Category: Psychology

Last night the psychological illusionist Derren Brown on his TV show, ‘Trick of the Mind’, shocked his audience with a video game stunt. He took an apparently unsuspecting member of the public and subjected him to what appeared to be a gruelling psychological experience, without gaining his permission in advance.

Derren Brown’s shows have certainly courted significant controversy. He played Russian Roulette live on TV (above), although reputedly with blank ammunition. This was gripping TV but many claimed the stunt was irresponsible. More recently he held a live seance in which he scared a number of willing volunteers half to death but all in the name of debunking supernatural beliefs.

What sets the trick from last night’s show apart was that no attempt was made to get the permission of the participant beforehand. While Derren Brown often uses unsuspecting members of the public, he doesn’t normally subject them to a difficult psychological experience.

How Derren Brown does some of his tricks (Channel 4)

There’s an update on Donald Herbert’s condition in the NYT, apparently he has become less animated. We’ll have to wait and see what happens…
Who is Donald Herbert?

Ten years ago a firefighter in Buffalo, Donald Herbert, rushed into a burning building looking for survivors. He was knocked out by a collapsing roof, taken to hospital and remained in a coma for two and a half months. A year later he regained consciousness but did not recognise his wife and four children and seemed to have no idea who he was.

Ten years later, last Saturday, he really woke up:

“I want to talk to my wife,” Mr. Herbert was quoted as saying. A staff member called his wife, Linda, but it was his youngest son, Nicholas, 13, who picked up the phone and began speaking.

“That can’t be,” Mr. Herbert said. “He’s just a baby. He can’t talk.”

UPDATE: Donald Herbert ‘Minimally Conscious’ Unlike Terri Schiavo

New York Times [Free Reg. Req.] [via Mind Hacks]

Anyone who suffers from hay fever knows how irritating and, in some cases, disabling, the condition can prove. The New Scientist reports that self-hypnosis may be able to provide some relief.

I have to admit my motives for reporting this story are not entirely pure, the abstract does contain a phrase with natural comedy value. Apparently, in assessing the effectiveness of the treatment, something called a ‘nasal provocation test’ was carried out.

“Excuse me, is that your nose, or did a bus park on your face?”
“Ooh, I wish I were you, to be able to smell your own ear.”
“Say, does that thing there influence the tides?”

A press briefing was held in London yesterday in which a few psychologists speculated on the electorate’s mood. Due to the predictable content, the story only just limped into the news. Perhaps they should have tried for something a little more radical than: The war on Iraq was a bit of a problem for Labour but they’ll win anyway.

If the Conservative or Liberal Democrat parties really want to win, they might think about hiring a few psychologists to do a really cruel dissection of Tony Blair’s character and behaviour. Then spread it across all the papers and stick it up on all the billboards in the country. A vicious and sustained character assassination is their only chance of winning short of an actual assassination.

How bad do you want it boys?
IC Wales

One species, two genders. Yes, biologically we are fundamentally different, but what about psychologically? Is the difference between men and women all a ‘social construction’? What if you give dolls to a male child? What if you treat him like a girl? What if you dress him like a girl? And what if you surgically reconstruct his genitalia so that, anatomically, he looks like a girl?

Will he be a girl?

Whether you know what the psychological evidence has to say or not, you’ll recognise that this issue is political dynamite. If there are fundamental psychological differences between men and women, then perhaps some forms of discrimination are valid? Perhaps it is right that men go to work and women stay at home to bring up the children?

Of course these things don’t follow, one from the other, but it doesn’t stop people associating these arguments with each other. Bear this in mind while you read the Scientific American article and if you should choose to share this information with people more concerned with political correctness than scientific accuracy.
His Brain, Her Brain [Scientific American]

“Workers distracted by email and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers, new research has claimed. The study for computing firm Hewlett Packard warned of a rise in “infomania”, with people becoming addicted to email and text messages.”
BBC News

An excellent technique for learning a new skill is to find someone who is already successful at what you want to learn, and copy their technique. This is at the root of Rodcorp’s blog, “How we work.” Try it out with today’s post on how Franz Liszt used to read a book while practising the piano.

I can tell you from personal experience that this is not a technique for beginners.
How we work: Franz Liszt