Richard G. Epstein

[left.htm]

Computers Help Schizophrenics

to Integrate Diverse Selves

---

New Program Proves More

Effective than Drugs and

Traditional Therapies

---

Special to the Sentinel-Observer

by

Anne Crumb

Human Features Editor

Computers are being used more and more to heal the wounds of the psyche and the spirit. Despite the constant discovery of new miracle drugs during the 2000s and 2010s, the 2020s are the decade of computer-based therapies for mental illnesses. Some experts predict that drugs for treating mental illness will be a thing of the past before the end of this century.

The latest marvel in the high-tech arsenal against mental illness is CyBil, a program that helps schizophrenics to integrate their diverse selves. CyBil was developed by GetPsyched!, one of the leading companies in the exploding field of computer-based therapies for the mind and the soul. GetPsyched! president, Betsy Orlando, explained how CyBil works in a teleview conversation with this reporter.

"The first stage of treatment involves documenting the selves that inhabit the tortured mind of the schizophrenic," Dr. Orlando explained. "This is done automatically, by computer. The computer interacts with the patient as different personalities emerge, recording facts and characteristics of the various personalities. The program creates a model of each personality, so that the computer can simulate that personality, playing it back to the patient so that the patient can become aware of its characteristics as an objective reality.

"Once we have identified the various personalities, we run a special program that creates a new, integrated personality, from the diverse personalities that we found. The goal of therapy is to get the patient to take refuge in this computer-generated personality, adopting it as his or her own, genuine personality. The integrated personality is a composite of the diverse, unhealthy personalities."

Dr. Orlando explained that the construction of the integrated personality is extremely sophisticated, utilizing the new mathematics of personality spaces. A personality space is what mathematicians call a vector space. Each personality is represented by a unique vector in that space. The integrated personality that we compute is a weighted average of all of the vectors that represent the diverse personalities, sort of like the patient's center of gravity. We have found that the personality that we compute in this manner is indeed an integrated personality, that is, a personality that can function normally in our society. Just as important, it is a personality that the patient can truly claim as his or her own."

Once the integrated personality is computed, the patient is allowed to work with the training program over a period of several months. Dr. Orlando explained how the training program works. "The training program, which is the most exciting and innovative part of Cybil, presents the patient with each of his or her personalities and then shows, by means of a series of willful thoughts, how the patient can bring each personality to the center, melding it into the integrated personality."

According to Dr. Orlando, the patient gradually learns how to meld each personality that emerges into the integrated personality that the Cybil program has computed.

"There are two training modes. In the first, the computer presents the patient with the thoughts that are associated with a given personality. Then, it shows the patient how to transform those thoughts into the thoughts of the integrated personality. In the alternate mode, when one of the personalities is present in the patient, Cybil helps the patient to work with that personality and to bring it back to the center, thus enabling the patient to merge into the integrated personality."

Dr. Orlando provided this reporter with a video that shows several patients that have benefited from the use of the Cybil system. In one case a woman, clearly delusional, was ranting and raving about the government trying to control her behavior with some kind of "biological rays". Distracted, wild-eyed, she continued to rant and rave even as several brawny paramedics attempted to hold her down. Later, this same woman is shown interacting with the Cybil system over a period of four months. Finally, the woman emerges as a healthy, smiling, even pretty, young woman who could again play with her two children. Dr. Orlando appears in the video and she pointedly asks the woman whether she still thinks that the government is trying to control her behavior using some kind of "ray technology".

"What? Do I look crazy?", the young woman replied with a hearty laugh.

Dr. Orlando reports that Cybil is just one of many exciting products that her company is working on. "We can use the same technique to train manic-depressives to recognize and modify their thought processes, thus dampening the manic phases and lifting up the depression phases of the cycle. Patients like working with the computers and there are no side effects! Also, patients feel like they are in control. I think that these programs allow patients to become whole again and to regain control of their lives."