SCHIZOPHRENIA
IS –
NO! ALTHOUGH COMPLETELY
UNGRAMMATICAL
IT IS
FAR MORE ACCURATE
TO WRITE
“SCHIZOPHRENIA
ARE – “
WHY? WELL JUST ASK DR. JOHN W. PERRY, HARVARD MEDICAL
GRADUATE AND FORMER PROFESSOR OF PSYCHIATRY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
HE WROTE: “Let me
specify at the outset exactly which condition I am speaking of here: this is
only one of the many syndromes that pass under the name ‘schizophrenia’…”
In the
preface to his scholarly, but very readable, and certainly beautifully written
book, Schizophrenia Genesis, Dr. Irving I. Gottesman writes that “A heritage of distortions, stagnant
certainty, and self-serving territoriality characterises the fields of
knowledge about this dreaded disorder - aptly called ‘the cancer of the mind’
”, and offers his book “...to help fill
the information gap between the ‘ivory towers of academia’, with its research
‘factories’ and private language, and the idiosyncratic narratives glorifying
or obfuscating disorders of the mind”.
Is it
any wonder that there could be such uncertainty, when there is such a choice as
in the following list – which is very far from complete:
Some
schizophrenics have a thicker than normal corpus callosum…
Some schizophrenics have high levels of
‘sulphite’ in the urine…
Some schizophrenics
exhibit high levels of copper in serum and hair analysis…
Some schizophrenics have
nutrient deficiencies, especially of B vitamins, zinc, magnesium, chromium,
manganese and vitamin C, while food intolerances are common in many…
Some schizophrenics have a greater than normal
susceptibility to arthritis…
Babies born in cities during the
winter are at greater risk of developing schizophrenia in later life than those
born in country
areas, or in summer, (possibly
because of damage in the womb caused by influenza in the expectant mother)…
Some schizophrenics have a
larger than normal left lateral
ventricle…
And so on, and so on….
In his
book, Dr. Gottesman continued –
“Schizophrenia is a complex disorder of human
functioning. The absence so far of a
solution to its origins compels me to be skeptical about received wisdom from
all participants, however noble and well-intended. I am, however, optimistic about finding
solutions via the energies of scientists and the canons of science within a
decade.”
Well. In fact, two
decades have passed since those words were published, and the ‘received wisdom’
appears to be no wiser.
One
wonders whether anyone still bothers to consider or use the elements in this
list of ‘first rank’ symptoms of schizophrenia?
They certainly add yet further choice to the seeker after truth.
1 Voices speak one’s thoughts aloud.
2 Two or more voices (in the mind) discuss
one in the
third person.
3 Voices describe one’s actions as they
happen.
4 Bodily sensations are imposed by an
external force.
5 Thoughts stop, and one feels that they are
extracted
by an external force.
6 Thoughts, not “really” one’s own, are
inserted among
one’s own thoughts.
7 Thoughts are broadcast onto the outside
world and
heard by all.
8 Alien feelings are imposed by an external
force.
9 Alien impulses are imposed by an external
force.
10
“Volitional” actions are imposed by an external force.
11
Perceptions are “delusional” and un-understandable
I first
began to ‘hear voices’ and experience a whole range of other phenomena in 1980
– without in fact become ill, although I was subjected to considerable intrusion
and disturbance within my mind and within my body, experiences that continue to
this very day. For a number of years, I
contented myself with keeping notes of all that happened as it happened. Then, finally, I settled down and began to
write the book which I have subsequently published.
I had
analysed my notes and written quite a lot of my book before I came across the
above list, and when I did so, I realised that I had written in detail of my
experience of each one of these ‘symptoms’, albeit in my own words, yet never
(I repeat) had I become ill. And still I
continue to hear voices and frequently have experiences that might even add to
the list. And still I know without the remotest
shadow of doubt that what I experience results from spiritual intrusion into my
mind, body and senses.
Undoubtedly,
as my quotes above indicate, there are many sincere researchers trying to
identify the causes of the ‘cancers of the mind’, but unfortunately they are
not themselves voice hearers. Consequently,
they experience no problem and accept without question such diagnoses as – “Schizophrenia
is caused by – a chemical imbalance in the brain – one side of the brain
talking to the other – the ‘bicameral mind’ – and so on…”
So why
not ask ‘Ruth’ who was ‘invaded’ by a very strong presence in both her mind and
her body. The presence declared itself
to be ‘God’, and step by step, ‘God’ took over Ruth and dominated her in every
possible way. In time, ‘He’ convinced
her that she was utterly despicable, no better than a turd, and the sooner she
removed herself from the planet, so much the better – SO! You are on the bridge – there’s the river –
JUMP. And Ruth jumped….
