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a journal of
down-to-earth living
Library of Congress
a
humanist-existentialist perspective
2011 revised edition
by Tom Shepherd
Shepherd-Montessori
Institute
The schizophrenic ceases to be schizophrenic
when he meets someone by whom he feels understood. – Carl Jung
The presumption
of a biological basis for mental illness and the study of the interplay between
brain chemistry and the emotions has resulted in a perhaps overzealous tendency
on the part of present-day psychiatry to prescribe neuroleptics in an effort to
treat a psychiatric client’s emotional, behavioral or interpersonal problems,
without any attempt to understand and to assist the client in understanding and
exploring the social and psychological causes involved in his/her thinking.
Why? Because
psychiatrists are no longer trained to recognize social and psychological
factors as even existing. Present-day psychiatrists are taught in medical
school that such social and psychological factors are irrelevant – that the
cause of mental illness is purely biological.
Although the
hormones and neurotransmitters are indeed involved in how individuals act and
react, they are not necessarily the cause of the client’s dilemma. Thus,
psychiatric clients do not heal. They are merely given a neurochemical fix – a
fix that is not a fix – a chemical straight jacket of sorts – a chemical that
is more of a nemesis than a benefit. In fact, it could be said that there are
no benefits to be derived from taking any neuroleptic drug (so-called anti-psychotic
medication) and antidepressant drugs, as such drugs have a tendency to
accelerate and perpetuate anxiety and restlessness, rather than to reduce anxiety
and restlessness. They also damage the cardio-vascular system, the
gastro-intestinal system and other organs of the human body.
The modern-day
psychiatrist has become a mere prescription clerk – and a very dangerous
prescription clerk at that – perhaps as dangerous as a methamphetamine or a
crack cocaine dealer.
A Psychodynamic Perspective of Schizophrenia
Far from being a
disease, schizophrenia, according to Harry Stack Sullivan, Ph. D., is actually
a very purposive and meaningful attempt by the individual to cope with a
catastrophic loss of self-esteem.
According to
John Modrow, what the medical professional calls schizophrenia develops as a
result of an individual being subjected to very severe and often cruel
disparagement by people who are significant to him or her and on whose good
opinion he or she is largely dependent from infancy up, until some especially
hurtful incident produces an out and out panic state.
In this panic
state, according to Modrow, the individual has a terrifying vision of himself
as a person of no value or worth. Painful memories once repressed rise and come
flooding into awareness with a gruesome hallucinatory vividness . . . the
individual believe that things will only continue to get worse as he is
inexorably swept to his destruction.
Modrow
furthermore claims there is no conclusive evidence to support the argument that
schizophrenia is a brain disease, that it is the result of an inherited genetic
component or that it is incurable. Thus, the brains of those who have been
diagnosed with schizophrenia do not differ markedly from other people.
John Modrow
provides well-documented evidence to support his claim in his book How to
Become a Schizophrenic: The Case Against Biological Psychiatry, a book
highly acclaimed by Dr. Theodore Lidz of Yale University and other members of
the psychiatric profession for its soundness.
Alarmingly,
Modrow provides evidence that neuroleptic drugs prescribed to treat
schizophrenia may actually be the cause of brain damage in certain clients. The
symptoms of the resulting brain damage are often mistakenly purported to be
symptoms of the schizophrenia itself. It’s a dangerous Catch-22 situation in
which the client frequently becomes a pawn of the psychiatric/pharmaceutical
industry. The client, in effect, finds himself in a checkmate position.
Presipitating Factors in the Schizophrenic Break
According to
Sullivan’s claim, schizophrenia is simply a learned response, originating in
how the parents and/or surrogate parents communicate and how the family
interacts as a whole. The typically egocentric parents of the schizophrenic
usually maintain their own equilibrium by projecting their own inadequacies
onto their child. The child thus becomes a scapegoat, and in order to feel
wanted by the parents, must deny or repress his own feelings and needs and
distort reality in accordance with his parents’ needs.
Thus, the
child’s orientation is parent-centered more than it is self-centered. Often the
child is required to demonstrate allegiance to one parent, and therefore feel
worthy of that parent’s love, by demonstrating disallegiance to the other
parent or other people that the parent considers to be enemies. But typically,
the other parent makes the same demands on the child. The building frustration
of this psychological dilemma is what precipitates the schizophrenic break.
