"KILLER APP"

"KILLER APP"

The final show of the 2010 season of “Lie to Me” was disturbing and disappointing to me.

Briefly, the plot was that three young college entrepreneurs join up to create a social networking site. It turns out that the most brilliant of the three murders is the one female partner out of a mixture of jealousy and greed. He lands in prison.

One woman has been in therapy prior to her fame with Foster but is still a friend and comes to the Lightman group for help but ends up dead. During the investigation, the murderer hacks into the center's computers.

The disappointment? The last scene is Cal Lightman visiting our "villain" in jail and telling him he has convinced the judge to transfer him to a mental hospital. He asks Cal why he would do him that "favor." Cal's affect changes abruptly and becomes severe and essential rattles off a list of the personal harm he has done him and his friends and says essentially he has done him no favor as in the hospital they will take his brilliant mind. Revenge?

End of the episode and the end of the season.

This is distributing and disappointing. True enough, as the show has progressed the idea has been to show Cal as a more and more "doggie" and complex man. He uses violence although he says he is theoretically opposed to it. Situations "get the better of him." Usually, I like the way it is handled as it makes him human and it demonstrates how affect gets ahead of "reason." He is also constantly being irrational about the actions of his daughter. Perfectly understandable.

Here, though, it seems to go over the edge. It doesn't fit with someone who in their calmer frame of mind is anti-violence. Here the bad guy has been caught he is behind bars and he is now going to seek revenge? I don't buy it. It takes away any respect I have for him. Just the week prior to this I liked so much the ending note of the show "GONE" where he turns to the father who is a cop and tells him to "go easy" a family.

My only hope is that this is some setup for next season and some "redemption?"

References

Dr. Lynch

"The Expression Of Emotion In Man and Animals"

More on FOX Entertainments' "Lie To Me".

I am interested in the theory behind this show.

The show promotes science and the consultant Paul Ekman.

Ekman is the most well-known scientist in the area of facial recognition and emotion.

About ten years ago I became aware of him through his teacher who he gives ample credit for forming much of his career. That teacher was Silvan S. Tomkins.

Tomkins is seriously known among many as “The American Einstein.” This is because many see him as doing for the mind what Einstein did for the physical world. Much of how he did this was by studying the face. He preceded Paul Ekman in this and Charles Darwin preceded both by many years by exploring emotion in man and animals and documented his findings in a book entitled “The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals.”

Ekman focused almost entirely on the face and eschewed much of traditional psychology yet has, of course, written much on lie detection. Tomkins went on to write a complete theory of human psychology called “Affect Theory”

Ekman had his disagreements with Tomkins and it ended up that they came up with different but similar lists of “basic” emotions

Ekman's list:

Sadness

Surprise

Fear

Disgust

Contempt

Joy

* I note in the show they mention “shame” but it is not on Ekmans “primary” list as of 2003 in his book “Emotions Revealed.” He does not essentially distinguish it from “sadness.” Also, the pictures they use for “shame” on the show are not always what Tomkins, or I would call shame.

Tomkins' list of emtions:

Interest

Joy

Surprise

Anger

Fear

Disgust

Distress

Dissmell

Shame

There is much to say about the differences in these lists. I hope I generate some interest and discussion.

Several things: Originally Tomkins agreed that “contempt” was primary but then broke it down into disgust and dissmell.

What do you think?

This is a rich topic and I am very excited to see that it is being applied in any way. I would prefer to see it being applied in some “therapeutic” way but this is a start.

References

"Right Under Our Noses!"

What I learned from Tomkins was that the face is where it all begins. It is broadcasting who we are all the time. Tomkins said it was always "right under our noses!"

Tomkins gleaned much of his thought and research from watching his newborn son during his first year of life. Tomkins happened to be on sabbatical. Tomkins already had much of his theory in mind but in observing his son much congealed. He went on to do an extensive anatomical and photographic analysis of the face and came up with the list I mention in the first post here.