Fortunately,
she survived, struggled to the shore, and completely covered in mud, naked from
the waist down, she found refuge in the home nearby of someone she knew. And still people try to tell her that she has
a ‘chemical imbalance in the brain’…
I write
more fully about Ruth and others in “Living with Inner Voices and Physical Presences”,
which is posted on my Blog (www.roycvincent.blogspot.com)
, together with other relevant articles.
Additionally, within my book (www.royvincent.net)
, there is a compilation of well over thirty different ‘ploys’ that have been
used by intruding ‘entities’ (intelligent
entities) in their attempts to undermine me and make me ill.
Every
voice-hearer who reads this will have his or her own experiences that are
probably vastly different from mine or from Ruth’s. They are experiences that many others will
want to read. So why not write about
them and send them in? A couple of
paragraphs – anything …
After all, you
are the ones who know what it is like…
So why not tell it as it is?
TAILPIECE
“UNLUCKY FOR SOME – 13”
Psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Mackarness, opens
his book Not All in the Mind with a case study – in fact, a
‘presentation’ at Park
Prewett Hospital
She
had been admitted thirteen times, often compulsorily, because the psychiatrists
called by the general practitioner to see her at home had considered her to be
a danger to her children and herself. In
her most disturbed phases, she would slash her forearms with any nearby sharp
object; had done some bizarre things to her children, including throwing one
through a closed window (fortunately on the ground floor)… and so on for
several paragraphs. Most of the psychiatrists
at the Hospital had had Joanna under their care, and almost every diagnostic
label in the book had been attached to her illness: schizophrenia,
schizo-affective psychosis, pre-senile dementia, temporal lobe epilepsy,
neurotic depression and anxiety hysteria.
As
the presentation proceeded, the majority opinion was that the only solution was
leucotomy, as in her thirteen admissions Joanna had failed to respond to every
known combination of psychotropic drugs as well as several courses of
E.C.T. Mackarness used all of his persuasive
powers to be allowed to try his experimental methods as a last shot before the
drastic action of leucotomy, and his colleagues agreed – more or less on the
lines that ‘well at least it will do no harm!’
He had been influenced by work in other countries that had found that in
many instances, mental health problems originated in food intolerance or
allergy.
The
procedure was simple, and began with a five-day spring water fast followed by
test doses of suspected foods. In the
event, Joanna was found to have strong reactions to chocolate, bacon, coffee,
egg, and one or two other lesser items.
Three months after discharge Joanna was ‘happy, euphoric, sometimes
almost hypo manic in her hearty enjoyment of life. She goes out to work, cares for her children
without harming them and seems almost back to her old self…’
Another book that
opens with a case study, thirteen referrals and multiple diagnoses, is Understanding Dissociative Disorders. Author Dr. Marlene Hunter ‘is world renowned for
her work with medical hypnosis and Dissociative Disorders.’ She is also a determined advocate of
‘Dissociation’ as opposed to the earlier ‘Multiple Personality Disorder’,
principally, it seems, because she wants to distance herself from any possible
association with the presumed ‘spiritual’ connotation of ‘multiple-personality’.
In the opening
pages, Dr Hunter introduces a patient whom she names ‘Jayere’, and begins, “As
our doctor-patient relationship became established and grew, I became more and
more confused. She had had, from
previous family doctors, twelve psychiatric referrals. These resulted in twelve diagnoses. I made the thirteenth referral, and thus she
received the thirteenth diagnosis – that she had a neurological disorder, not a
psychiatric problem. The neurologist,
however, said in no uncertain terms that she had a psychiatric problem,
not a neurological disorder, although he could not account for the fact that on
two separate occasions she had two distinctly different EEGs.”
Jayere sat with Dr.
Hunter and prepared to be hypnotised.
Dr. Hunter, much against her own instinct and entrenched beliefs, had
decided to explore a suggestion made by an older colleague who had said, “Have
you ever thought of multiple personality disorder?” Thus, she writes, “So, with gritted teeth and
feeling scared stiff, I gathered all my courage together at one of my next
meetings with Jayere and asked while she was under hypnosis (we were working on
relieving the headaches), ‘Is there any other part of you who would like to
come and speak with me’?”
And this entirely different gruff voice
said, “Of course! What took you so
long?”
With
my own more than thirty years of direct experience of voice hearing and
physical presence, I have no problem in understanding the existence of this
‘other’ within Jayere, nor have I any problem with the fact that she had had
two distinctly different EEGs. What else
would you expect?
ROY
VINCENT JAN 2012
