Trees, Insects,

Fish, Mouse, Every living thing has an innate

Expectations set of responses that matches to
Orangutan,
expected stimuli, such as food or
Humans
light or danger.

Stimuli in A baby instinctively knows to

Environment latch on to the nipple; a plant
turns towards the sun.

Ways to deal with

stimuli
 BRAIN

REMEMBER PREDICT
CONTROL
Result of Past future
movement
Movements movements

The part of the brain that controls movement is also the

part of the brain that plans and calculates and assesses
The part of the brain that controls movement is also the
part of the brain that plans and calculates and assesses

The more complex the creature, the greater its

expectations and the greater the variety of ways it
develops to meet its needs

Emotions, derived from the Latin emovere, 'to move

outwards, to stir up', are connected to our needs and
survival

Any emotional arousal caused by an expectation — to

eat, to have sex, to take defensive action — is
discharged by satisfying the expectation.
 Expectations are about the needs of all living things and
the resources they anticipate using to help meet them

When a life form is not thriving —

Any life form that meets its needs by
whether plant, animal or human being —
using the resources with which nature
the reason is that its needs are not being
has gifted it is a successful one
met
 EMOTION

Behaviour
Attached Information Creates Urge to do Something
Impulse
 We are all born with innate knowledge programmed into us from our genes.
Throughout life we experience this knowledge as feelings of physical and
emotional need.
 These feelings evolved over millions of years and, whatever our cultural
background, are our common biological inheritance. They are the driving force
that motivates us to become fully human and succeed in whatever environment we
find ourselves in.
 It is because these psychological needs are incorporated into our biology at
conception that we call them – and the innate resources we have in order to help
us meet them – human 'givens' – they are the givens and drivers of human nature.
 As animals we are born into a material world where we need air to breathe, water,
nutritious food and sufficient sleep. These are the paramount physical needs.
Without them, we quickly die.
 In addition we also need the freedom to stimulate our senses and exercise our
muscles. We instinctively seek sufficient and secure shelter where we can grow and
reproduce ourselves and bring up our young.
 These physical needs are intimately bound up with our emotional needs — the
main focus of human givens psychology
1. Security — safe territory and an environment which allows us to develop fully
2. Attention (to give and receive it) — a form of nutrition
3. Sense of autonomy and control — having volition to make responsible choices
4. Emotional intimacy — to know that at least one other person accepts us totally
for who we are, “warts 'n' all”
5. Feeling part of a wider community
6. Privacy — opportunity to reflect and consolidate experience
7. Sense of status within social groupings
8. Sense of competence and achievement
9. Meaning and purpose — which come from being stretched in what we do and
think.
1. The ability to develop complex long term memory, which enables us to add to
our innate knowledge and learn
2. The ability to build rapport, empathize and connect with others
3. Imagination, which enables us to focus our attention away from our emotions, use
language and problem solve more creatively and objectively
4. Emotions and instincts
5. A conscious, rational mind that can check out our emotions, question, analyze and
plan
6. The ability to 'know' — that is, understand the world unconsciously through
metaphorical pattern matching
7. An observing self — that part of us that can step back, be more objective and be
aware of itself as a unique center of awareness, apart from intellect, emotion and
conditioning
8. A dreaming brain that preserves the integrity of our genetic inheritance every night
by metaphorically defusing expectations held in the autonomic arousal system
because they were not acted out the previous day.
 We are all vulnerable to addiction because it arises
from behavior that is totally natural and desirable.
A crucial part of our survival and continuing
evolution.
 But addiction itself is not “Natural”. Addiction is the
result of the natural biological system going wrong
or being “Hijacked”.
1. Why would our biological mechanism have evolved such
destructive behaviours.
2. Why would we develop the capacity to switch off the pleasure from
undesirable activities (drinking, gambling, shopping, caffeine, etc),
so that we have to indulge again and again yet each time the
pleasure is reduced.
3. Why should it be in our nature to feel bad and withdrawal
symptoms when we attempt to stop the undesirable activity. We try
to avoid the pain of withdrawal so much so that we are compelled
to continue the compulsive act.
1. Charles Darwin – Survival of the fittest. Characteristics
that persists in an organism are there to aid survival.
2. Why then have we developed and retained the ability to
become addicted when addiction harms us and is anti-
survival?
3. There must be another use of the biological mechanism
that drives addiction – one that aids life instead of
destroying.
What possible purpose could be served by
a mechanism that continually lessen the
pleasure when we repeatedly perform any
behavior that initially gave us pleasure?
1. Nature rewards us with pleasurable sensations when we
meet our innate needs.

INSTINCTIVE
PERFORM
INNATE NEEDS DRIVE TO
HAVE NEEDS MET ACTION

To encourage us to be more effective and proactive

with meeting our needs, nature lessens the pleasure REWARD
each time we repeat an action. PLEASURE
Once we learn a new useful skill for our survival, we need to
keep on developing this skill and not run after new highs.

