IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2015 - 20

as more of the world's population
crowds into cities. Another prediction, or worry, is that more people
revealing lots of personal information to strangers via social media
may be setting the stage for more
mental illness.
Gold and Gold note that delusions
adapt to current technological possibilities. Today, with governments and
corporations undertaking massive
surveillance of nearly all electronic
communication, delusions of persecution and being controlled are likely
to become more frequent.

The Neurological Imperative
Gold and Gold, in their brief history
of psychiatry, note that in the early
decades of psychotherapy, practitioners believed that the key to mental

Today, with governments and
corporations undertaking
massive surveillance of nearly
all electronic communication,
delusions of persecution and
being controlled are likely to
become more frequent.

functioning was people's systems
of meaning. Then came the rise of
neurological approaches, in which
brain function is assumed to be allimportant. Today, most practitioners
assume that mental illness is the
consequence of a disordered brain.
Gold and Gold want to counter
this brain emphasis by pointing to
the importance of meaning and culture in the way the mind works,
and when the mind becomes disordered. Delusions have meaning.

20

And just as thoughts relating to
other people can cause illness,
thoughts can also redress it, for
example through cognitive-behavioural therapy.

evidence, such as photos, screen
shots, and measurements of electromagnetic fields. Just because
something could be happening
doesn't mean that it is happening.
The ubiquity of general surveillance
probably has blurred the boundary
between reasonable apprehension
and delusions of persecution.
Those who want to reduce the
amount of information gathered
about them can, for example, pay
in cash, use proxy servers and
encryption, and avoid using mobile
phones. If you have undertaken
such measures but they seem to
do little to reduce the amount of
surveillance and harassment, then
maybe it is time to read Suspicious
Minds to better understand the psychology of suspicion.

Surveillance and Delusion
Writing about delusions of surveillance is tricky, because in industrial
societies nearly everyone is under
surveillance. There are surveillance
cameras in shops and public places; telephone numbers and times of
calls are recorded; Internet browsing is monitored; electronic fund
transactions are registered; positions
of vehicles are logged; and mobile
phones are potential surveillance
devices, with location data collected.
Is it a delusion to believe you are
under surveillance? Certainly not.
The question is whether
you are the subject of targeted surveillance. Do the
police or other government
agencies gather and collate
all the information collected
about you and use it against
you in some way?
Some people are targeted
this way, for example those
suspected of major crimes.
Furthermore, it is possible
to become a target inadvertently: you might have the
same name as someone on
a terrorist watch list.
Activists often believe
their calls are being monitored - and sometimes they are
[5]. Some activists play a game with
authorities. They talk with each other,
over their regular phones, about
organizing a disruptive protest, and
then find vantage points to watch the
nominated location at the scheduled
time to see whether police show up.
If police are out in force, it's a sure
sign of targeted surveillance.
To convince others that you
are a target of intensive surveillance and harassment, you need
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

Author Information
Brian Martin is professor in the
School of Humanities and Social
Inquiry, University of Wollongong,
NSW 2522, Australia, and vice president of Whistleblowers Australia;
email: bmartin@uow.edu.au.

Acknowledgment
Thanks to Rob Carr, Richard Gosden and Steve Wright for valuable
comments.

References
[1] B. Martin and S. Wright, "Countershock:
mobilizing resistance to electroshock weapons," Medicine, Conflict and Survival, vol.
19, no. 3, pp. 205-222, July-Sept. 2003.
[2] B. Martin and S. Wright, "Looming struggles over technology for border control,"
J. Organisational Transformation and
Social Change, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 95-107,
2006.
[3] J. Gold and I. Gold, Suspicious Minds:
How Culture Shapes Madness. New York,
NY: Free Press, 2014.
[4] D. Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and
Slow. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 2011.
[5] E. Lubbers, Secret Manoeuvres in the
Dark: Corporate and Police Spying on
Activists. London, U.K.: Pluto, 2012.

∕

june 2015



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