Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is one of the most feared and stigmatized mental illnesses. In our present age, we treat it with antipsychotic medication, such as Haldol or Abilify. In some cultures however, these hallucinations, or visions, are seen as positive and revered by other members of society. How do we define the difference between schizophrenia and shamanism? The difference seems to lie only in culture and spirituality.
In the influential Anti Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Gilles Deleuze, a French philosopher, and Felix Guattari, a philosopher/psychoanalyst/filmmaker/general Renaissance Man, the authors argue that schizophrenia is something of a gift, or perhaps a natural reaction to the horrors of capitalism. I don’t know. I didn’t read the book.
What I do know is that these perspectives on schizophrenia, that it makes more sense than being sane in our current world, or that people with schizophrenia can see things as they really are, and the rest of us have clouded vision, are common among stoners, shamans, and schizophrenics alike. Is there any truth to this? It’s not for me to say.
A study by researchers at Stanford University found that the voices schizophrenics hear depend on their culture. In the US, the voices are malevolent and threatening, while in Ghana and India, the voices take a more playful and peaceful nature. Is this a result of the way our different societies view schizophrenia? If we conceptualized it as a gift, it could lead to a much easier life for those who hear voices. Or perhaps it is the other way around, that these voices are the result of completely separate disorders, and that categorizing them both as schizophrenia is reductive.
“Among the Indians in Chennai, more than half… heard voices of kin or family members commanding them to do tasks. “They talk as if elder people advising younger people,” one subject said… several heard the voices as playful, as manifesting spirits or magic, and even as entertaining… In Accra, Ghana, where the culture accepts that disembodied spirits can talk, few subjects described voices in brain disease terms. When people talked about their voices, 10 of them called the experience predominantly positive; 16 of them reported hearing God audibly. “‘Mostly, the voices are good,’” one participant remarked.”
There have been countless horror movies about those who hear voices in their heads telling them to do evil things, which could affect those with Schizophrenia in negative ways by changing what they hear. Cultural attitudes not only shape treatment of mental illnesses, but also symptoms.
There have been many famous artists throughout history with schizophrenia, although it is hard to know exactly, as so many did not reveal their illness or even know what it was before the 20th century. These diagnoses are most often revealed posthumously. The Wikipedia page for “People with Schizophrenia” is comprised almost entirely of musicians, painters, writers, and murderers. Among those are Syd Barrett, founder of Pink Floyd, Agnes Martin, minimalist modern artist, Zelda Fitzgerald, author and wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daniel Johnston, cult outsider musician, Joey Ramone, Ramone, Bettie Page, famous pinup model, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, member of the Wu-Tang Clan, and Camile Claudel, artist and assistant/mistress of Auguste Rodin (although many of these are debatable).
So is schizophrenia truly a gift? Are all great artists mad? I would love to dive deeper into this in one of my essays, but I think I could spend my entire life researching and never find the answer, so for now I think I’m just going to find the Shmoop for Anti-Oedipus.
