On Being Schizophrenic

By Jeannie Kramer

On Being Schizophrenic by Jeannie Kramer

[--------------------------------------------]

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781682137437

Book preview

8045.jpg

Schizophrenic

On Being

by Jeannie Kramer

Copyright © 2015 Jeannie Kramer

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2015

ISBN 978-1-68213-742-0 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-68213-743-7 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One One Schizophrenic’s Story

Part Two Dreams and Hallucinations

Part Three Theories and Explanations

Bibliography

Abstract

Purpose of the Study:

Schizophrenia has been baffling the medical establishment and schizophrenics for a very long time. I am amazed by the number of people I meet, even in the field of psychology who believe that once a schizophrenic, always a schizophrenic.

The purpose of this study is to shed a little bit of understanding on the mystery that we call schizophrenia.

Method:

This project is an account of my experience as a chronic schizophrenic and my recovery. The last chapter is an account of theories that help me understand and explain my experience.

Conclusions:

People who are sexually molested as children have difficulty establishing psychological boundaries so that activity from deeper levels of consciousness flows into the person’s attention, like dream images superimposed on ordinary experience. This is one explanation for one type of schizophrenia.

A safe environment and loving support from people who have some understanding of schizophrenia can make it possible for the schizophrenic to explore her/his inner world, create a self, and establish psychological boundaries, eventually becoming able to function in the world.

Chair: ________________

Signature

MA Program: Psychology

Sonoma State UniversityDate: ____________

Acknowledgments

With deep love and affection, I thank Lee Morgan and Leonti Thompson for believing in me when I didn’t and for holding the space for me to return to the world in my own way and time.

I am also grateful to my learning community—Sandi, Tiber, Margaret, Sherry, and Hafiza—for assisting me in the birthing of this baby. My special thanks and acknowledgment to Art Warmoth and Mac McCreary for holding the space for our learning community.I thank my Friday afternoon friends—Guli, Bill, Lucy, Evelyn, Fran.

Mary Belle, Susan, and George for their continual encouragement, love, and the occasional kick in the pants.

Introduction

One way to approach this project is to assume the point of view of a psychologist or other professional and read it as a case study of a woman who, after an interesting and rather stressful childhood, developed schizophrenia in early adolescence, experienced schizophrenic episodes periodically for twenty-two years, and then found ways to create a self and become a relatively functional and integrated human being.

This woman has a very broad and sophisticated understanding of the issues and theories concerning schizophrenia. Though she thinks the literature is woefully inadequate, she does demonstrate a fond familiarity with the available material.

Another way to approach this project is to read it with tenderheartedness as the life story of a young woman who found creative and interesting ways to make impossible situations livable.

This is, in fact, an account of my experience as a chronic

schizophrenic.

The first part of this work is a story and is written in the style of an informal story. Here I tell of the circumstances I believe led me to develop schizophrenia, of my experience as a schizophrenic, of therapy, and the mental health system.

Dreams and hallucinations have been an important and interesting aspect of my life. In part 2, I relate some of my creams and hallucinations. When I describe my dreams, I include my personal process for working with and understanding my dreams.

In part 3, I relate some of the theories that help me explain my experience with schizophrenia to myself and others. Because it is my personal experience, I am endeavoring to explain, story weaves in and out of theory. I only write about theories that fit with my experience. I believe theory is born out of a need to understand experience. Even though I run into many theories that I disagree with, I don’t necessarily think they’re wrong, only that they may be describing someone else’s experience. I don’t feel qualified to discuss or criticize theories that don’t fit my experience, so I don’t.

I like R. D. Laing’s approach to schizophrenia, and I think his approach is useful because he takes the attitude that the person experiencing schizophrenia may have been ill before the psychosis began, but that the psychosis itself is a healing process that begins deep inside of the individual in an effort to create a self that is whole. In his work with schizophrenics, he found schizophrenia to be a process that needs to be lived through, experienced, and completed (Laing, 1965).

John Perry takes a similar approach to working with schizophrenics. He too believes that schizophrenia is a healing process for reorganizing the self. He also found several themes common in the psychotic experiences of many of the people he worked with. Perry believes that the images and delusions experienced in schizophrenia are meaningful and important to the process of creating a self (Perry, 1974).

Both R. D. Laing and John Perry found that by providing a safe and accepting environment, with people who were respectful of the experiences of the individuals they were working with, the individuals experiencing schizophrenia would go through the psychotic process and come out the other side better able to live fulfilling lives.

Many of the psychological theories I’ve come across in my experience and in my reading assume that schizophrenia is an illness, or a deviance, that needs to be treated. Some of these approaches, when used in the treatment of schizophrenia, appear to have therapeutic results with some schizophrenics and make no difference at all in the lives of many others.

Reality therapy has been used in the treatment of schizophrenics who have been hospitalized for a long time and have settled into a life of institutionalization. The results of using reality therapy in working with long-term chronic schizophrenics have been somewhat encouraging (Glasser, 1965).

In my own therapy, I’ve experienced the transactional analysis approach to treatment (Bern, 1961) and the gestalt therapy approach (Perls, 1951). I think these forms of therapy are useful insofar as they provide, for the schizophrenic individual, a healthy relationship with someone who accepts him/her without judgment.

I really don’t believe anyone with an attitude of superiority, or of knowing what’s best for another, can have any kind of meaningful exchange with a schizophrenic. In order to understand what the psychotic individual is