A Grounded Theory of Dissociative Identity Disorder

Self-Improvising Memory: A Perspective on Memories as Agential, Dynamically Reinterpreting Cognitive Glue

“…I then focus on dissolving the binary distinction between agents and the thought patterns within their cognitive system, focusing on the patterns themselves as having an important degree of not only ontological realism [29] but also agency [30]. In this sense, the focus on the dynamics between memories as agents and cognitive systems is consistent with several other concepts: radical embodied cognitive science [31,32], the importance of action perception during evolution [33], the idea of picturing engrams as dynamic processes, not as fixed traces with clear and unambiguous representations [34,35], and, broadly, the biosemiotics of meaning [16,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42] among and within agents.…”

“…Here, the same bioelectric stimulus is functionally reinterpreted based on the specific context, preserving salient, high-level information like "build whatever normally goes at this location" (in the case of the appendage regeneration trigger). Remapping is especially salient in the regeneration of organs by bioelectric patterns that are much bigger (e.g., in the case of a planarian fragment that obeys the bioelectric pattern memory of the original body 32 , but only carries a small part of it when it is cut out), or those which are present in tissue that is very different (e.g., a salamander arm that regrows from a body that is missing those structures and has to thus source its information from other parts of the body). The importance of the gestalt and the functional coupling from the large-scale target morphology information through to the molecular events inside cells are also seen in the example of tails transplanted to the flank of a salamander, which gradually remodel into a limb-like structure [127][128][129].…”

“…From this perspective, the continuum can range from fleeting thoughts, to persistent/intrusive thoughts, to the kinds of metastable entities experienced in tulpamancy [256,257], to dissociative [32,258] and other kinds [242] of alters, and finally to conventional full personalities (minds) that can generate all of the prior members of the hierarchy. It seems crazy to think that an agent, even a minimal kind, can be just a metastable pattern in an excitable medium-a temporarily persistent pattern 58 .…”

“…As Douglas Brash points out (personal communication), re-writable memory could be viewed as the art of building a new triggerable module. 32 The process of planarian regeneration, in which tiny pieces are able to restore an entire animal, is especially reminiscent of holographic properties [43], but all reproduction can be seen this way-restoring the entire body from one egg cell. For instance, the reconstitution of dissociated Hydra [139], the planarian chaotic mode of development [140], Xenobots assembling from dissociated frog embryo cells [141], etc.…”