schizophrenia is not an illness, it is the way forward
I filled in a questionaire today on my experience of schizophrenia. A well meaning body has undertaken to combat the stigma attatched to mental illness and wanted to know the opinions of interested parties. I had difficulty with some questions of the questionaire since my fifteen years experience of schizophrenia have lead me to some conclusions that are somewhat at odds with the prevailing views of the scientific community.
I read the memoirs of Carl Jung before I became schizophrenic, and then again afterwards. I would go so far as to say that I might well not have become schizophrenic if I had not read Jung! I was intrigued by his experiences 'exploring the subconscious', especially by his descriptions of the fantasies/visions/spirit encounters that he described. I was thus drawn down that same road. After I became schizophrenic I re-read Jung, and in the light of my own experiences of psychosis, it was obvious to me that what Jung was describing was exactly my experience of that 'illness'. If I am schizophrenic, then so, too, was Jung.
As far as I am aware, Jung never concieved of himself as experiencing psychosis. He never concieved of himself as being ill. I would concurr. Jung was not ill, and neithter am I. The illness is in blocking psychosis. What we call psychosis is a common experience of mystics, visionaries, and many peoples 'too primitive' to be frightened of hallucinations.
But these visions/hallucinations are perfectly natural. 'A picture speaks a thousand words' goes the old adage. This is absolutely true. This is the language of dreams. For dreams are a language, and a communication, and their language is the language of metaphor, and metaphor is much more complex than symbol. The ability to communcate using metaphor takes a much more advanced mind than the ability to communcate using symbols. That is why we have thus far been unable to handle the language of dreams and visions. But our minds are now at the stage where we should be capable of taking this next step.
Through my experience of psychosis, I have learned to understand the language of dreams, where dreams come from and why they come. That is for another blog. Suffice it to say that therein lies the answer to the question of 'life the universe and everything'.
I read the memoirs of Carl Jung before I became schizophrenic, and then again afterwards. I would go so far as to say that I might well not have become schizophrenic if I had not read Jung! I was intrigued by his experiences 'exploring the subconscious', especially by his descriptions of the fantasies/visions/spirit encounters that he described. I was thus drawn down that same road. After I became schizophrenic I re-read Jung, and in the light of my own experiences of psychosis, it was obvious to me that what Jung was describing was exactly my experience of that 'illness'. If I am schizophrenic, then so, too, was Jung.
As far as I am aware, Jung never concieved of himself as experiencing psychosis. He never concieved of himself as being ill. I would concurr. Jung was not ill, and neithter am I. The illness is in blocking psychosis. What we call psychosis is a common experience of mystics, visionaries, and many peoples 'too primitive' to be frightened of hallucinations.
But these visions/hallucinations are perfectly natural. 'A picture speaks a thousand words' goes the old adage. This is absolutely true. This is the language of dreams. For dreams are a language, and a communication, and their language is the language of metaphor, and metaphor is much more complex than symbol. The ability to communcate using metaphor takes a much more advanced mind than the ability to communcate using symbols. That is why we have thus far been unable to handle the language of dreams and visions. But our minds are now at the stage where we should be capable of taking this next step.
Through my experience of psychosis, I have learned to understand the language of dreams, where dreams come from and why they come. That is for another blog. Suffice it to say that therein lies the answer to the question of 'life the universe and everything'.
posted by joan @ 1:35 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home