Media Environments and Mental Disorder: The Psychology of Information Immersion

The information environments that modern society requires us to master and engage in are based in literacy and digital communication. Mediated information not only passes through our brains, it alters and rewires them. Since our environment, to a large extent, is shaped by the way we perceive, understand, and communicate information, we can even think of mental disorders as symptoms of maladaptation to our media environments.

This book uses this "media ecology" model to explore the effects of media on mental disorders. It traces the development of media from the most basic forms--the sights and sounds expressed by the human body--to the most technologically complex media created to date, showing how each medium of communication relates to specific mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and autism. As the digital age proceeds to envelop us in an environment of infinite and instantly accessible information, it's crucial to our own mental health to understand how the various forms of media influence and shape our minds and behaviors.

"1138636797"
Media Environments and Mental Disorder: The Psychology of Information Immersion

The information environments that modern society requires us to master and engage in are based in literacy and digital communication. Mediated information not only passes through our brains, it alters and rewires them. Since our environment, to a large extent, is shaped by the way we perceive, understand, and communicate information, we can even think of mental disorders as symptoms of maladaptation to our media environments.

This book uses this "media ecology" model to explore the effects of media on mental disorders. It traces the development of media from the most basic forms--the sights and sounds expressed by the human body--to the most technologically complex media created to date, showing how each medium of communication relates to specific mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and autism. As the digital age proceeds to envelop us in an environment of infinite and instantly accessible information, it's crucial to our own mental health to understand how the various forms of media influence and shape our minds and behaviors.

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Media Environments and Mental Disorder: The Psychology of Information Immersion

Media Environments and Mental Disorder: The Psychology of Information Immersion

by William Indick
Media Environments and Mental Disorder: The Psychology of Information Immersion

Media Environments and Mental Disorder: The Psychology of Information Immersion

by William Indick

Paperback

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Overview

The information environments that modern society requires us to master and engage in are based in literacy and digital communication. Mediated information not only passes through our brains, it alters and rewires them. Since our environment, to a large extent, is shaped by the way we perceive, understand, and communicate information, we can even think of mental disorders as symptoms of maladaptation to our media environments.

This book uses this "media ecology" model to explore the effects of media on mental disorders. It traces the development of media from the most basic forms--the sights and sounds expressed by the human body--to the most technologically complex media created to date, showing how each medium of communication relates to specific mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and autism. As the digital age proceeds to envelop us in an environment of infinite and instantly accessible information, it's crucial to our own mental health to understand how the various forms of media influence and shape our minds and behaviors.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781476678825
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date: 05/14/2021
Pages: 300
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

William Indick is an associate professor of psychology at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. He is the author of several books on media psychology, and has written for numerous psychology journals.

Table of Contents

Preface: Victims of Sight, Victims of Sound 1

Introduction: The Hall of Mirrors 5

Every Medium Is a Mirror 11

1 A Media Ecology Model of Mental Illness 13

The Demonology Model 14

Somatogenesis 15

Psychogenesis 16

Psychoanalysis 17

The Medical Model 18

The Mechanical Model 21

The Clinical Model 24

The Neurochemical Model 26

The Spectrum Model 29

Neurological Diversity 31

The Vulnerability/Stress Model 33

The Media Ecology Model 35

2 Language, Literacy and the Leftward Shift 37

Language and Lateralization 39

Oral Language and Linearity 43

Literacy and Linearity 46

Cognitive Distance 48

Print 54

Electronic Media and Digital Media 56

The Forest of Mirrors 60

Cerebral Dominance and the Sickle Cell 61

The Hemispheric Dominance Model of Mental Disorder 64

3 Autism and the Inhibited Mind 68

Autism as the Endpoint of the Leftward Shift 72

The Displacement Effect 74

Autism: Epidemic or Epiphenomenon? 78

Genetic Causation of Autism 81

Intellectualism and Autism 82

Weak Central Coherence 86

Intense World Syndrome 91

Theory of Mind 93

Language Deficits 96

"Autistic Intelligence" 99

"Homo Aspergerus" and "Geek Chic" 102

Digital Reflections of the Autistic Self 106

4 Schizophrenia, Dual Consciousness and the Split Mind 109

Schizophrenia as an Aspect of Human Nature 111

Schizophrenia as a Byproduct of Language 113

Spectra within Spectra 119

Schizophrenic Thinking and Pollyannaism 121

Madness, Genius and Eccentricity 124

Literacy and Thought Disorder 127

Literacy and Duality 128

The Haunted Unconscious 129

Hyperconscious Self-Reflection and Alienation 133

Westernization 138

Fragmentation, Intellectualization and Alienation 141

Fragmentation, Electronification and Digitization 147

The Digital Stranger 152

5 Anxious Depression: The Consequences of Consciousness 154

The Pendulum Metaphor 157

How Melancholia Became Anxiety and Depression 161

Adaptive and Maladaptive Anxiety 163

Anxiety to the Left of Me, Depression to the Right 169

Ineffective Therapies: The Emperor's New and Old Clothes 171

The Optimist and the Pessimist Within 174

The Brain's "Default Mode Network" 177

The Tyranny of the Anxious 179

6 Disordered Learning and Neurological Intolerance 185

ADHD 186

Decontextualized Learning 188

The Classroom: A Toxic Media Environment 189

Literacy and Education: A Brief and Brutal History 196

Specialism versus Generalism 199

Age Segregation and Specialism vs. Age Integration and Generalism 203

Manufacturing Anxiety in Schools 206

Dyslexia 210

Dyscalculia 214

The Gift of Dyslexia? 219

Literacy in the Digital Age 223

The Future of Literacy 224

The Musical Literacy Metaphor 232

The Teacher as Artist 234

The Classroom of the Future 236

7 Social Media: Narcissus Lost in the Hall of Mirrors 240

The Self as Object 246

Kohut's Mirror Model of Narcissism 250

"The Age of Narcissism" 253

The Soul Photograph 254

The Old Gods and the New 256

Celebrity Worship and the Social Media Mirror 258

Ouroboros and Erysichton 261

Wounded Narcissism and the Many-Faced God in the Magic Mirror 263

Locked in to the Double Bind 266

"The Global Village" 269

Conclusion: Media Mindfulness 275

Chapter Notes 277

Bibliography 283

Index 289

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