Television and maladaption

Abstract

There is no doubt in our minds that dissociation is the most probable negative scenario to arise from the ‘telecommunications revolution’.

• 1. The nature of the dissociative mode within individuals and societies is the parallel of processes peculiar to a type IV, turbulent environment. Dissociation occurs ‘when individuals seek to reduce the complexity of choice in their daily lives by denying the relevance or utility of others as coproducers of the ends they seek to attain,’ and feeds upon the vicious circle of creating distance between self and others. So that ‘even seemingly trivial involvements with others’ (Emery et al., 1974, p. 52–53) leads to increasingly unpredictable consequences when contact occurs — which then makes less probable the initiation of further contact. The dimensions and nature of human communication are, as is the nature of type IV environments `so complex, so richly textured’ that changes arising from increasing interdependence create uncertainty. Denial of some of the individual functions which contribute to human communication, e.g. use of deodorants, must necessarily increase the degree of relevant uncertainty in personal contact.

• 2. The evidence below that television may have unavoidably dissociative effects — the creation of myths, ‘the illusion of semi-reality’, the splitting off of whole brain processing from reception of information — all point to a conclusion that forms of telecommunication only accentuate and confirm the necessity for dissociative response to turbulence.