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A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health

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Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health

#21

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

roody15 wrote: post #3

Interesting read. Have always enjoyed Philip K Dicks novels… sadly not surprised he struggled with mental and substance abuse. His books read in a way that often feature a character somewhat removed from reality or in some form of psychosis. The idea of what is real or not real is explored over and over again. I cannot help but think he was writing from his own soul or at least his own experience. He was always the l…

His perspective is part of what makes his work so relevant to today with our manufactured realities that he predicted so well.

Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health

#22

Post by ycombinete »

placesalt wrote: post #9

It's bizarre that the article has a WARNING at the top which is a spoiler warning for a movie from the 1990s, but not a sensitive-content warning re: suicide.

To be fair the spoilers for Total Recall are whoppers.

Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health

#23

Post by ithkuil »

foobarbecue wrote: post #20
rustybolt wrote: post #12

"substance abuse" is such a weird term.

a euphemism for sure

Is it though?

The word "abuse" is pretty strong. If I'm abusing substances it's not like I'm just having a puff now and then do I?

The term "substance" is a bit generic, I grant you that. But does that make it an euphemism just because the exact substance is not specified?

Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health

#24

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

lordfrito wrote: post #8
ftxbro wrote: post #2

if pkd were still alive he would think that gpt is communicating with him specifically

You know I think you're 100% right on this... wonder what kind of crazy things PKD would come up with after talking to chat GPT. Train up a GPT from his writing, and have a dialogue with himself?

If only there was some kind of android head we could use for that?

https://slate.com/culture/2012/06/philip-k-dick-robot-an-and...

Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health

#25

Post by ttctciyf »

ftxbro wrote: post #2

if pkd were still alive he would think that gpt is communicating with him specifically

There's a passage in Martian Timeslip[1] where protagonist Jack Bohlen is brought in to repair an artificial teacher called "Kindly Dad":

> "Hi, Kindly Dad," he said without enthusiasm. Setting down his tool case he began unscrewing the back plate of the Teacher.

> Kindly Dad said in a warm, sympathetic voice, "What's your name, young fellow?"

> "My name," Jack said, as he unfastened the plate and laid it down beside him, "is Jack Bohlen, and I'm a kindly dad, too, just like you, Kindly Dad. My boy is ten years old, Kindly Dad. So don't call me young fellow, O.K.?" Again he was trembling hard, and sweating.

> "Ohh," Kindly Dad said. "I see!"

> "What do you see?" Jack said, and discovered that he was almost shouting. "Look," he said. "Go through your goddamn cycle, O.K.? If it makes it easier for you, go ahead and pretend I'm a little boy." I just want to get this done and get out of here, he said to himself, with as little trouble as possible. He could feel the swelling, complicated emotions inside him. Three hours! he thought dismally.

> Kindly Dad said, "Little Jackie, it seems to me you've got a mighty heavy weight on your chest today. Am I right?"

> "Today and every day." Jack clicked on his trouble-light and shone it up into the works of the Teacher. The mechanism seemed to be moving along its cycle properly so far.

Conceiving this as an LLM with a "kindly dad" prompt doesn't seem too far a stretch. PKD nicely catches the interpersonal "uncanny valley" into which his protagonist has wandered.

1: https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/ManyThings/PDF/Martian%20Tim...

Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health

#26

Post by [deleted] »

Trasmatta wrote: post #19
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, you've intrigued me with that - I'll chase down a copy

Here's a few random passages I've highlighted on my Kindle. It's completely full of stuff like this, that you can just find by flipping somewhere random. It skirts the line between genius and insanity (which describes the man himself, I think). Sometimes I read one of the passages and I'm like "this man had totally lost all semblance of sanity" and sometimes I'm like "he was one of the smartest men to ever live". I t…

[deleted]

Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health

#27

Post by Simplicitas »

armitron wrote: post #4

Superficial and entirely missing the mark. PKD spent years doing research trying to understand his most important mystical experience, and his extensive notes and documentation ended up in the book "exegesis" (also greatly influencing the philosophy underlying works such as Valis). None of that is of course mentioned in the article. What we get is a random psychiatrist performing armchair psychoanalysis on someone he…

Good point. On his passing away right before Blade Runner was release, not even a mention that reportedly Ridley Scott screened parts of the movie, and he evidently was lost for words, saying “I’m in awe that you were able to reproduce what was in my mind”.

Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health

#28

Post by ttctciyf »

throw458294738 wrote: post #11
ftxbro wrote: post #2

if pkd were still alive he would think that gpt is communicating with him specifically

I have seen that LLMs (specifically character.ai) are not great for people in psychosis. I’m not sure that it’s actually worse than a psychosis without an LLM to talk to, but it has been painful to watch a loved one drawn in by it.

The highly LLM-like artificial teachers in Martian Timeslip (see my other comment here) contribute to the protagonist's psychotic episode in that book, iirc.

Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health

#29

Post by readthenotes1 »

BSEdlMMldESB wrote: post #14

where does psychosis end and 'real' mystical experience begin? here's a summary of Philip K. Dick's 'highest truths' https://www.tekgnostics.com/PDK.HTM

Probably hasn't ended with:

"18. Real time ceased in 70 C.E. with the fall of the temple at Jerusalem. It began again in 1974 C.E. The intervening period was a perfect spurious interpolation aping the creation of the Mind. 'The Empire never ended,' but in 1974 a cypher was sent out as a signal that the Age of Iron was over; the cypher consisted of two words: KING FELIX, which refers to the "

Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health

#30

Post by throwaway290 »

roody15 wrote: post #3

Interesting read. Have always enjoyed Philip K Dicks novels… sadly not surprised he struggled with mental and substance abuse. His books read in a way that often feature a character somewhat removed from reality or in some form of psychosis. The idea of what is real or not real is explored over and over again. I cannot help but think he was writing from his own soul or at least his own experience. He was always the l…

> sadly not surprised he struggled with mental and substance abuse. His books read in a way that often feature a character somewhat removed from reality or in some form of psychosis. The idea of what is real or not real is explored over and over again

Don't take that is an indicator, Haruki Murakami often reads similarly and he seems to be a well adjusted person.

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