Notes toward a Least-Case Hermeneutic
Of Non-Psychotic Understanding

My last psychosis occurred in 2009-- beginning in January; here are some notes about the logical structure of that illogical process (by outcome, that is.)

My errors of reasoning were propositional... There was logical method to my syllogistic reasoning, but the assignment of truth value was errant. I think I could have done algebra, addition, geometry, and even probabilistic reasoning as I might during a non-psychotic interim, but the delusionality derived from the fact that I was permitting propositions based upon inputs that were dereistic-- fantastic.

For example, I came to believe that my gaussmeter/radio-emission-detector was validly indicating that my personal computer was 'bugged' as a result of discovery of emf (electromotive force transmission) was coming not only from my computer but from 15% of the computers at the local public library...I simply could not imagine any other reason other than eavesdropping for this phenomenon... and thus became paranoid. The actual signal from my computer was quite strong-- over 10 milliwatts-- about 5X the maximum recommended by the FDA for human exposure.

Only later did I discover from a technician that computers COMMONLY put out a radio signal; had I known that, I doubt that I would have developed a full psychosis, or at least would have developed a different kind of disorder.

As a result of the inference that the apartment had high emf in it, I felt that there may be danger of fire, as I smelt something like a burnt-bean-plastic smell in my apartment. Accordingly, I cut the electrical power to my apartment, and also-- as the plasticy smell persisted-- cut the heat to my place.

In the dark and cold of winter, I lost my psychotropic medication, which of course contributed to my psychosis; however at the time I thought omega-3 fatty acids were the sole mood stabilizer I needed, and though I lost these too, I supplied myself from the dietary source of canola oil.

In about 3 months, I was beginning to think that my 'thoughts' were a kind of communication (telepathy) and spun completely into madness, but this too was a propositional logic errant but syllogistic in form. I was arrested for illegal behavior in April, and only after several months in jail -- 'feeling fine'-- did I get psychiatric treatment.

On the N=1 basis of my then-psychotic condition, I posit that-- just as there are schizophrenics who can do math and play winning chess-- my ability to reason was formally OK, but the mechanism that does the assumption mentally had become aberrant.

Accordingly, I want to investigate my 'positing equipment'... which is in fine a kind of rhetorical discipline of determining WHY and WHEN I believe things to be true. I am completely willing to assume that I had a schizophreniform psychosis, but that the propositional-positing-mechanism-- that which makes belief seem real-- is the actual mechanism that needs study.

I can I think detect myself to be non-psychotic; I cannot detect myself 'crazy' when I am psychotic, and that seems to be the Job-1 for this afore-mentioned least-case hermeneutic.

--Vernon Lynn Stephens