The shadow of the brain..

It's raining in bangalore. Hurrah! I sometimes think it is some sort of failure of feedback inhibition, (which is the essence of most biological proceses- the idea that makes us tire of everything, sometime), that a mallu brought up with the monsoons, still can enjoy the rain. Everytime. Even if inopportune and likely to get you sodding wet. The great rain trees dripping, the leaves an extra green, the roads washed clean, rivulets along the edges, and brilliant clean air. And intense attacks of nostalgia. Will stop here. You know what i'm talking about. At least some of you who have seen the advancing edge of the rain. :)

So, was on my way home from Jaya Nagar last night. Was a good scene, a Jaya nagar park (which are quite pretty btw) behind, a mild drizzle bathed in strong neon light on empty roads. Saw this guy on the street yelling at some biker who was going fast on rain slicked roads, presumably to avoid the impending down pour, and probably into the hands of some neuro-surgeon. But we'll forget the biker. This is about the guy on the road, the one who was yelling. I think i have seen a good cross section of emotions and expressions, but this time i jus had to stop and look at the guy's face for awhile. Such was the intensity of anger and possibly hatred that I was, to admit it, a bit scared. The man was chewing pan, had water streaming down his face and had anger dripping from the whites of his eyes.

Dynamic theorists (oversimplifying philosophers who science has never touched) will tell you that such aggression is the result of resurfacement of repressed libidinal energies probably from some conflict with your dad over your mom. Funny. How far is this from some tantric who will tell you that aggression is because of devil's energy taking over the person's mind. Well, the point was to try and understand the anger and its real reasons. Well possible explanations include difficulties in your mood control, impulsivity, substance use or being threatened (not in a dynamic sense, but in that threat produces sympathetic activation). And most of these are simpler words to explain the brain's complex functional processes which control mood, thoughts, motivations and reactions to environment. There are specific structures which are related to these, large areas working compositely and specific chemicals modulating these functions through electical activity of the brain. Parts of this is known, and more coming in.

Even with all this, apart from the hard wiring of your brain which forms the substrate for agression and other impulses, there can be a significant contribution of learning. One can learn that aggression is possible, tolerated by people around, learn that aggression relieves some of your mental turmoil and that it sometimes makes some people feel good. And all this, translating through the chemicals and ever changing network connections of the brain. Sometimes, the pattern gets so entrenched that a diagnosis of anti-social personality can be made and, in the words of a professor of mine, the jail is too good for them. Well, in fact, they're pathological more in a social sense than in biological one. They're stuck in a world where their attributes are dysfunctional, which could otherwise have been of survival value in the jungle.. Or a beaurocratic system.

Osho