Pseudo-Seizures
“It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.” – Julius Caesar
Introduction
Generally, people know that Julius Caesar had seizures; so, they believe they know what seizures are. Similarly, doctors see medical diagnoses (HERE) and not psychological ones that do not exist (HERE). We would argue that dissociation explains his “seizures” as well and for the war hardened solider and statesman, he would have had to have a dissociative disorder; just like our modern day politicians (HERE) and society (HERE). Body shaking, headache, dizziness, loss of consciousness, fainting, eye rolling, and focal fits are so well-known that most people seem to know what to do when they witness someone having one. But do they really know what a seizure is if they have never felt one themselves?
What people often don’t always know upfront is what the defined word means (HERE). Also, how valuable their lived experiences are to our psyche (HERE), moral development (HERE; O’Brien, 2023a), and society (HERE). Maybe this is because medical professionals do not believe dissociation either (HERE), psychology professionals think that dissociation is bogus (HERE) or fake (O’Brien, 2024c), and addiction is a choice when it is not that simple (O’Brien, 2023a). If the psychological professions do not have these terms accurately defined (O’Brien, 2023a), then who is who in the game of knowledge? As this is the meta-cognitive analysis of our doctoral work, because addiction is not understood in practice and society, dissociation is not understood or accurately defined (O’Brien, 2023a).
What professionals are showing with their publications are their level of awareness publicly on the differences between being here and not (HERE; HERE; HERE), science and science (HERE; HERE), qualitative and quantitative research (HERE), whose morally developed and who is not (HERE; HERE), and who is in recovery and who is not (O’Brien, 2023a; HERE). The lack of an operational definition of addiction in the DSM leads us to challenge the field of psychology and the “powers that be” to answer basic questions about what their existence implies to the citizen (HERE), their use of power and privilege (HERE), and where they stand on the side of history (HERE). Even better, we want to know what their actions and inaction’s imply to the lived experience of the international world, our neighbors, immigrants, and marginalized populations.
Lived Experience Philosophical Orientation
Lived experience is a series of memories that becomes a part of the body (O’Brien, 2023a). In other words, the body keeps the score (Van der Kolk, 2014) and the physical body is the unconscious (O’Brien, 2024c; HERE). Lived experience shapes one’s worldview and when the individuals have mouths to feed, his behaviors, actions, and decisions can operate in survival mode. From our perspective, survival mode equates to living dissociated (O’Brien, 2023a). Since addiction is no longer a disease (because we can identify who is making the addictive decisions and where in the brain this choice is being made (O’Brien, 2023a; HERE)), we can know who the observers are, question their motives, educate them into a new level of awareness, and promote moral development amongst the professions (HERE).
Our example here will relate to the use of the prefix “pseudo” as lived experience and what the medical model implies what psychology is by calling any aspects of it “fake”, “pseudo”, “soft”, and unscientific. Our contention is that what they are calling “fake” demonstrates their (the observer’s) level of awareness when discussing dissociation, addiction, healing, recovery, and the unconscious. What readers need to know is that psychology often gets clients referred to them, from medical doctors, identifying that the client has “pseudo-seizures”, meaning that they believe that it is psychological and that they cannot help more than they can. Maybe if the medical model could come up with better names they wouldn’t have to look so foolish (HERE). Maybe if psychology could educate what it knows better to the medical model, but we are not confident that psychology knows enough about its own tenants to make such a claim (HERE; HERE; HERE).
Orientation
Historically, dissociation has NOT been the catch-all phrase to describe something that someone does not understand, but that is what it should have been named throughout history. Dissociation as a transdiagnostic process and our recognition of addiction being transdiagnostic as well has major implications to systems of power and control in healthcare, administration of government, and politics (O’Brien, 2023a; O’Brien, 2024b; HERE; HERE; HERE). While we can clinically and philosophically name the complexities of dissociation (e.g., being here and not here at the same time), what is not easily understood by readers is that there are at least two of us existing at any given time (e.g., current and past us) and that there are seven hardwired emotions that people must contend with (O’Brien, 2023a). Again, complexity is what we are, but better understood when felt or experienced. People naturally have parts and when stressed, parts come out. The phrase is that hurt people hurt and if we are keeping hurt memories, then we are hurting inside. When people are positively or negatively stressed, illness presents or symptoms are expressed. Otherwise, these parts of self lay unconsciously dormant much of the time. So this begs the question: What is the psychological unconscious and who or what part of self has the seizure?
