This morning I read a wide-ranging article on schizophrenia and related diseases. It was mentioned on the Mind Hacks blog, headlines of which appear on my blog page. Robin Murray is a British psychiatrist and researcher and discusses in an interview his views and experiences with research and patients. Since our daughter Jill was debilitated by mental illness for decades before her death, we have an interest in the subject.
One of shocking things that emerges when a relative is struck by serious delusions is how little can be done about the problem. When a bright young woman informs her parents that she has a new boyfriend named Adam and she means the famous male founder of the human race, the one from the Garden of Eden, at first the parents have difficulty comprehending her statement. Once they understand her, they doubt her, naturally. They tend to have questions. These can be handled in a variety of ways, no doubt. Her way was to be dismissive, with pity for such mundane matters from such primitive thinkers. Over time, the parents learn that acceptance of the statement without further ado tended to get the item off the conversational table more quickly. Not accepting the literal truth of her assertions, which would be impossible, just moving on to something else to talk about.
One of the most surreal parts of my experience was the speed and seeming comfort with which this intelligent young woman accepted our acceptance and readily moved on to discussing the weather we had been having of late. I am pretty sure if you were really going to be awarded a special Nobel prize for contributions to humanity, you would want to mention quite a few details of your work, the thrill of being contacted by the prize committee, etc. You wouldn't be comfortable or happy with me too quickly asking you to discuss the recent high humidity.
Dr. Murray makes clear that the voices schizophrenics hear are internal signals that arise in Broca's area of the brain just like normal thoughts that seem to be internal speech but that some brains send the signals through the very nerve channels used by external sounds coming in the ear. He notes that families of such people find it very helpful to learn that the afflicted actually cannot distinguish between "the voices" that speak to them and voices they hear from other speakers.
Trying to understand what we could of our daughter's condition, we found her diagnosis would vary. Murray says that he has sometimes met with a patient who was a very clear example of a schizophrenic. "Who were the idiots that labeled this person bipolar?" he would ask his assistant. The assistant would page through some notes and look at the psychiatrist and smile. Murray found he himself had made the earlier diagnosis.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
