Question:
Perhaps the most nightmarish of illnesses is paranoid schizophrenia, an
illness that catapults one into a frightening world where one no longer
knows what is true, and what is imagined. But what is the cognitive cause of
this illness, if any, and how, if possible, is it to be corrected
cognitively?
Answer:
I am writing an essay on the _cognitive_ causes of schizophrenia --
i.e., causes based in the way in which one thinks. The thoughts in the
essay derive from my own experience with the illness, and I realize I could
benefit a great deal if others who have had the illness might review the
essay and point out support for or objections to its points. The essay in its current form is located here:
http://johnrearden.com/schizophrenia.htm
I have also pasted the text below.
Any time you invest in responding to this thread will be appreciated.
Please provide as much detail as possible from your experience, if objecting
to or offering support for the points below. Perhaps the most nightmarish of illnesses is paranoid schizophrenia, an
illness that catapults one into a frightening world where one no longer
knows what is true, and what is imagined. But what is the cognitive cause of
this illness, if any, and how, if possible, is it to be corrected
cognitively?
Paranoid schizophrenia is characterized, psychologically, by symptoms
including hallucinations and paranoia. Hallucinations, the imagining of
percepts - paranoia, the imagining of actions or events outside of one's
perceptual range - both of which are inimical to one's values. What causes
these problems?
The answer: nonobjectivity.
Hallucinations
When the mind has forbidden itself the identification of certain percepts,
e.g. those relating to a threat to one's job, or one's life, due to fear
(for, the victim feels, were the threat actually true, it could not be
borne) - the mind nevertheless continues to exist, though handicapped, in a
state of blindness in the relevant area.
The mind has placed upon itself an exclusion, a block, a filter (based in
consciousness) to perception. The block is of percepts that, were they true,
could not be dealt with - percepts that, if true, could not be borne. Thus
the mind flees from their identification - the exclusion acts as a filter;
it is an account which is senior to all others, including reality itself.
How to remedy this area of forced blindness, of nonobjectivity in relation
to certain percepts, when it can be essential to the continuation of life
that they be faced (e.g., if it concerns a threat to one's life, or some
other important value)? The answer: by the mind generating the percepts
itself.
There are two imperatives for the mind to consider:
1- That the feared percepts, if they occur in reality, not be identified -
that they be avoided at all costs - for if they are true, one feels they
could not be borne (for example, evidence supporting the idea that one is
evil); and
2- That the feared percepts be identified, and faced, if they exist - for if
they exist, they constitute a real threat to one's values.
If one has volitionally blinded oneself to the feared, threatening percepts
(as in 1), yet does not want to lose the value in question - then what
remedy? The answer: For the mind to itself generate the feared percepts. And
in this manner, bring them before itself, when the possibility of
identifying their real counterparts has been forbidden.
Why does a man's mind do this? As a matter of survival, if one's life is the
relevant value. These are percepts one will not allow oneself, whether due
to fear or another motive, to identify when the actual stimuli present
themselves. They may well exist in reality. And if they were to exist, there
would be a significant threat to, e.g., one's life. The mind knows the
importance of identifying the external threat - but at the same time, seeks
to forbid itself the perception of related actual percepts - for were they
to exist, it could not be borne. The remedy? The internal generation of the
percepts that it fears. Beginning with the "neutral morph" (i.e., morphing
neutral environmental stimuli into the stimuli that one fears, and in
relation to which one is nonobjective) - continuing into entirely autonomous
hallucinations.
Paranoia
What is paranoia? The fear of actions or events that are occurring outside
of one's perceptual range that threaten one's values. A overweight woman is
paranoid that others are speaking about her weight, even when they are not;
why? Because this is an issue in relation to which she is nonobjective - an
issue in relation to which she feels insecurity and fear. The value at stake
is her self-esteem, which is linked to her weight and appearance. And were
the snide comments of others actually occurring, it could not be borne by
her mind.
Her mind's relation to reality in this issue is thus not firm - she flees
from evidence that would support that these actions are in fact occurring,
and that others are speaking ill of her - and thus in relation to such data,
which, if true, could not be borne, she is nonobjective - she flees from
identification. Her tie to reality has been volitionally severed, and she
thus comes to, quite rationally, fear a scenario that "might" be occurring
in that reality of which she has forbidden herself the identification in the
relevant context, due to fear or another motive.
Summary
In the case of both hallucinations and paranoia, there are common things at
stake:
- An issue that demands identification, for there are (or may be) key values
in peril; and
- A non-objective relation to reality in regard to the issue - a filter,
senior to reality, placed upon one's consciousness, relating to evidence of
the issue in question - for if it were the case that the percepts were real,
or that the actions or events were occurring, it could not be borne.
With hallucinations, percepts inimical to one's values are imagined. With
paranoia, actions or events outside of one's perceptual range inimical to
one's values are imagined. Together, they cover everything; and both are the
result of a mind that has been volitionally severed from reality, yet
continues to exist and to live in that reality, a reality of which it has,
in one or more contexts, forbidden itself the identification. I don't do alot of reading as I am naked. Sorry. You shouldn't have
posted on nude posting day unless you're naked too. Thus, I believe
your post would have been shorter.
(shifts on towel) I thought it was pretty inteesting but being naked on this chair, it
tickles and stuff, so I saved the address for after Nude Posting day. I figgered I'd g along in sympathy with those who wanted it extended,
nude posting day I mean.
Its a good article likely worth reading more of, but I have to adjust my
schedule to give it proper mind.
I got a bath running.
besides like Luke says, you aren't naked and thats against the rules on
NPD. You've caught my attention. Do you have any ideas to cure paranoid
schizophrenia? I myself suffer from that. How might I look at the
world more objectively, and avoid such problems? I can see one
instance, where I've lied to myself. I often hear myself say "you're
fat" in the grocery store and other situations, and I believe it goes
back to ages ago when kids said I was fat in elementary school. I cried
at the time, and eventually walked away. Would having someone tell me
I'm fat in public at an unexpected time help me get over it? What about
announcing to a stranger "I'm fat!?"
Another common set are "no one likes you!" "you're a loser!" From my
days in junior high (which I eventually dropped out of, in favor of
home school).
Why do you think I enter the delusion that I'm in hell, and those around
me exist merely to bring me up, only to bring me down? I get so
delusional that I call people demons, and somehow convince myself it's
entirely true. How can I fix that?
I have friends that hallucinate, and I'd tell them any ideas you have to
cure those problems too.
