The Corpus Callosum

When I finished residency, I took a position at a University clinic north of town.  In order to get there, I had to cross a bridge over a river.  I drove over that bridge about 100 times before the first snowfall.

On the first snowy day, while driving over the bridge, I noticed a sign.  The sign warned that the bridge could be icy.  Prior to that first snowy day, I had not noticed the sign.  


Fast-forward to the present day.  A thoughtful reader sent a suggestion that I write about the subject of inattentional blindness.  

A good illustration of the topic is in the video here.  Subjects are instructed to watch the video and count the number of times the basketball is passed by either the white team or the black team.  

It turns out that people often miss one of the more obvious events in the video.  About 46% of sober people see it, and only 18% of drunk people see it.  

The effect is discussed here.  

I am not enough of a perceptual psychologist to be able to explain it in technical terms, but I have found a use for this phenomenon in clinical practice.  Anecdotes such as the one at the start of this post are commonplace.  People have no trouble understanding that a person might fail to see something that is not relevant to their current situation, but see it immediately when it is pertinent.  

Imagine if you were a participant in a study, and were asked to watch a video such as the one I linked to.  And image how startled you would be if you were one of the people who did not see the peculiar event in the middle.  Upon watching the video again, you might very well wonder if there is something wrong with you.  You might even wonder, for a moment, if you are "going crazy," whatever that means.

Now, suppose you do have some sort of mental illness, say, panic disorder.  Uncharitable persons in your environment start demeaning you, calling you "crazy."  They know you take medication, they want to dominate you, so they call you "weak," make fun of you, and so forth.

Then, you start to notice some perceptual anomalies.  They may be perfectly ordinary things, such as when I failed to see the "bridge may be icy" sign.  But, if you are anxious, and people whom you ought to be able to be able to trust are saying you are crazy, then it can be awfully upsetting to notice phenomena such as inattentional blindness.  

If you do not have a solid understanding of psychosis, as well as an understanding of normal variants of perception, you might really think you are loosing your mind.  

In a clinical setting, it can be very helpful to do a little teaching about how ordinary perception can be imprecise, or even overtly mistaken.  Such things are not a sign of mental illness.  They can, and do, happen to everyone.  Normalizing these experiences can calm down the fear of insanity (phrenophobia) that often contributes to the subjective distress experienced by someone with a nonpsychotic mental illness.

This is explained, somewhat, here:

Phrenophobia is the false belief, and associated fear, that there is something wrong with one's mind which may result in "insanity". This belief, although widespread, is often denied or concealed by misleading euphemisms such as "nervous breakdown". A cluster of five misconceptions is usually present. All are misinterpretation of anxiety symptoms resulting from sustained tension and stress.

• My feelings of anxiety point to approaching insanity.
• My memory failures or distortions are signs of mental breakdown.
• My difficulties in concentration indicate mental disorder.
• My irritability signals mental disturbance.
• If these symptoms do not lead to psychosis, my insomnia will.

Now, taking a completely different perspective, it may be interesting to note how inattentional blindness also can lead to the failure to notice true insanity.  Like failing to notice how insane it is to go around starting unnecessary wars.  

To get an idea of how insane this sort of thing can be, listen to Sage's podcast of an interview with a guy in Lebanon.

Did you see the gorilla?