Rat Park

This glossary entry is used to explain texts in SuperMemo Guru series on memory, learning, creativity, and problem solving

Addictions and freedom

Rat Park is a famous enclosure for rats used in experiments on addiction by Bruce Alexander in 1972. Even though criticized for dozens of minor or bogus reasons, the experiments inspired a major revision of our thinking about addiction, freedom, exercise, socialization, mating, and more. In short, the experiments showed that the craving for opioids is less in animals that are free to roam and socialize as opposed to those who are caged. Alexander wrote in 2001 (Senate of Canada report):

Under some conditions the animals in the cages consumed nearly 20 times as much morphine as the rats in Rat Park

The interpretations of the result is simple and obvious: reward systems in the brain will always look for compensation in conditions of distress. Demand for painkillers increases while experiencing pain. Similarly, drugs with anti-depressant effect will be in demand among those who feel in distress due to limits on freedom. War veterans show particularly high levels of addiction to opioids. For healthy brains, freedom is one of the best preventive measures against addictions. In addition, as explained in my simple formula for happiness, exercise is essential for mental health too. I am pretty sure my love of exercise is a form of beneficial "addiction". It is a happy "addiction" with few side effects (e.g. cost in time might be the largest). This kind of "addiction" is helpful in the prevention of more sinister vices.

Old school thinking

Alexander found it hard to publish his research in reputable journals (see Problem with peer review). For years, rat park research was underappreciated. Only recently his writing and contribution from other authors (e.g. Stanton Peele, Gabor Mate, etc.) have given the rat park its deserved prominence.

At SuperMemo Guru, I often write about the importance of freedom for mental health. In particular, schooling is a form of enslavement that may dramatically increase the risk of addictions in youth. I am amazed that many people involved in protecting mental health of the young generation are largely unaware of the rat park research and ideas promulgated by Alexander, Mate, Peele, and others. What we try to resolve pharmacologically or by means of criminal law, may often easily be prevented with freedom, social connectedness, exercise, love, and the like. Most of all, I insist that continual learning is one of the best therapies for the mind. The love of learning is one of those treasures that is lost to years of coercive schooling. This is one of the key contributing factors to building increasingly unhappy societies. Lessons from the rat park could easily help us build a happy world of smiles, productivity, learning, exercise, family, and more.

Some battles in science are waged for decades due to powerful forces stacked against the message. The most prominent example is tobacco. Today, at this site I keep writing about schooling, which is a self-perpetuating industry. Its offshoots like Ritalin have big pharma behind it. Rat Park also clashed against politics, big corporations, or exculpatory psychology of addicts and their families. Rat Park message is still waging important battles. Alexander noticed that parents of addicted kids often reject Rat Park reasoning as it might be a form of judgement on a child's upbringing. I see the same reaction when I discuss freedom for children. No parent is ready to admit that his child is not free. The same defense mechanism makes daycare labelled as an environment beneficial for children. It is the daycare that may plant the first seeds of future addictions. As much as schooling, which brings some positive outcomes, there is an obvious problem of receptor downregulation that leads to addictions. Nothing muddles the waters more efficiently that a multifactorial contribution to a phenomenon. I have been struggling for 3 decades to explain and promote the two component model of long-term memory. It has not taken root thus far. As if two variables were too many to provide a good meme that would help people learn more efficiently.

Bruce Alexander's strongly generalizing mind is a source of his trouble. Where others see details and complexity, Alexander can extend his simple conclusions to the entire wellbeing of society. Alexander's is the most precious kind of mind. The one that can predict the future. This is also the type of mind that needs to wage hardest battles against the "wisdom" of the crowds based on old-school thinking.

Impact of school

We know that school stress increases vulnerability to addiction. Part of Rat Park experimentation involved moving rats from cages to their rich Rat Park environment. Alexander noticed:

[Animals that were moved from cages to the Rat Park] shunned the morphine solution when it was stronger, but as it became more tasty and more dilute, they began to drink almost as much as the rats that had lived in cages throughout the experiment

We know that learned helplessness is not easy to recover from and that the recovery takes a lot of time. It involves building a great deal of new connections in the brain. In other words, the injury of limited freedom does not go away once the freedom is granted. When children are subjected to restrictions in gaming, they tend to binge when they are given free choice. This contributes to the widespread myth that if kids were free, they would naturally play all day long. As if the addiction was inevitable. Alexander notes that societies did not fall into universal addictions at the times when illegal drugs were still legal. But those times have long been forgotten by theorists who see the need to wage a war on drugs (and addicts).

Rat Park

Contents

Addictions and freedom

Old school thinking

Impact of school

See also

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