Schizophrenia

Man has no individual I. But there are, instead, hundreds and thousands of separate small "I"s, very often entirely unknown to one another, never coming into contact, or, on the contrary, hostile to each other, mutually exclusive and incompatible. Each minute, each moment, man is saying or thinking, "I". And each time his I is different. Just now it was a thought, now it is a desire, now a sensation, now another thought, and so on, endlessly. Man is a plurality. Man's name is legion.
G.I. Gurdjieff

Etymology

From Online Etymology Dictionary:
from the Greek roots skhizein (???????, "to split") and phre-n, phren- (????, ????-; "mind")
1912, from Mod.L., lit. "a splitting of the mind," from Ger. Schizophrenie, coined in 1910 by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler (1857-1939), from Gk. skhizein "to split" (see shed (v.)) + phren (gen. phrenos) "diaphragm, heart, mind," of unknown origin. Slang shortening schizo first attested 1920s as an adj., 1945 as a noun.

Pertinent Excerpts of Wikipedia''s Article

Despite its etymology, schizophrenia is not the same as dissociative identity disorder, previously known as multiple personality disorder or split personality, with which it has been erroneously confused.

Signs and symptoms

A person diagnosed with schizophrenia may demonstrate auditory hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized and unusual thinking and speech; this may range from loss of train of thought and subject flow, with sentences only loosely connected in meaning, to incoherence, known as word salad, in severe cases. Social isolation commonly occurs for a variety of reasons. Impairment in social cognition is associated with schizophrenia, as are symptoms of paranoia from delusions and hallucinations, and the negative symptoms of avolition (apathy or lack of motivation). In one uncommon subtype, the person may be largely mute, remain motionless in bizarre postures, or exhibit purposeless agitation; these are signs of catatonia. No one sign is diagnostic of schizophrenia, and all can occur in other medical and psychiatric conditions.The current classification of psychoses holds that symptoms need to have been present for at least one month in a period of at least six months of disturbed functioning. A schizophrenia-like psychosis of shorter duration is termed a schizophreniform disorder. Those who go on to develop schizophrenia may experience the non-specific symptoms of social withdrawal, irritability and dysphoria in the prodromal period, and transient or self-limiting psychotic symptoms in the prodromal phase before psychosis becomes apparent.

Causes

Evidence suggests that the diagnosis of schizophrenia has a significant heritable component but that onset is significantly influenced by environmental factors or stressors.[45] The idea of an inherent vulnerability (or diathesis) in some people, which can be unmasked by biological, psychological or environmental stressors, is known as the stress-diathesis model.[46] The idea that biological, psychological and social factors are all important is known as the "biopsychosocial" model.

End of wikipedia excerpts

Sense ratio and Images as causes of mental dis-ease

Schizophrenic people live in a world of forms of mental behavior which we and they don''t understand. The worst cases are dis-eased but most are adapted, successful people which we would never think are schizophrenic. This is because few understand what schizophrenia is.
I would propose that the physical and chemical symptoms, as well as the neurotic behavior, are caused by a total lack of self-awareness of our constantly shifting sense ratio imbalances and manipulations as well as the widespread dis-order of Image Sickness.

Schizophrenia is a catch-all term for mental states we don''t understand

There are people who suffer from severe mental dis-ease and are unable to survival and interact in society. Almost everyone is dis-eased to some level but manages to create a balance successful enough for self-sustainable survival. When it comes to multiple personalities or say a splitting of a personality as the word''s etymology suggests we must first define and understand the word personality.

Wiktionary''s definition includes:
1.A set of qualities that make a person (or thing) distinct from another.
2.An assumed role or manner of behavior.

