Original article

Korean Journal of Schizophrenia Research 2010;13(1):5-8.

The Primordial Mind and Psychosis

Michael Robbins, MD

Abstract

The psychotic mind, of which schizophrenia is an example, functions according to a system qualitatively different from thought. The result is much like enacting a dream while awake. A model for this process of primary mental activity (PMA) is described. PMA appears to have a distinctive neurological circuitry that is similar to that which underlies dreaming. PMA uses language and other learned elements literally rather than symbolically and transmits and receives meaning literally and forcibly rather than by an exchange of thoughts, emotions and ideas. PMA is the normal modality of infancy and early childhood because its neural circuitry is fully functional at birth whereas the capacity for thought develops slowly. Thought does not replace PMA but integrates and controls its expression in interpersonally adaptive ways. Psychosis develops when a pathological family environment rewards PMA after it has ceased to be socially adaptive, undermines development of thought and adaptive regulation of PMA. (Korean J Schizophr Res 2010;13:5-8)

Key Words: Primary mental activity,Psychosis,Schizophrenia,Hallucination,Delusion,Thought,Dissociation ,Integration