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Wednesday 9 July 2008

It's the  thermostatic impairment wot does it

James commends a piece in the Telegraph by Camila Batmanghelidjh. I'm sure she does good work, but forgive me for finding her a rather preposterous figure. Whenever I've seen her on the telly she seems to mix platitudes with nonsense. This, for instance (unearthed by Peter Hitchens), on the radio, is simply beyond satire: 

There are very exciting studies emerging that may really help our thinking. A lot of these types of very violent young people are thermostatically impaired. The reason they're thermostatically impaired is that they've been exposed to so much violence and trauma that they almost get addicted to operating through adrenaline.

This adrenaline recharges their system into a violent state of being. In addition they have got very poor selfsoothing repertoires because they have been deprived of loving care. Loving care and compassion is what gives you your repertoire for empathy.

On the one hand they are maternally and carewise very depressed so that the control areas of the brain don't develop, and on the other hand they are supercharged with traumatic memories which disregulate their management of energy. And I think we need to be looking at the problem at these levels. Cultural factors only give you the weapons, they don't give you the feeling to kill.

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