The schizophrenia MYTH - Mental health

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jprTKA11_io&t=14s

" The Myth of Schizophrenia " - Mental health

1. Context:

A. Psychiatry:

Schizophrenia is a chronic and complex mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. It is characterized by a loss of contact with reality, manifested through delusions and hallucinations, and interferes with social relationships and the ability to function in daily life. Although it has no cure, it is a treatable condition, and many people are able to lead full lives with proper treatment and support.

B. Anti-Psychiatry:

The diagnosis of "schizophrenia" has become a diagnosis of convenience, a valid label to justify the multiple cases that seem obscure and impossible to classify more precisely. Diagnoses such as "type of schizophrenia," "schizophrenic reaction," "psychotic reaction," "adolescent psychotic crisis," etc., lack a valid scientific basis.

C. Shamanism:

Lommel's (1960) view of the Paleolithic shaman's mental disorder as a necessary stimulus for artistic creativity was a significant step towards the "New Age," in which the shaman is considered possibly the sanest of people. The pathological and ineffective shaman of the past has now become a creator full of imagination. The closest parallel to the shaman's madness is perhaps the clinically termed state of schizophrenia. A schizophrenic episode can plunge a person into terrors comparable to witnessing the initiation of a Siberian shaman, when their personality disintegrates in a similar way. However, the differences are quite large, both psychologically and socially.

Shamanism is a non-dogmatic form of spirituality that provides a great margin for personal creativity. The shaman connects areas such as religion, psychology, medicine, and theology, which, in Western literature, are separated. Through their individual experiences, the shaman's means are psychological, but the ends are sociological, to heal and maintain the community. Whether in the Amazonian regions, where many members of the population are shamans, or in Siberia, where shamanism is a rare and powerful vocation, the shaman is always a person who possesses extraordinary experience and powers. The shamanic personality is shaped by culture, and shamans are "mad" by courtesy and in the terms of that same culture. Ultimately, it is society that distinguishes between the behavior of the shaman and that of the schizophrenic or psychotic. One becomes a hero and the other a hospital patient. The shaman lives on the edge of an abyss, but knows how to avoid falling into it.

First Conclusion:

There is a clear focus on individual imbalance, with the social origin of this imbalance (proposed by Anti-Psychiatry) being suppressed; and finally, there is an (abusive) generalization of mental "illness" to the entire population. It did not occur to a series of somewhat hasty therapists that the primary cause of this imbalance is, in fact, a (phased) allergic reaction to social/family expectations + medication, and that such an event expresses an inverted scale of human values: thus, the passage from mere mild depression to the more disturbing state of schizophrenia is entirely predictable/frequent – ​​it is not a question of "if," but "when"...

2. Symptoms:

A. Psychiatry:

The symptoms of schizophrenia are divided into three main categories:

Positive symptoms: These are behaviors and thoughts that arise with the illness. They include:

Hallucinations: unreal sensory perceptions, such as hearing voices or seeing things that do not exist. Auditory hallucinations are the most common;

Delusions: false and irrational beliefs, such as paranoia, in which the person feels persecuted or controlled;

Disorganized thinking and speech: difficulty organizing thoughts, resulting in incoherent and incomprehensible speech.

Negative symptoms: These correspond to the loss or decrease of normal behaviors and emotions, including:

Emotional blunting: reduced expression of emotions in the face and voice;

Apathy: lack of motivation and pleasure in daily activities (anhedonia);

Social isolation: withdrawal from contact with other people.

Cognitive Symptoms: Affect mental capacity and include:

Attention and memory problems.

Difficulty planning and organizing tasks.

B. Anti-Psychiatry:

When discussing madness, it is difficult to maintain a scientific attitude, since the concept is practically impossible to fit within the field of objective concepts. Schizophrenia was the personal condition of a good number of artists and the central theme of many literary and cinematographic works. Pictorial activity carried out under the influence of LSD is very similar to that of some schizophrenic patients.

The barrier established between the asylum and society, between abnormality and normality, is more theoretical than real. We are living in a time when there is a tendency to complicate the explanation of facts, producing extremely complex analyses – intended for elite groups – on simple situations, because complication serves confusion, and this, in turn, is a weapon of domination.

The patient's aggressiveness was greatly influenced by how he was treated; that is, his violence was largely a reflexive reaction, a reactive attitude in the face of the threat of the asylum environment.

C. Shamanism:

Shamans have been considered insane and persecuted throughout the ages. Tremors, chills, goosebumps, fainting, falling to the ground, foaming at the mouth, bulging eyes, insensitivity to heat, cold and pain, tics, noisy breathing, glazed eyes, are some of the characteristics of a trance state. How is it possible that this type of behavior represents signs of a divine state?

Initiation is not necessarily violent. In North America, in the vision quest – which constitutes an essential rite of passage in the lives of many Plains peoples – the typical case is a young man going to a secluded place to fast and pray for several days in order to acquire a guardian spirit, a spirit that is often an animal.