The point is that this is a "hardwired" set of emotive responses in all of us. For a very long time and indeed still many people think we learn our emotions. Tomkins, and before that Darwin, show us that we do not learn our emotions we are born with them. Then very importantly each of us learns what those emotions mean to us.

Part of what "Lie To Me" is showing us is that our emotions are constantly being activated by the environment and "at work" BEFORE we are aware of them and that it takes a lot of work to be in control of them.

What do you think?

References

drbplynch at aol.com

Where "Yes" means "No"

The following ensued from a comment on the Fox site:

Dr. Ekman has his ideas and again had his disagreements with Dr. Tomkins and Dr. Nathanson. This is how science progresses, discussion. I happen to strongly agree with the latter two. Dr. Ekman is getting paid by Fox to do his thing. He does his "Blog" based on his lifelong research and I would expect nothing other.

However, I wish to be somewhat of a foil and point out some "food for thought" for those interested.

We feel that for certain "emotion" is not the whole story. As we see the way we act is also very important. A look, a twist of the hand, a twitch, tells us something. In poker, we call these "tells."

In "Affect Psychology" we call them "Scripts." But "Script" has a very ample definition. But for this short discussion, I will limit it to the kind of actions we see in the program. We say that we "feel" and then we "do" and that these are very personal behaviors that we have learned from a very early age.

My main point today is that there is no IN BORN set of "tells" for lying. Basic to Ekman's research there seems to be a set of movements that are very suggestive of lying taken in context. I hope in the program they will always emphasize the complexity of this. The danger of the program is that it will inadvertently teach a bunch of people to be incompetent "lie detectors." This is by no means easy stuff.

An example.

At the end of the show or at least Ekman's blog there is the example of Dr. L. getting beat out for a parking place. He "detects" lying by the fact the guy first shakes his head "yes" and then "no." But we know that in Bulgaria the "script" is to shake your head "no" to mean "yes" according to our custom and "yes" to mean "no." So, again, none of this is innate. It is learned and who is to say that everyone learns to lie the same way, well, we don't. Research can only be suggestive of a

cultural average.

See www. 

straightdope.com/columns/read/619/why-do-we-nod-our-heads-for-yes-and-shake-them-for-no

On this theme.

References

"Emblems"

See Dr. Ekman's comments on his blog for the first Episode.

see:

http://fox.com/blogs/lietome/tag/pilot/

There is a lot of good material there.

Several points:

He does bring out the cultural aspects of gestures which again needs to be emphasized. That is not all people will do the same thing when lying, in all cultures. This is what I mean by "script" which I explain above.

He says: "I use the term ‘emblem’ for any gesture that has a precise meaning known to all members of a cultural group – such as the A-OK emblem in the U.S. (Watch out; emblems are specific to each culture. Someone will slug you if make the A-OK emblem in Sicily where it refers to what is considered a perverse sexual practice!)".

He, as I did, above in my first note, mentions Darwin's book on facial expressions. I did not know he had edited it.

It is too bad he has not yet given any credit to his mentor Silvan Tomkins.

Again I strongly disagree with him. I do think the example he uses on this page for the first episode is a "shame" response and a typical one. He does say it is a shame response but he says there is no "typical" response for "shame" and does not distinguish it from "sadness". I do not think the example for the second episode is of shame. I think they are complex emotions.

Bottom line, I think this is very rich material but I and many others disagree with some very important aspects of it. True, we do not have the organization that Dr. Ekman does. We think that he would benefit a great deal from recognizing above all else "shame" and "interest" in his research.

References

drlynch

What Motivates Us?

This blog comes from a thread on the Fox web page dedicated to the show "Lie To Me" entitled “Theory Behind The Show.” This is quite incorrect in fact as I am trying to amplify the subject matter that the show deals with.

