This may have been said before, but I believe that people and governments, at their innermost core, are under philosophical control. That is to say that their actions, beliefs, and structure are the result of phlosophical principals such as human rights, business, and diplomacy. As such, it can be reasonably argued that dischord and maladaptive behavior are symptoms of an alteration or flaw in the fundamental philosophy of that being.

An example of maladaptive behavior can be found in individuals who find themselves short of money, yet desire new clothing from their favorite store. The desire of a garment is pitted against the philosophy that stealing is wrong because it leads to chaos and robs an individual of the fruits of their labor. In some individuals, this philosophy can be altered to suit demands such as stealing is okay if it does not rob an individual, but a lifeless corporate entity. The same can be said of diplomatic philosophy in times of economic turbulence, allowing countries to steal resources, or the desire for land creating botique philosophies such as ‘manifest destiny,’ both resulting in ‘justified’ war. When philosophy becomes malleable under stress, maladaptive behavior results in new stimulus-response associations, and patterns emerge in its history.

The pathology being identified as having a philosophical basis, rehabilitation should be directed at erecting or repairing underlying philosophy -for if this is not adjusted, the same stimulus-response dynamic is likley to repeat. The surgeon’s instrument of choice is, therefore, reason and logical debate. Once an individual has logically proved and deeply accepted why a response was malformed, a philosophical change has occured. This change should be allowed to grow and become a mechanism by which an individual can convince himself to stop a maladaptive response -a philosophical saftey line to prevent falling into old patterns.

In conclusion, maladaptive behavior or thinking can be seen as symptoms of a philosophical malise, treated through logical debate, and rehabilitated through self-reasoning.