While the shaman's attention span increases, the schizophrenic's is diffuse; while the shaman maintains far-reaching control over his own state of mind, schizophrenia determines the loss of that control; and while the shaman's experience is always brought back to society and shared for its benefit, the schizophrenic is confined within his private experience, almost to the point of autism. The shaman's mental strength derives from an expanded experience of mental disorder. Initiation is a controlled disintegration always followed by a reintegration into something more powerful and complete.

Certain types of bodily stimulation give rise to the production of specific substances called endorphins: their function in inducing shamanic states of consciousness and in producing acts of physical resistance has not yet been clarified. They in no way explain the essential content or tone of the shaman's experience. Neo-shamanists interpret the "altered state of consciousness" as a universal human potential, only partially realized in any traditional culture. In many parts of the world, the shaman undergoes a symbolic death during initiation, which is followed by resurrection. However outsiders may view the shaman's mental state, shamanic societies see a continuity between this state and that of the patient and society, considered as a whole. The idea that wisdom involves some kind of second sight, or inner vision, is widespread among shamanic cultures.

Second Conclusion:

The fact that the symptoms of schizophrenia are almost identical in all cases should lead us to question the validity of the individual diagnosis of the "disease"—however, on the contrary, what happens is the generalization of a completely wrong initial diagnosis, focused on similar symptoms, but whose subsequent therapeutic logic does not exist. It should also be noted that the symptom of "hearing voices" is almost certainly caused by a split personality, which gives "messages" to the patient about how to behave in multiple aspects of their social life. In this sense, an auditory illusion occurs, but the sound does not exist.

3. Causes:

A. Psychiatry:

The exact cause is not fully known, but it is believed to be the result of a combination of factors:

Genetics: Schizophrenia tends to be hereditary, with an increased risk in people with immediate family members who have it;

Environmental factors: Stressful events, childhood trauma, chronic stress, and drug use (such as marijuana) can act as triggers in predisposed individuals;

Neurochemicals: Alterations occur in brain neurotransmitters, especially dopamine, which explains many of the symptoms;

Brain dysfunctions: Studies indicate that there are differences in neurocircuitry and a decrease in brain mass in people with schizophrenia.

B. Anti-Psychiatry:

The conception of alienation as a product of social and familial origin is the main characteristic of the current movement known as anti-psychiatry. David Cooper insisted that violence in psychiatry is introduced by the care system, from chains to straitjackets or the administration of large doses of aggressive psychotropic drugs.

For Laing, a schizophrenic is a hypersensitive and privileged being, capable of perceiving madness from the environment. The consideration of the family as the basic schizophrenic unit is undoubtedly one of this author's most original contributions. When orthodox psychiatry places the label of schizophrenia on the scapegoat of the family through a ceremony of degradation that is admission to a psychiatric hospital, it thus inaugurates the life of a new mentally ill person. In each of the psychotic manifestations there is an attempt at communication between the patient and the world around him, made in a language whose decoding is almost always simple. A genuine semiology of family life must be developed, one that is as much a part of psychiatry as it is of poetry.

Quote from Christian Delacampagne – “There are no mental illnesses; only social illnesses. Madness happens among men, that is, in society. And psychiatry invented the concept of mental illness to cover up the truth. And psychiatry, in turn, was invented to serve the social order interested in such concealment: the bourgeois order. It is intolerable to say that life is intolerable… that is why those who say it are imprisoned in an asylum. For fear of contagion. That's it…”.

C. Shamanism:

There are striking similarities between the shamanic ideas and practices of geographically distant regions, in societies that most likely never had any kind of contact. Shamanic society still presents a vision of relationships based on the intimacy of small-scale communities, contradicting the depersonalization and fragmentation of rootless societies in large cities. Being a shaman is in fact the oldest of professions, performing functions that, in an industrial society, are carried out separately by the doctor, the psychotherapist, the soldier, the diviner, the priest, and the politician. The shaman works in partnership with the spirits; and most traditions emphasize that it is the spirits themselves who choose who will become a shaman. Shamans are central figures in the societies to which they belong.

The Paleolithic discoveries of the 20th century opened the way for interpretations that made the shaman the central figure in the search for the origins of religion.

3rd Conclusion:

For traditional psychiatry, the cause of mental illness is the malfunctioning of the individual mind; for anti-psychiatry it is the family/society; and in the case of shamanism there is no illness, only a confusion between shamanic vocation and mental illness. In the midst of these totally discordant perspectives, will there still be some virtue…?

4. Diagnosis:

A. Psychiatry:

The diagnosis is made by a psychiatrist, who assesses the symptoms, their duration, and the impact on the patient's life. To confirm the diagnosis, the symptoms must persist for a certain period of time, typically at least one month, with functional impairments lasting at least six months. It is essential to rule out other causes, such as substance use or other medical problems.

- Important: Schizophrenia is often stigmatized. However, it is a myth that people with this condition are violent; most are, in fact, more reserved and less prone to aggression than the general population. With proper treatment and follow-up, it is possible to lead a functional and high-quality life.