As mentioned Dr. Ekman, the man Dr. Lightman is modeled after, was influenced greatly by Silvan Tomkins yet Tomkins developed an entire theory of personality called “Affect Psychology” whereas Ekman concentrated on the face. So Ekman’s work is not a “theory” and he would certainly probably not want it to be considered such but rather called “hard science.”

I wish to point out that at least in the discussion it is inappropriate to leave Tomkins out of the picture and I will argue that "Affect Theory" has a lot to offer in filling in the whole picture as far as telling us about people's motivation.

Some comments about last night’s show:

1) Fear: We in Affect Psychology are not only interested in lying but how emotion or feeling motivates us to act in all areas of life.

In the case of the astronaut “fear” motivates the wife to do what she does. Fear of losing “everything.”

2) Shame: When Dr. Litghtman isolates the drug pusher at school he does it by a mass shame response. “Who are all the others afraid to look at.”? Shame/fear. I am just pointing out that he is using emotion all the time to manipulate people. It is just not about “lying.” It is about how emotion “motivates” us. I will not extrapolate much on this but I suggest that the operative emotion at work in the classmates was not fear, for the most part, but “shame.”

3) When Dr. Lightman confronts the father of the girl who has confessed to murdering the girl to see if he is lying he says that the real murderer would show disgust, contempt, or fear but “never’ surprise whereas the father had shown surprise and horror and therefore was innocent.

I am sure he must have researched on this but “we” would disagree that you can say “never” we feel that we “feel” and then everyone “learns” very specific rules about how to handle feeling. True enough there are average ways that we as a culture will react. That is what the show is based on but to say “never” would be, again, as noted above to be saying that it would be an “innate” or born with instinctual response for humans to see a picture of a murder victim and “never” show surprise. That is just not a tenable statement.

I am always surprised by what people tell me they feel about what they do.

I hope the show is staying true to the research.

References

drlynch

"Odds and Ends"

This is a version of a conversion I had via email:

Mr. X:

Thank you so much for the contact.

You say:

Mr X: I have read your statements about the show, "Lie to Me" on the Fox community discussion board. I was fascinated by your explanation about Dr. Ekman vs Dr. Tomkins. I took a few Psychology classes .............but have not heard about Affect Psychology. I am interested in non-verbal communication/body language ........

drlynch: Well, I am glad I have piqued your "interest." As I point out, however, Tomkins gives us the whole banana. A "human being theory." It is just not nonverbal communication albeit that is a great part of it. In any event, it is "truly" "holistic." What there is on it is fairly concentrated but you can spend a lifetime on it. You can find almost all of it on my website that I take you have found brianlynchmd.com

Mr. X: Are you a professor?

drlynch: No, I am not at the present. I would love to teach. I "teach" every day in a sense, as I do mostly "psychotherapy" and I see that as mostly teaching this material. I used to teach some Medical Ethics.

Mr. X: If one was interested to pursue a career like the ones in the show, "Lie to Me." What courses would you take? Would.... to be in Psychology ..... Criminal

Justice? And is there any careers similar to the show in the "real" world?

drlynch: My interest in this material is not geared toward what they do on the show.

You can probably find out much more through Ekman's website. I would say that there is probably no formal way to do this. You would yes, do some combination of Psychology and Criminal Justice and hook up with Ekman people AND people that know Tomkins well. Become an expert in all of it. If you become an expert in 'SHAME" and "INTEREST" in this field you would have a leg up as no one else is doing it. Or there may be of course but then we need a lot of people.

I am interested in more "therapeutic" uses of the material. In therapy, conflict resolution, Restorative Justice, business, you name it.

paulekman.com/

Mr. X: I will check out Affect Psychology.

drlynch: As I say much info on my site.

I would suggest my book as an intro to Affect Psychology "How To Get To Where You Want To Go" 195 pages

Then Don Nathanson's "Shame and Pride" 500 pages

Then Selected Writings of Silvan Tomkins

Mr. X: Thank you for your time!

References