WHAT: Talk by Psych Adjunct Faculty Member, John Montgomery (author of The Answer Model)

When: Friday, 2/28; 12:15-1:15

WHERE? LC 104

WHY? Because we like to learn new information about human behavior!

2 credits toward the psychology subject pool – http://newpaltz.sona-systems.com/

Come hear one of our dedicated adjunct faculty members, John Montgomery (PhD in Neuroscience from Cal Tech) give a brown bag talk about his work related to the factors that underlie addiction. In his words:

Perhaps the most powerful force in all living things – including human beings – is the tendency, or ‘drive’, towards homeostasis, or equilibrium, at all levels. This talk will present a new model suggesting that when people live in environments – such as modern cities or towns – that they are not well-equipped for biologically or evolutionarily, an opposing tendency often arises that creates a destructive drive towards non-homeostasis or dis-equilibrium at all levels. This destructive drive, the model suggests, is generated when literal biochemical addictions to distressing emotional states, such as anger, regret, or self-pity, or to a variety of non-homeostatic, out-of-balance psychological states in general, begin to form. Evidence will be presented suggesting that the stress hormones released by all non-homeostatic states may provide unconscious biochemical rewards in the brain, a phenomenon that may underlie a wide range of psychological disorders. A new therapeutic method that is based on this framework, and that in preliminary studies has been exceptionally effective in helping people overcome a wide variety of psychological and physical ills, will also be introduced.