Like the rational mind calling the emotional mind irrational, calling the body fake is more of a diagnosis for those who label others than those who don’t. Being a mental health clinician for over 10 years, we have seen our share of histories, but pseudo-seizures are absolutely the wrong name for dissociation and are another example of how professional nomenclature produces mysinformation and implicitly releases false narratives to citizenry by not being honest with the application and meaning of the words they chose (O’Brien, 2023a). Having practiced Neurofeedback (NFB) for over five years now, we find the field of psychology’s diagnostics to be so far off that they have already hit a “point of no return” with the rate at which they violate public trust (HERE). Training other professionals in evidence-based practices like EMDR, Brainspotting, and meditation and having qEEG analysis to compare before and after treatment allows us to see what is happening in the field of psychology before they do. Those with cutting edge technology are going to be more informed with quantitative measures then those with none. We have both.
Having earned a PhD exploring research on all of these topics and the subjects of consciousness and “altered” states of consciousness, we must protest the use of the word “pseudo” in the field of psychology (O’Brien, 2024c; HERE), particularly because psychology does not have operationalized or specific foundational key terms like unconscious, addiction, and dissociation (O’Brien, 2023a). We also see how the law uses language like “good faith estimate”, “moral character”, and “morally unfit” (HERE; HERE; HERE); promotes dysfunction, insanity, and trauma (HERE); and punishes citizen populations by taking away civil liberties and natural rights (HERE). These are the roots of their mysinformation, bad application, incompetence, or immature interpretation of science; all of which demonstrate their level of awareness and stage of change (HERE; HERE), quality of education versus training, meaning of content, level of intellect, and level of moral development.
Reorientation
With the Internet, we have trickle-down education instead of trickle-down economics. With AI and psychedelics on the loose, people who only know how to do things one way will struggle to sit with things just the way they are. In a recent work, we see that this use of “pseudo” myslabeling is common (O’Brien, 2024c; HERE). Further, we see the system’s level of awareness in their response to people becoming aware of themselves (HERE) through social awareness, group education, lived experience, collective thinking, and sharing it with the world.
If dissociation is the disorder of the disorder (e.g., transdiagnostic), we wish we could know who is still asking the question and expecting a different answer. At this point in our career, any diagnosis that is not dissociation-related is questionable (HERE) and if treatment is going to be required for citizens, then maybe we need to look at how we are treating the people they say they care about (HERE; HERE). Citizen before profession and citizenry before professional obligation or law.
Data
Seizures are socially permissible in our culture because they have a historical context and a medical basis, of which, to date, is still widely unknown. As an example of the lived experience of those who have been there and come back, here are some of our lived experiences with actual seizures from our history and family life, so we can know who the fakes are.
Right before this writer got sober, we had a detox seizure while driving sober (cosmically, no one was hurt but us). We were not trying to get sober at that time, but the need to conceal our use at the time and led us to a period of not drinking for a couple of hours to pick up a roommate at the airport. We did not make it. The fact that we did not want to know how much we needed to drink, stopping drinking alcohol and social awareness is what caused the seizure.
One random day while on a family vacation several years ago, our three-year-old daughter had a focal seizure. With the help of Neurofeedback (NFB) and the medical model, she had no further complications and has been great ever since. We learned that seizures like hers happen 4-5% of children, yet no one really talks about it. Our experience engaging with the medical model was that if we did not treat the seizure, we would be labelled as bad parents and possibly warranted a call to child protective services. As a professional and parent, this was disheartening. However, as our research points to, the fact that all drugs can create trauma is something that the medical model needs to address. The fact that trauma and stress can trigger dormant diseases in the body means that we must heal the divide between professions. If we do not, then the undiagnosed addictions we have identified will continue to become major causes of the downfall of civilizations (we suggest reading Henry Adams for historical context, Alan Watts for philosophical context, and studying dissociation to learn how and why systems operate).
