Reply to Vent - I hate talking to my dad

Forum Index » Family Relationships

Reply to "Vent - I hate talking to my dad"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]
OP,

It's a common form of dementia. 
(I know, I know, your father seems cognitively alert.)

Here's the biology behind it: the frontal lobe of the brain, responsible for critical thinking, judgement, and inhibition of deep-seated impulses, is the last to develop during adolescence and the first to give way in old age. Hence the general observation that old people "lose their filter". Quite literally so, in fact, because the prefrontal cortex IS the filter of the brain. Thus any politically incorrect, xenophobic, paranoid thought that would not have been formed earlier because the prefrontal cortex would have halted the process by using internal critical thinking and external awareness of societal pressure, can rise up unhindered in old people's brains.

A good question would be: does the prefrontal cortex merely lift inhibitions to reveal opinions that were always there (some adults would just be excellent hypocrites), or does the prefrontal cortex shape our very opinions, and without its action, our actual personality and self changes into something else?

The latter seems to be true, but more research is underway to tease things out. It's fascinating.

To get back to your problem, OP, you can say bluntly: 
"Dad, every time you start on one of your rants, it will be the end of the conversation." 
Being direct is crucial to brains like this.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics