Conditioned Reflexes and Psychiatry was published in Britain in 1941. Pavlov’s early, work, for which had won the Nobel prize in 1903, had focused on digestion but for the last thirty years of his life Pavlov studied “higher nervous system function.” Working behind the iron curtain, Pavlov discovered disturbances in brain function caused by abnormal stress arise from a physiological process common to the brains of all higher mammals, including humans. In 1941 Pavlov’s astonishing findings were being published for the first time English but almost all copies were destroyed in the massive German bombing campaign known as the Blitz and have been for that reason, largely ignored in the west.
Pavlov’s findings showed changes in brain function caused by extreme or abnormal stress activate a protective mechanism he called “transmarginal inhibition.” Pavlov identified three distinct, progressive phases of transmarginal inhibition:
1) The equivalent phase, in which powerful stimuli and weak stimuli produce the same response.
Example: Normal human beings, suffering from intense fatigue, frequently report little difference in their response to trivial or important experiences.
2) The paradoxical phase. In this condition a large stimulus produces little or no response, while a tiny stimulus produces a strong response.
Example: A affected group or individual might ignore a major catastrophe and respond vigorously to a trivial incident.
3) The ultra paradoxical phase. Here, positive conditioned responses switch to negative ones and negative ones become positive.
Example: A conversion experience dramatically changes individual orientation from skeptical or opposed to enthusiastic advocacy for an ideology previously forcefully rejected.
Summary: Prolonged stresses imposed on individuals or networked populations produce phased, cumulative defensive response in the brain resulting in behavioral changes. Individuals move through progressive phases, they become increasingly vulnerable to mass manipulation, social control systems, induced collective hysteria, and individuals or groups may enthusiastically embrace radical, formerly despised ideology.