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Amsterdam, Nether l ands
Journal of Neuropsychiatry
ISSN: 2471-8548
Alzheimer’s and Dementia 2018
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W o r l d c o n g r e s s o n
Alzheimer’s and Dementia
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his book presents a new theory, Psycho-Bizarreness: The Intuitive Rational-
Choice Theory of Madness, which explains the development and treatment of
schizophrenia, criminal insanity and neuroses, as rational coping mechanisms.
Psycho-Bizarreness Theory (PBT) claims that when individuals are confronted
with extreme levels of stress, regardless of whether the source of the stress is
environmental or neurological impairments that prevent them to satisfy their basic
needs, their behavioral options become limited. While some individuals prefer
to remain depressed, commit suicide, become drug abusers or use aggression
to eliminate the stressor, a minority of people intuitively choose certain mad
behaviors that serve their coping needs. Madness, defined by five operational
criteria (see Rofé, 2016), is seen primarily as a repressive coping mechanism,
which enables patients to block the accessibility of stress-related thoughts.
The choice of a specific behavior is determined by the same three principles
which guide the consumer's decision-making process when purchasing a certain
product (e.g., see Wänke & Friese, 2005). This includes the need to exercise
control over the stressor, availability of suitable "merchandise" and cost-benefit
analysis. Although the decision to implement the intuitive/unconscious choice
is conscious, patients become unaware of the Knowledge of Self-Involvement
(KSI), or the True Reason (TR) for acting bizarrely, through a variety of cognitive
processes that disrupt the encoding of this knowledge and memory-inhibiting
mechanisms that cause its forgetfulness. Subsequently, utilizing their socially
internalized beliefs regarding the causes of psychological disorders, patients
develop a self-deceptive belief which attributes the cause of their symptoms to
factors beyond their conscious control, and thus stabilizes the unawareness of
KSI/TR. PBT proved its ability to integrate all therapeutic methods pertaining to
neurosis into one theoretical framework (Rofé, 2010), explaining all data relevant
to the development and treatment of conversion disorder, including neurological
findings, which seemingly support the medical explanation of this disorder (Rofé
& Rofé, 2013), and resolves the theoretical confusion regarding the explanation
of phobia by distinguishing between a bizarre phobia (e.g., agoraphobia, and
chocolate phobia) and non-bizarre phobia, such as dog phobia (Rofé, 2015).
Biography
Yacov Rofé is a Professor of Psychology and former Chair
of the Interdisciplinary Department of Social Sciences at
Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. He taught for the
Department of Psychology at Washington University in St.
Louis, Missouri, and was a visiting Professor at Rutgers
Medical School in New Jersey. He has published many
articles in leading academic journals of Psychology,
including a theory entitled “Stress and Affiliation: a Utility
Theory”, published by Psychological Review in 1984. An
additional influential article, published in Review of General
Psychology, 2008, is a review that refutes the existence of
repression and the Freudian Unconscious.
rofeja@biu.ac.ilPsycho-Bizarreness: The Intuitive Rational-Choice Theory of Madness
Yacov Rofe
Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Yacov Rofe, J Neurol Neurosci 2018, Volume: 2
DOI: 10.21767/2471-8548-C1-002