— Robinson Crusoe
We at the CLP are elated to learn that Alex has been released from the Pongo de Mainique Infirmary. In fact, all of our absences from CLP have been fraught with peril. I have returned from the Mauritanian Ribbon Reef Labyrinth intact, though I must admit that I had to abandon my navigation. Egression saved my life and mind, even if it injured my pride. Our returns, the reasons for our absences, and above all, our support for Alex, give me occasion to explore a topic more pressing than ever.
We can now adumbrate the three great paradigms of labyrinthological peril. The Classicists, in their Aristotelian urge to classify, articulated object dangers. The famed Minotaur best typifies this class. The factious advents of Recursivism and Constructivism ushered in the paradigm of cognitive dangers. An eminent example, from Recursivist navigation and scholarship, is "telic liquidation": the dissolution of purpose, these thinkers posit, resulting from congression, or arrival at the center. Now, in our present era's push towards subjective and objective navigational integration, we discuss holistic dangers. I for one, and in deepest commiseration with our fellow labyrinthian, Alex, must speak to these.
Vast improvements in medical technology and psychiatric treatment have demonstrated the very real and grave consequences our psychological states have for our physical well-being. And, of course, the logical converse holds true here as well. To understand, then, my fateful experiences in the Mauritanian Ribbon Reef Labyrinth, and to convey them to you, I must recast holistic dangers in the parlance of the day: Post-Navigation Stress Disorder (PSND).
Much research has focused on the holistic dangers during navigation. Yet, while my colleague likewise is struggling to make sense of his recent navigation, I want to turn our labyrinthological eyes to those lingering, haunting, and, very literally, life-shaking, dangers of the labyrinth upon our egression -- as if the labyrinth navigates us long after we have navigated (yes, especially when in vain) the labyrinth.
PNSD is particularly acute after a navigator, regardless of the theory espoused, must egress the labyrinth prior to any significant navigational accomplishment. In the Ribbon Reef, I attained neither a sense of corridor nor center. As the foundational Yves Cruemer wisely observed in her monograph, The Encountered Labyrinth, "Failure of navigational accomplishment, regardless of theoretical intent, is the essence of deficient navigation."
Deficient navigation, I have come to understand upon personal reflection and research into PNSD studies, has a dual set of chronic symptoms. The first are physiological. I can attest to the real, physical feelings of sickness my failed navigation has incurred. Fatigue, hallucinations, hypoventilation, increased blood pressure, fever, and amyotonia are among some of the major symptoms. Researchers have described the physiological stress as "navigatorial dysbasia," post-navigation difficulty in walking. This general term is used to indicate displays of physiological stresses unique to navigation but not during navigation.
The second set of symptoms are psychological. I can also aver that deficient navigation causes one to feel as if in "suspended navigation." In this state, the post-navigator cannot recognize, much as with agnosia, ordinary objects, events, and, in extreme cases, people, for what they are. Instead, the phenomena of life are filtered only through the processes of navigation. For instance, doctors report high incidence of a fear of doors and hallways; one post-navigator described these architectural features as "dreadful decisions that I must but cannot confront."
We will discuss the symptoms of PNSD in greater depth as we learn more from Alex's first-hand accounts and as I better synthesize my own experiences with my current research.
In the meantime, I am offering two illustrations I sketched as I underwent my post-navigational therapy. (Dr. Izokawi's innovative visualization techniques, which developed in Japan in the 1980s, proved profoundly effective.) Perhaps they can offer us insight into the psycho-physiological experience of PNSD, but, most assuredly, they give us the courage to know we can overcome this powerful disorder.
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3 comments:
this is a great post which leaves me considering two questions: if eggression is successful, is the amount of PNSD lessened? how might we understand the relationship between interiorism and labyrinthological stressors?
Some interesting questions, Moritz. I'm sure John will want to weight in here. I'd like to press you further on how you'd define a "successful" eggression. It seems to me that, on a very fundamental level, if one is able to congress, reach the true center, and return to the perimeter, then one has successfully eggressed. Perhaps a more apt question might be one which probes the relationship between ease of eggression and PNSD?
As for your second query: Aaldian interiorism would surely reject the notion that navigatory stressors occur during eggression. In fact, I'd argue that a true interiorist perspective would hold that the trauma of having congressed to the point of reaching telos would be the locus of any labyrinthological stress endured, rather than issues of duration, difficulty, etc.
Thoughts?
Smart questions, Moritz.
Alex handled the issue of Interiorism and stressors concisely. Aaldi, of course, is the leading thinker on this matter. For more, consider Aaldi's essay, "Understanding the Turn in Quantological Mechanics."
"Successful egression" is a problematic term, as Alex pointed out, because the meaning of egression varies directly with the intention of navigation.
Interiorists (sometimes called Centralists, depending on the translator) prioritize the congression, therefore failure to congress results in voluntary or involuntary egression. PNSD is shown by some to be at its highest documented levels in these instances. The research is not conclusive, though.
Recursive navigation privileges the perimeter. High levels of PNSD have been reported due, and I know this language is vague (it's a nascent field), to feelings of inadequate recursion. These feelings are akin to being denied a voluntary goal -- like the internal conviction of jumping off the high dive as a kid but bailing out at the last moment. The fear-confidential confusion is the principle at stake here.
Let me put it this way. Scientists will argue that successful egression does lessen the amount of PNSD. Phenomenologists consider that this is the wrong question to ask.
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