The adolescent
or young adult thus desperately constructs and retreats into a fantasy world of
his/her own creation, one that he/she can cope with, in a desperate effort to
free himself/herself from the unbearable psychological conflict.
Dispelling Myths about Schizophrenia
Modrow
goes even further to support his claim that individuals diagnosed with
schizophrenia generally also display the symptoms of both bipolar disorder and
multiple personality disorder, and that, contrary to mainstream psychiatry’s
claim, the schizophrenic does indeed have a split personality – that the
delusions or hallucinations of so-called schizophrenics indeed represent
split-off portions of their personalities.
During
an especially traumatic-producing incident, Modrow claims, the emotional core
of the personality withdraws from external reality into the inner world,
leaving the conscious ego with a feeling of depletion and loss.
Most Clients Do Not Experience Delusions or Hallucinations
Most
individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia do NOT experience delusions or
hallucinations. They retreat from the false, so-called real
world into their own inner world – a world in which their self
is given full reign – through their fantasies. The real world attempts to squash
the schizophrenic’s individuality.
Although
the most common symptom associated with schizophrenia is auditory
hallucinations, the fact is that there is no objective test for determining if
any individual is actually experiencing auditory hallucinations. What
schizophrenics do commonly experience is alienation (a feeling of being
misunderstood by significant others), heightened sensitivity, recurring
memories of disparaging remarks and actions of others, and a reluctance to
engage in relationships – relationships in which he (or she) is expected to
perform as bio-chemical machine for a significant other –
as an object rather than as an individual.
The only tenable relationships are those in which both parties accept
and respect each other as an individual with feelings – in which both partners
recognize and value the existing metaphysical
self in each other.
To
repeat Carl Jung’s statement, the schizophrenic ceases to be schizophrenic when
he (or she) meets someone by whom he (or she) feels understood. However, the
meeting of the minds – the connection –
the relationships – must be ongoing in order to prevent recurring
schizophrenic behavior. – withdrawal. Since schizophrenic patterns of behavior
are so well established and entrenched, it is rare indeed that any
schizophrenic is permanently cured. Everyone’s existence (and sanity) is very
much dependent on the human environmental circumstances that exist at any given
moment – the emotional availability of significant others. Schizophrenics
typically lacked emotionally available parents, even in instances where the
parents provided adequate or better material benefits. You can’t buy
love, nor can you buy sanity.
So-called Normal
People Have Shared Delusions
The basis
of Sullivan’s theory is that there is nothing to be found in so-called
schizophrenic thinking that is not found to some extent in the thinking of
so-called normal people. Normal people, maintains Sullivan (an idea originating
with Freud himself), continually distort reality in order to conform and to
bolster their self-esteem.
As
an example of the way normal people distort reality, Jews, Christians and
Muslims claim the existence of God and heaven, although there is no reason to
believe that such entities exist, and most people claim to not experience
romantic or sexual feelings for members of the same sex, even though there is
observable or experiential reason to believe that all people have varying
degrees of attraction for members of the same sex by the way they behave.
The
so-called schizophrenic’s belief that he himself is the Messiah or Jesus Christ
reincarnated, which psychiatry would interpret as a delusion, is no more absurd
than the normal individual’s belief that Moses actually heard the voice of God
speaking to him, that Jesus was born of a virgin (who was thus impregnated by
God), that Jesus ascended into Heaven and that those who disobey the Hebrew
and/or Christian and/or Muslim laws are bound for Hell.
According
to a strict interpretation of the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, those
who oppose slavery are also bound for Hell. Both Hebrew and Christian law make
it a sin or crime to steal property, yet both Hebrew and Christian law endorse
human exploitation, the taking and using of other people as property, as
God-ordained, including the practice of slavery (which has been supplanted with
the modern-day system of human exploitation through the industrial-capitalist
state).
The
Hebrew is permitted to not only own slaves (Leviticus 25_40-46), but to beat
his slaves (Exodus 21), and the Christian is required to obey his master with
all respect – to turn the other cheek when is master beats him (1 Peter 2:18).