NEW USEFUL
CONTINUE
SKILL

Bad Feelings
Not Continue
Withdrawal
ADDICTION LEARNING
Addiction
is the
learning
mechanism
MISSING of the brain NEEDS
NEEDS switched to FULLFILLED
destruct
instead of
construct
DESTRUCT CONSTRUCT
Addiction derives from the desire for the high that nature
gives us when we master something new.

FALSE HIGH TRUE HIGH

1. Sucks us in 1. Focus outwards

2. Cheating high 2. Satisfying high
3. Quick Fix 3. Achievement
4. Blind Alley 4. Possibilities
 VETERAN STATISTICS
RAT PARK
SOLDIERS Natural Recovery

Small Large 50% 18-34 yrs old 35-54 yrs

Alcohol Huge drop
cage cage Heroine users in usage

80% gave up No family Socially Excluded, Physical or

within one or PTSD emotional abused, jobless, no
Addicted Healthy year back didn’t give family and suffer emotional
with family up difficulties did not recover.
  Example: Destructive relationship

1. Pre-contemplation: you are in love with your partner and are reluctant to admit
a problem may be developing.
2. Contemplation: doubts begin to creep in. Perhaps your relationship with your
partner is damaging your other relationships or your work. You want to leave but
at the same time don’t want to.
3. Determination: at this point, something tips the balance – perhaps a clearly
negative consequence of the relationship, a serious injury or a realization of
where it is leading. It is like a door opening. At this stage you either move on
through the door or go back to the previous stage.
4. Action: you go through the door and decide on a plan of action. You decide on a
strategy, set your goals – to move out/leave the relationship.
5. Maintenance: now you have to stay away.
 BOSS Secretary

Fully Awake
Automatic
consciousness

When Boss is ON, Secretary is OFF

When Secretary is ON, Boss is OFF
 Senses
except smell

BOSS

Thalamus

Secretary
Amygdala

Emotional Tag
Pattern Match dopamine

Emotional Tag: anger, sadness, fear,

desire, awe, joy, greed, disgust
 EMOTION

NEGATIVE POSITIVE

REPULSION ATRACTION
 CARROT ( reward ) STICK ( withdrawal)

Needs Thalamus
NOT Met

Anterior
Singulate

Artificially activate
Dopamine Circuit Amygdala
(Carrot) in brain

When the hypothalamus and the amygdala send, in the form of withdrawal symptoms (stick), a signal to the anterior cingulate
that more of the addictive substance or behaviour is expected, the person quickly becomes trapped in the delusion that that
is what is needed. This is because the anterior cingulate has called up relevant past memories (which in this case, the most
recent memories that match are past indulgences which are also laced with dopamine) to try and make an evaluation of how
important the signal is.
1. What am I thinking? (Basal ganglia- integrates feelings, thoughts and
movements).
2. What am I feeling? (Basal ganglia- integrates feeling thoughts and movements)
Temporal Lobes – emotional stability, name it to tame it – labeling affect.)
3. What do I want now (intention)? (Cerebellum – executive functions connects to
Prefrontal Cortex (PFC), cognitive integration).
4. How am I getting in my way (pattern)? Prefrontal Cortex – learning from
mistakes.
5. What do I need to do differently now ( creator )? ( Prefrontal Cortex –the boss
supervision of life – executive functioning planning goal setting, insight)
(Anterior Cingulate Gyrus brain’s gear shifter– sees options go from idea to
idea).
The goal is to refocus activity away from the amygdala and light up other aspects the
brain to gain more cognitive control and give you constructive options and direction.

1. What am I thinking: What are they doing, I already told them to put the
computers away.
2. What am I feeling: I am so frustrated with them, I can’t believe this.
3. What do I want: I want them to put the computers away and support me here.
4. How am I getting in my way: I am fuming and not calming myself down. I am
ready to pounce on them.
5. What do I need to do differently: I need to take a breath and walk over there
and quietly say something to them
 Dr. Matt Lieberman and colleagues scanned the brains of 30 people - - 18 women
and 12 men between 18 and 36 – who were shown pictures of faces expressing
strong emotions. What they found is that when people attached a word like angry to
an angry-looking face, the response in the amygdala portion of the brain that
handles fear, panic and other strong emotions decreased.
 Lieberman states, "This seems to dampen down the response in these basic
emotional circuits in the brain. What lights up instead is the right ventrolateral
prefrontal cortex, part of the brain that controls impulses. ”
 So one way to gain back your lost IQ points is to label the feelings. Name the
feeling, normalize it and nurture a direction or action.
 The feelings are cognitively reappraised or reframed and thus less aroused. This is
called “affect labeling.”