29.7.2001

RESPONDENT: Peter,

PETER:

Grübelsucht [G, f. grübeln to brood + Sucht mania.] A form of obsession in which even the simplest facts are compulsively queried. Excerpted from Oxford Talking Dictionary Copyright © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Here is a relevant URL (the fourth paragraph down the page ... plus footnote No 4): http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin21.htm

I liked what you posted, particularly that the characteristic form of the mania is of a metaphysical character ...

[quote]: Doubting Mania: Ger. Zweifelsucht, Grübelsucht; Fr. folie du doute; Ital. follia (or monomania) del dubbio. This disorder, which has received various names (see art. Doubt, Insanity of, in Tuke’s Dict. of Psychol. Med.), may be most naturally described as an abnormal self-consciousness in the direction of great hesitation and doubt, combined with more or less impairment of the will. The main symptom, haunting doubt, may be regarded as a form of fixed imperative idea from which the patient finds no escape.

Sufficient cases have been described, in which this symptom is apparently the only divergence from normal mental action, as to lead to their classification as cases of insanity of doubt. The disease seems to affect frequently, but not invariably, those hereditarily disposed to mental disorders; it progresses usually with periods of intermission, and as a rule remains incurable. The patient often maintains a long struggle against his morbid ruminations, and is perfectly aware of their unreasonable character; he retains, as long as he can, his place as a useful working member of society, but in the end withdraws more and more within himself, and frequently voluntarily seeks admission in an asylum. The cases vary considerably; a few types may be described. A characteristic form of the mania is of a metaphysical character; the subject doubts his own existence, questions the evidence of his senses, speculates as to the precise and ultimate causes of every detail and trifle, and recurs unceasingly to the same topic, repeating the same arguments pro and con , and with all forms of subtleties and hair-splitting considerations. This form of mental rumination may be confined to one special topic; frequently it is numbers (cf. ARITHMOMANIA), such as an irresistible impulse to count everything. Another class are morbidly scrupulous and conscientious, fearing lest they may have done wrong, may have failed to do their precise and literal duty; they dwell upon the most trifling and improbable circumstances, and often come to a standstill in their actions by reason of such fear. Others are constantly anticipating accidents, are in dread that somebody may fall out of a window at his or her feet, may speculate as to what should be done, and so on. Somewhat different, but frequently mentioned in the same connection, is the fear of contact with objects. The patient lives in a constant dread of contamination, and regulates his action, and allows his thoughts to dwell unnecessarily upon these considerations. Some of these forms have received special designations, such as metaphysical mania, reasoning mania, arithmomania, &c.

Transitory and slight tendencies to almost all these habits may be recognized by all as normal at certain periods. The abnormality consists in their persistence and absorption of the intelligence to the exclusion of normal thought and action. See INSISTENT IDEAS, and WILL (defects of).

Literature: LEGRAND DU SAULLE, La Folie du Doute (1875); RITTI, Gaz. Hebdomadaire, No. 42 (1877); GRIESINGER, Arch. f. Psychiat. (1868-9), i. 626 ff.; BERGER, Arch. f. Psychiat. (1876), 237; B. BALL, art. Doubt, Insanity of, in Tuke’s Dict. of Psychol. Med.; MAGNAN, Recherches sur les Centres nerveux (2^e sér.); BALLET-MORSELLI, Le Psicosi (1896). Also works cited under DEGENERATION. (J.J.)  from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Baldwin/Dictionary/colls.htm#jj

30.9.2001

PETER: Good to hear from you again. You wrote to Gary –

RESPONDENT: There’s a lot of things going on right now that are common to a lot of people ... owing to the media pumping out image after image of what they would like to describe is what is going on.

I’ll leave it there because there’s a few other aspects this line of considering leads on towards... No 31 to Gary 24.9.2001

PETER: Allowing requires someone, an ‘I’ or ‘me’, to allow something to happen.

In actuality there is no one ‘who’ allows things to happen. In actuality, there is only this flesh and blood body doing what is happening, be it typing these words, making breakfast, drinking coffee, laying on the couch or driving a car. Being what I am as opposed to ‘who I think and feel I am’ elicits a palpable freedom and a sensuous delight in being here.

Getting hung up on being a someone ‘who’ is allowing things to happen is to take a back seat in the thrilling and wondrous business of being alive as a flesh and blood body. Allowing is like accepting one’s lot in life – a form of fatalism. If you take allowing to its limits you end up being a watcher – a totally disembodied entity watching ‘your’ body doing what is happening. In other words, you end up twice removed from actuality.

Actualism is about going the other way – coming to your senses, both literally and actually. And surely there is nothing more sensible than enjoying being here. Which is why actualists make such a big thing about being happy and harmless.

I fully acknowledge it is not an easy thing to do because enjoying being here goes against all one’s social and instinctual programming but the only way to get free of this programming is to have the confidence to dismantle it. Once one has tasted the perfection and purity of this actual world we live in, one can, if sufficiently motivated, glean the necessary confidence from the intrinsic propensity of the universe to manifest itself in abundance and excellence, not only in quantity but also in quality.

*

And just another thought to finish – at one stage a few years ago I wrote quite a bit about acceptance, a topic which dovetails in with your questions about allowing. I wrote it at the time that I was making sense of this aspect of my programming and you may well find it a useful aid for your own investigations. You will find it under Peter’s Correspondence, Book Review, on the actualism website.