selfplex which has co-opted genetic imperatives like food, sex and dominance, leads to memetic reconstruction, de-conditioning and “decentering”, allowing new memes to seep into the root systems of the brain. To those who go through the experience in a benign environment -- that is to say, without stigmatizing labels, drugs, or forced care that seeks to stifle the emerging content -- in those individuals, the emerging content itself begins to coalesce into a pattern that follows Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, step by step.

The sequence of new memes which emerge and the mythology through which a crisis unfolds in a mind and in cultures is one of adventure, a departure from the ordinary, a crack-up of the present state, allowing exploration of new territories, a slaying of the dragon, and a return to tell the tale. These memetic revolutions act as cultural mutagens, and bypasses the rigidity of cultural memories, expanding the surface area on which cultures can inter-connect and mutate, and threaten to change the status quo.

The Hero's Journey, to take that leap and dive into the unknown, is triggered by, and fulfilled through, the fight response, leading to re-territorialization and a new world.