I would imagine that people assume different roles depending on the situation and people interacted with. One might even design different manner''s of behavior for one''s self depending on the situation. Now we each have a unique combinations of qualities which make us distinct from one another but we are free to change these combinations or add or subtract qualities as we go through life. So if several people got together and discussed your personality they may discover that there are differences. Does this mean you have multiple personalities? No. This is elementary. Personalities, or sets of habitual qualities, can change slowly over time, or radically in days. Is this a problem? Its only a problem if the individual becomes a danger to those around him/her.
It is even possible to constantly and consciously recreate your personality depending on the environment of people. Is this lying? Everyone chooses aspects of their personality if only unconsciously. Perhaps we assume traits from your mother, father, mentors, siblings, friends, enemies, heroes, and devils as we grow up. The process of growing up from a personality, or Ego, point of view are these encounters of traits of others personalities and accepting or denying them.

It is also possible to create our own new personality aspects. Traits that have never existed before. We can can also forge new alloys, mixing different quantities of qualities together in new combinations of with all the others.

If a person does this consciously people possibly label them duplicitous. Ask yourself, "why?" What if we all created our personality consciously? How is it wrong to create your personality consciously? Would natural conscious changes be accepted by an individual easier and avoid dis-ease in the mind? I see that it is so.

Now what does this have to do with schizophrenia? The growth of our personality, our expression of becoming, undergoes an complex and is understood by very few (I am not conscious of it either). We are expected, as social norm, to maintain a relatively static personality. Some eccentricity is tolerated, usually if the person has money, or if the person is peaceful. Personality growth and changes which proceed outside the frontiers of acceptance, an arbitrary boundary set by each culture or group, then a person is likely to be labeled disturbed or insane. Naturally people who turn violent must not be allowed to harm others. These are the minority. A calm, conscious observation is necessary to understand and dispel the fear associated with frontier personality movements.

Oftentimes individuals are not conscious of the processes taking place and therefore become quite afraid. This leads to dis-ease of the mind. These are the people who need help, psychological and psychiatric teachers, not doctors. The solution here is not healing but learning. Because we as a culture treat these "schizophrenic" individuals as patients and not students we end up prolonging or even creating further damage and suffering. If someone you love suffers from "schizophrenia" then take the time learn about yourself and your loved one so that you can mutually teach each other. This will yield infinitely better results.

I have discussed one definition of the dis-ease individuals suffer which many "professionals" label schizophrenia All of the symptoms listed in the Wikipedia article could be caused by any number of phenomenon. It is a lazy term, used by lazy doctors, who are not interested in getting to know the real root of the disorder. Why? Because if they dig too deep then they might discover the same dis-ease inside themselves. Mustn''t go there, let us just dope up these people and forget about them. Good money for the drug companies and the kickbacks to doctors. What it really takes is patience, compassion, and self-honesty to help someone. Do not approach a dis-eased person with a air of superiority. Let them see the real you, that you suffer too. Together lets see what the root of the trouble is. As I mentioned earlier I see Image Sickness is a general and widespread dis-ease afflicting 99% of humanity. Please investigate that article for more information. No image, word (auditory image connotators), memory, idea is real. They are only convenient illusions for use in communication.

Psychedelic drugs can be the cause or cure of "schizophrenia." These chemicals have been the frontier of consciousness in the 20th century. The first big dose of LSD you take is like taking a bowling ball and throwing through the glass coffee table of your belief system. Smash!! and all that is left is scattered ideas strewn about the floor. Some people find this very disorienting and frightening. Some find it liberating. It brings to your attention that who you are is not your ideas but these beliefs and ideas are just little objects, small puzzle pieces or blocks, from which any number of structures can be built. Ideas or beliefs are not true in themselves, we give them truth, imbue them with life. Believe = Be alive. To give life to an idea.

Awareness of these facts can cause a general breakdown into frightened neurosis or if the ocean of images are sailed with a stout heart, a new peace and freedom can be found. It doesn't take LSD to realize this. It can be done purposefully and consciously if one chooses.

Let those who have been told they suffer from schizophrenia know that they are not alone, that everyone suffers as they do. With a little help, compassion, and courage, everyone can overcome this habitual image hypnosis.

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