The Associative Squirt Theory of the Brain

After a long time of thinking about human brains I have come up with my theory of the brain which is entirely unoriginal, derivative, and a bit silly. It is, however, a useful way for people who otherwise would not think about how brains work to have someone give them a shortcut to understanding.

The brain comes with a basic system of squirts and anti-squirts. A squirt is a set of drugs pumped into your brain by glands within the brain that makes you feel "Good" subjectively, but mostly works in behavior by making you want to experience that squirt again. These drugs are dopamine, seratonin and norepinephrine, which are also neurotransmitters, the things that make your brain work. Basically the human brain likes doing stuff.

Everything you and everyone else have ever wanted to do is as a result of a squirt. Remember that is wanted, rather than ended up doing because otherwise things would be unpleasant. Wanting is the desire for a squirt, even if this is not conscious.
Anti-squirts are things that stop you from doing something, basically pain and anxiety (not necessarily two different things, and certainly interlinked.)

So, almost everyone is born with the capability to feel squirts and anti-squirts, but an important thing to remember is that these squirts and anti-squirts are in different amounts to different experiences because people are born as different from each other. So, if I take a drug the effect of it will be different in amount to others taking it. There are some people who get a huge squirt from nicotine and others that don't. The only reason I am not a smoker is because my brain doesn't give much of a squirt at all from nicotine. People's basic response to chemicals (even the ones their own brain produce) are different in extent (although I think not very different in quality).

But how does the vast array of human behavior and personality derive from basic squirts and anti-squirts? It is through the miracle of association. The human brain literally grows pathways of thought in response to situations. If you see a bunny rabbit and then someone stabs you in the leg, your brain will grow a pathway between the bit of the brain that represents bunny rabbit and pain. In the future a bunny rabbit will lead to the concept of pain (an anti-squirt) and therefore anxiety. The more intense the squirt or anti-squirt and the more often it happens the more powerful and immediate the association.

The important thing to remember is that associations can build upon each other into networks. These networks can be very complicated. Take jumping off a cliff into the Mediterranean. On one hand there will be lots of associations of falling off things and the pain resulting. But there will also be the feeling of the increased brain activity that results from the fear of the pain and exists beyond the point of the fear. Missing out on pain feels good because squirt chemicals last longer than pain chemicals. Jumping off the cliff will also be connected with the joy of telling stories about events, associated with beauty, with self-esteem and pride, with memories of other people having done it.
Standing on the side of a cliff over a clear blue sea will have a whole array of associations built upon associations all connected to the sensations of just a few chemicals in the brain. And those associations will be altered by the very experience of standing on the side of a cliff.

A wonderful illustration is the concept of phobias and the treatment known as flooding. Built into the human brain are some basic concepts, like fear of falling. In some people this connection between pain and falling is more powerful, and then some associations are built upon this that reinforce that association. In such cases standing in a high place, even when it is completely safe is directly connected to pain. People with phobias are in a form of agony when that phobia is triggered. Although I think it is ridiculous to be afraid of a one inch spider, I should remember that to the person with the phobia it feels as bad as being punched in the face.
Flooding is the treatment by which the phobia is confronted head-on in a completely safe environment. With heights you would put the person with a fear of heights in a high place that is absolutely safe. Everything that can be done to make that environment feel safe (that is to surround the person with things they associate with safety) is done, until new associations are grown between being in a high place and safety. Once enough associations are made with enough power the person is no longer afraid of heights.
But flooding often backfires because the power of the brain to associate things is astonishing. To a large extent the human brain cannot distinguish between an association and the real world. The association of fear and pain in a phobia is often as strong as actually feeling the consequences. The human brain has difficulty telling the difference between what it imagines and what is true. So, in many cases of phobia the experience of flooding is as bad as the actual event of which the person is afraid. Being in a high place for someone with a fear of heights can feel as bad as falling off the high place. In such cases flooding actually makes the phobia worse.

In summary, everyone wants to do things or avoids them simply based on squirts or anti-squirts. You can't do very much about your predispositions to squirts and anti-squirts. Built upon these basic responses are associations that are updated and developed throughout our lives, largely unconsciously. To a large extent the human brain experiences these associations as reality. If you associate green grass, a certain temperature of air and a certain light with a time of contentment in childhood, your brain will feel the same as you did in that situation. The sensation of the associations is the same as the sensation of the original feeling.

Why do I put this out? Because people don't use these concepts with regard to each other very much. People think heroin users do it because they are weak and stupid, rather than the real reason that for users heroin feels like the absolute most blissful time in your life. Could you voluntarily stop yourself from experiencing the top ten percent of the happiest times in your life? Like the moment you fell in love?
People think that other people are like themselves and that if they didn't do something why should someone else? The reason is that their brain set up and their associations that have been formed are such that their experience of such events is dramatically different. What seems to be the same situation is entirely different between individuals. I really enjoy going on a stage and performing. My wife is likely to throw up and pass out from the literal pain of the prospect. In reading this now she probably can literally feel the horror, (sorry sweetie). Our experience of the same event is entirely different.

So people don't do unpleasant things because they are trying to be bad people. And people don't do nice things out of some rational choice to be good. People do things simply because the associations they have developed produce a happy squirt or produce a painful anti-squirt. If you don't understand that basic concept, you don't understand people. If you want to change your behavior, or the behavior of someone else you have to work out what makes you or someone else have a squirt, and then find ways to associate the new behavior with that experience. If people want me to be less lazy, they have to make work feel better. Since my basic make-up does not provide huge squirts for conforming, or fitting in, or looking good in the eyes of others, or a job well done etc. but does get huge squirts from comfort, beauty, love, competition and booze, this makes things tricky.