Is the latter not institutionalized battery?
As a
so-called civilized society we have no qualms about killing innocent human
beings in the official name of state-sanctioned war, yet we condemn and
incarcerate individuals who do the same thing.
When
the President (the Commander-in-Chief) or the King or the Queen arbitrarily
orders the dropping of bombs on large populations we call it a responsible act,
done in the name of God, yet when an individual does the same, we say he/she is
possessed of The Devil, insane or a criminal, and we lock him/her up.
As a
society, we delude ourselves into believing that our inhumane acts of human
exploitation are righteous acts, yet that the stealing of a loaf of bred is an
abomination, to use a Biblical term, punishable by imprisonment or death.
According
to Hebrew law, it is also an abomination for men to use one another to satisfy
their sexual lust (Leviticus 20:13), yet it is a Godly act to use a woman for
the same purpose (Romans 1:24-27).
From Sin to
Neurosis
Psychiatrist
Thomas Szasz (author of The Myth of Psychotherapy and Cruel
Compassion) has noted that what the Hebrews and Christians call sin,
the Freudian psychoanalyst calls neurosis. In fact, Szasz calls Freudian
psychoanalysis a religion, not a science, as Freud’s own theories are virtually
the same rationalizations and delusions used by Orthodox Jews and Christians to
support their own delusional belief systems. They are NOT supported by
scientific investigation.
The
parent in our society, if not a nominal Jew, Christian or Muslim, is nevertheless
a product and member of a civilization that indeed is based on the basic tenets
of Hebrew law, from which Judaism, Christianity and even Islam derive.
The
Fifth Commandment of Judaism and Christianity implores that the child (having
no rights or recourse) unconditionally honor and obey his parents. To even
claim a parent has disparaged him/her is in itself dishonorably ungodly, which
is why present-day mainstream psychiatry does not readily allow the
schizophrenic to heal. The cause, modern-day psychiatry typically rationalizes,
is not the way the parents or surrogate-parents treated the child, but is the
result of a genetically-determined chemical imbalance.
To
the further disparagement of women, The Tenth Commandment defines the wife’s
position as that of her husband’s property (chattel), on a par with his male
servant and his donkey.
The Internal
Persecutors
According
to Sullivan and Modrow, the child that is repeatedly humiliated or demeaned by
his own parents, step-parents, surrogate parents (teachers, coaches, etc.) and
peers with severe and cruel disparagement, is stunted ins his psychological
growth. The child thus learns to subjugate his or her own needs to the needs of
his or her parents, surrogate parents, and other persecutors. As a result, when
the child chronologically reaches adulthood, he or she is unable to function
adequately. His or her ability to make decisions Is stymied by the intrusion of
the internal persecutors, the disparaging voices of the parents,
surrogate parents, and tormenting peers, which remain encoded in the memory
bank of the schizophrenic’s brain. The schizophrenic is thus unable to
consciously free himself/herself from the controlling wishes of what
psychiatrists have termed the schizophregenic parent, often even after the
actual death of the parent.
The Existential
Dilemma
Existential
psychotherapy is one method considered by some professionals as useful in
freeing the client from the domination of the persecuting parent or surrogate
parent – the persecuting society.
The
role of the therapist would thus be to patiently listen to what the client has
to say about his (or her) life and why he (or she) feels the way he feels about
himself and about society – others. Empathy is the key word.
An
effective therapist must, of necessity, identify with his (or her) client. It
is best that a male client be seen and heard by a male therapist; a female
client is best seen and heard by a female therapist. The therapist must, of
necessity, crawl inside the client-patient’s mind – the patient’s self
– and let the client-patient know that
he (or she) understands exactly what is going on. There should be no attempt –
during therapy – by the therapist to superimpose his (or her) own values on the
client-patient.
More
commonly though, the psychiatrist or therapist – the egocentric and
presumptuous psychiatrist or therapist – only becomes an auxiliary persecutor
who further weaves the client’s web of schizophrenia by failing to make an
effort to understand exactly what is going on in the mind of his (or her)
client – by failing to understand and by failing to
communicate to the client-patient that he (or she) indeed does understand.