Lastly, having gone through the medical model’s “treatment” for a seizure with our daughter (e.g., diet, medication management, and decreasing stress), we found that “the system” does not medically know how or why the medication they prescribe works. They were also ambivalent towards NFB as a solution. Being cautious about medications and our children, we were concerned that not accepting a prescription would mean a fight with a neurologist over matters that they do not accept, agree with, validate, or care to explain. Medical “science” use medicines to relax the body, just like NFB and cannabis/psychedelics. Though this is not the treatment the client is expecting, the relieving of stress in the body so important because that is what produces the seemingly-annoying induced symptoms of dissociation and an increased stress on the body triggers dormant illnesses, disorders, and diseases. Our concern that medical doctors would call CPS on us was real, but we will not know if it was worth it because they do not know how or why this medication prevents seizures. That being said, this does not always have to be the case (HERE) and knowing what we know about the body, anything that relieves stress in the body like a benzodiazepine would produce a decrease in seizure activity just like NFB or meditation would. The world we live in allows for one plus one to equal three, but “the system” is telling us that one plus one can only equal two (O’Brien, 2024c; HERE).
Discussion
We have been “treating” seizures with NFB because that is what the training we took sold us. Before any professional American do-gooder calls the board (because this may sound illegal to the zealous bureaucratically-minded professional reading this who must not know the difference between the body and the mind; FYI: there is none (O’Brien, 2024c), know that while NFB relaxes the body through classic conditioning, we also support healthy living by reducing stress, which lowers symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, addiction, and dissociation. This is within our scope of practice and since both professions are doing the same thing differently, what are professions doing telling one another what is right and wrong for them to do? Literally, there can be no difference between the body and the psyche because we are all memories becoming aware of that fact (O’Brien, 2023a; O’Brien, 2024c). Yet, as their labeling of “pseudo-seizures” AND society’s stigmatization of dissociation as a “pseudo”-mental health disorder represents, we have to consider the level of awareness of the sources and what that means to be a moral profession working in the field of psychology, law, and business (HERE).
Conclusions
Awareness is what constitutes awareness. Either one has it or they don’t. Awareness of “what” and “who” becomes a matter of “how” and “when”. If one does not know this, they will in the end.
Implications
When what is so important now settles the score with the past, tomorrow will never know today like yesterday knows. When Then becomes them, their one will understand. As “why” becomes the reason to fulfill one’s destiny so “who” can be revealed. When the salesman is known and the sale that has burned future generation with modern conveniences and undiagnosed addictions (e.g., perfectionism, altruism, and ambition (O’Brien, 2023a)), recovery is what fills. Applied Recovery is what is applied, not what is implied.
Future Directions
You may already know where these works are going (O’Brien, 2025). When the worst thing is your future, it is because of the past; but when today is about prepared to die, one can truly live and die morally (HERE).
References
O’Brien, A. (2023a). Addiction as Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Phenomenological Investigation of the Addictive State. International University of Graduate Studies. (Dissertation). Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2023b). Memory Reconsolidation in Psychedelics Therapy. In Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2023c). Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024a). Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024b). Diagnostic Privilege: Meta-Critical Analysis. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and the healing profession as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Appendix 2. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2024c). Meta-Critical Analysis: The “Science” of Pseudoscience. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and the healing profession as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Appendix 3. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2024d). Moral-Ethics. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Chapter 14. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024e). Path of the Wounded Healers for Thrivers: Perfectionism, Altruism, and Ambition Addictions; Re-education and training manual for Abusers, Activists, Batterers, Bullies, Enablers, Killers, Narcissists, Offenders, Parents, Perpetrators, and Warriors. Re-Education and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2025)(in process). American Made Addiction Recovery: a healer’s journey through professional recovery. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