B. Anti-Psychiatry:

Drawing has more than just diagnostic value: the mentally ill person who draws has an opportunity, almost never refused, to symbolically organize their chaotic inner world. The problem with mental illness is that the therapist tries to categorize the patient according to the most complex diseases and from there concludes whether the patient is more or less ill; this misconception confuses the bureaucratic aspect of the illness with the expressed need. It is thus a problem of technical language, which through pseudo-scientific jargon makes the phenomenon more complex but says nothing about the patient's needs.

C. Shamanism:

Is the shaman a neurotic and a psychopath; or is the shaman the sanest person in society, deeply sensitive to the temperament of others?; is the shaman an exhibitionist, a conspirator, and a charlatan?

Some psychoanalysts interpret shamanic initiation and trance as a form of infantile regression. The shaman does not suffer from split personality in the psychotic sense of the illness, since multiple personalities imply a world of private fantasies incompatible with the shaman's concerns for the community in general. Initiation, or the search for visions, and the maintenance of relationships with auxiliary spirits involve shamans in long periods of solitude. Shamans, Buddhists, and yogis all enter the same state of consciousness, and, just as shamanic consciousness was previously confused with pathological states such as schizophrenia, it is now also confused with yogic states of consciousness and meditation. In ancient Greece, poetry, music, and the arts were considered offerings of the muses, goddesses from whose name the word "music" is derived.

In the shamanic worldview, all things (animals, plants, rocks, wind, and rain) possess their own spirit. The fundamental technique of the shamanic journey is a controlled trance state.

4th Conclusion:

We can, without much margin for error, replace the false diagnosis of mental "illness" with a simple observation: the alienation of the individual in the service society – which is ours – from their own creativity produces this imbalance, which is endemic today: today we are all "projects" of schizophrenia in progress, whose lives are about to collapse…

5. Treatment:

A. Psychiatry:

Although there is no cure, proper treatment allows for symptom control and improved quality of life. It generally involves a multidisciplinary approach, including:

* Antipsychotic medication: this is the basis of treatment and acts to control delusions and hallucinations;

* Psychotherapy: helps patients manage the illness, cope with symptoms, and improve their relationships and social skills;

* Rehabilitation and social support: supports the patient in reintegrating into society, work, or studies, and in managing daily tasks;

* Family support: education and support for the family are essential for a better understanding of the illness and for the patient's well-being.

B. Anti-Psychiatry:

Subjecting a patient to psychopharmacological treatment is an attack on their personality, and the side effects constitute genuine aggressions for them: therefore, a basic premise of antipsychiatry is the suspension of pharmacological treatment. Thomas Szasz argues that psychiatry will only be saved when it finds the right language: the psychiatrist speaks to the patient in a language he does not understand. Therapy based on bodily expression in space helps the patient restore his imperfect sense of reality, his loss of the capacity for contact and sensitivity, of relationship and solidarity with his own body.

Creative artistic activity is suggested to the patient for therapeutic purposes. The Kingsley Hall center was an essential institution that developed seminars in psychiatry, sociology, and healing methods; painting, dance, and theater were practiced as means of recovery, reminiscent of another revolutionary institution – the Bauhaus.

The recovery of the mentally ill is important not as an end in itself, but insofar as he can return to his job in an economic system that dominates him. Psychiatry assumes this duty of returning man to normality, while it must obey the social organization that makes the division of men into social classes seem natural. Maud Mannoni argues that it is time for society to stop defending itself against the "madman" and that the psychiatrist's mission in these moments is to defend him from society. The "game" is thus established: alienating environment, complicit psychiatrist, patient manipulated under the guise of a therapeutic procedure. The violence of the asylum has a predictable result: to increase the violent attitude of patients, which will allow the maintenance and certainty of the diagnosis and the application of more violence – it is a self-perpetuating vicious circle. Current psychiatry advises outpatient treatment, that is, keeping the patient in their usual environment, without abandoning family, friends, or even work.

The paintings of mental patient Mary Barnes, made with her own excrement, raise numerous questions, both for psychiatry and in the field of contemporary art: “Going through madness is a purification that brought me closer to God; I want to reach total integrity – holiness.”

It should also be noted that many researchers – including Freud himself – doubted the therapeutic efficacy of psychoanalysis.

C. Shamanism:

Shamanic healing involves a dialogue between the patient and another person – the shaman or a spirit. This reaches extreme points in Sora shamanism, but is equally present in psychoanalysis, which is also a “cure through conversation.” The Sora patient converses with the dead through a specialist, while the patient of a psychoanalyst speaks with the specialist about other personalities, currently absent from the patient's life.

5th/Final Conclusion:

We can point to several “ultimate causes” of mental illness. One possibility is the patient's reaction to aggressive medication, damaging their entire relationship with the psychotherapist. But perhaps the explanation is simpler and right before our eyes: the constant postponement of artistic/literary vocation and also the apparent opposition between soul and body most likely produce the "monsters of reason" that Goya reminded us actually existed…