Chemical
Treatment of Schizophrenia
As for
the use of neuroleptics in treatment of schizophrenia, phenothiazines (major
tranquilizers), the fact is that neuroleptics produce ongoing anxiety and
restlessness. They are a virtual chemical straightjacket. They indeed have
debilitating side effects. Thus, the use of neuroleptics or even
antidepressants in the treatment of schizophrenia (or any other diagnosed
psychiatric condition) is more of a nemesis than an aid. Pharmaceutical
companies tend to exaggerate the benefits and minimize the dangers. In fact, it
could be said that there are NO benefits.
Since
vitamins, minerals and amino acids are the building blocks of the brain, a
well-balanced diet, rich in fresh vegetables, fruit, light-meat poultry and
fish is probably the most sensible prescription for treating any diagnosed
psychiatric condition. Add to that daily exercise to stimulate blood flow to
the brain and the avoidance of intoxicants of all kinds.
Most psychiatrists have no knowledge at all of the actual
social and psychological causes of schizophrenia and other mental disorders for
the very simple reason that they firmly believe that such causes do not exist .
. . . In medical school the psychiatrist is taught to dehumanize the patient:
to regard the patient as nothing more than a complex physio-chemical machine .
. . . The psychiatrist cannot question the validity of the medical model
without in effect committing suicide . . . . It is hardly surprising that
psychiatrists generally do more harm than good . . .
John Modrow, Author of How to Become
a Schizophrenic:
The Case Against Biological Psychiatry
Modrow’s book may be purchased from
_______________________________________________
Some Theories of
Schizophrenia
by Silvano
Arieti, M. D.
Understanding
and Helping the Schizophrenic:
A Guide for
Family and Friends
Simple
Schizophrenia
As
defined by Silvano Arieti, M. D.*, simple schizophrenia almost never occurs in
a sudden or dramatic fashion. Instead, says Arieti, the development is gradual
and slow . . . . Usually it appears that the problems associated with simple
schizophrenia began before puberty. These problems are not clear-cut. The
simple schizophrenic, according to Arieti, may become inactive and try to limit
the scope of his life. He does not grow into the person others expected him
eventually to become. He gives the impression of being unambitious and slow.
Living is dreary and offers him no interest or challenge.
Because
of his reluctance to participate in most aspects of life, he does not grow
emotionally or intellectually. In spite of this restricted existence, he is
frequently capable of functioning in a sheltered environment, although not in a
confident or creative manner. He may experience trouble with school or work and
express the desire to stay away from things that should seem exciting and
attractive.
In
simple schizophrenia, according to Arieti, there are no delusions,
hallucinations, or indications of illogical thinking. On the contrary, it seems
as if the patient prefers not to think. He strives to use his mind as little as
possible. He will not try to think abstractly but will prefer to limit his
conversation to a few favorite and noncomplex topics.
Although
the simple schizophrenic does not show the obvious irregularities of the other
types, his mental condition is not up to par for normal living. If he exists in
a normal environment in which participation and initiative are expected, his
behavior reveals itself to be inappropriate and unsuitable for the demands of
everyday life. Although generally not violent or given to grossly disturbed
behavior, the simple schizophrenic is a burden to his family. If he has no
family, he runs the risk of “dropping out” or being used by certain
exploitative sectors of society. Unless he is successfully treated [cared for],
it is unlikely that a simple schizophrenic will regain his joy in living [if he
ever experienced joy] and experience personal and spiritual growth.
Schizoaffective
Schizophrenia
In
some patients, in addition to the symptoms that have been described, there are
striking shifts in mood that are more characteristic of another condition
called manic-depressive psychosis (or bipolar disorder). These patients appear depressed
at times, happy at other times, even euphoric. However, they can go for long
stretches without problems.
* Silvano Arieti
is the author of Understanding and Helping the Schizophrenic: A Guide for
Family and Friends, available from Amazon.com/books
A Description of Schizophrenia
By Thomas M. B. Shepherd
Shepherd Center for Sane Living
Weaving the Web of Schizophrenia
Tom Shepherd
~ Joplin, Missouri Native Son ~
Tom Shepherd