Philosophy Now Forum

In a novel by Paolo Coelho a person suffering from schizophrenia is described as someone who cannot endure the reality and makes a world of his own and hides in it completely.

Many people like to create a safe haven for themselves, particularly in England where a person´s home is a person´s castle.
When does a mental disease begin ?

P.S. Good luck for the English football team next Wednesday.

Perhaps two people can create together a separate world for themselves and that way develop a schizophrenia à deux ?

duszek wrote: ↑Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:43 am In a novel by Paolo Coelho a person suffering from schizophrenia is described as someone who cannot endure the reality and makes a world of his own and hides in it completely.

Many people like to create a safe haven for themselves, particularly in England where a person´s home is a person´s castle.
When does a mental disease begin ?

P.S. Good luck for the English football team next Wednesday.

Then by definition Western Culture is schizophrenic as it is premised in making a world of one's own.

duszek wrote: ↑Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:43 am In a novel by Paolo Coelho a person suffering from schizophrenia is described as someone who cannot endure the reality and makes a world of his own and hides in it completely.
Many people like to create a safe haven for themselves, particularly in England where a person´s home is a person´s castle.
When does a mental disease begin ?
P.S. Good luck for the English football team next Wednesday.

Coelho’s description is correct, as far as it goes, but certainly not exhaustive of the complex symptomatology that defines each kind of schizophrenia. A disease generally begins when a person meets the diagnostic criteria for the disease and suffers a significant disruption in activities of daily living and/or activities of special interest to the individual.

commonsense wrote: ↑Mon Jul 09, 2018 7:55 pm

duszek wrote: ↑Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:43 am In a novel by Paolo Coelho a person suffering from schizophrenia is described as someone who cannot endure the reality and makes a world of his own and hides in it completely.
Many people like to create a safe haven for themselves, particularly in England where a person´s home is a person´s castle.
When does a mental disease begin ?
P.S. Good luck for the English football team next Wednesday.

Coelho’s description is correct, as far as it goes, but certainly not exhaustive of the complex symptomatology that defines each kind of schizophrenia. A disease generally begins when a person meets the diagnostic criteria for the disease and suffers a significant disruption in activities of daily living and/or activities of special interest to the individual.

If a person just goes to work to earn their independent life and then stays at home and reads books to forget about everything else (no vacation, no concerts, no dinners etc.) is this a kind of schizophrenia ?

duszek wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 5:57 pm

commonsense wrote: ↑Mon Jul 09, 2018 7:55 pm

duszek wrote: ↑Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:43 am In a novel by Paolo Coelho a person suffering from schizophrenia is described as someone who cannot endure the reality and makes a world of his own and hides in it completely.
Many people like to create a safe haven for themselves, particularly in England where a person´s home is a person´s castle.
When does a mental disease begin ?
P.S. Good luck for the English football team next Wednesday.

Coelho’s description is correct, as far as it goes, but certainly not exhaustive of the complex symptomatology that defines each kind of schizophrenia. A disease generally begins when a person meets the diagnostic criteria for the disease and suffers a significant disruption in activities of daily living and/or activities of special interest to the individual.

If a person just goes to work to earn their independent life and then stays at home and reads books to forget about everything else (no vacation, no concerts, no dinners etc.) is this a kind of schizophrenia ?

What you describe sounds more like a dreary job and a normal desire for some escape

Yes, but if someone goes on and on like this is he risking to become schizophrenic one day ?

Some people are stuck in their lives (with a job, a marriage, ...) and don´t try to break free. Instead they escape inwardly.

Is it dangerous ?

duszek wrote: ↑Sun Jul 15, 2018 11:04 am Yes, but if someone goes on and on like this is he risking to become schizophrenic one day ?

Some people are stuck in their lives (with a job, a marriage, ...) and don´t try to break free. Instead they escape inwardly.

Is it dangerous ?

Seems like "feeling stuck" and "escaping inwardly" wouldn't be particularly healthy as a long-term state of one's life. There might be many ways it could manifest as illness -- so, whether or not it leads to schizophrenia probably depends on the person.

It would be different, say, if a person just liked to avoid "all the noise" as much as possible, and found peace and joy in living a quiet life. Some things might be routine... while one's greatest fulfillment might be in private endeavors. I think a telling factor on the actual health and quality of such a life is whether or not the person feels alive and present moment-to-moment and day-to-day. Or are they just whittling away hours unconsciously like a zombie? I think we are vibrant organic beings that naturally need to breathe and flow in all sorts of ways, to avoid the risk of becoming increasingly stagnant on all levels of our being.

I wonder about the health (mental and physical) of gamers who focus most of their life and energy on a computer screen. I think gaming is fantastic fun -- and I get addicted to it at times -- but the human body really needs more to stay vibrant. It helps to set up our lives with some elements that encourage us to breathe and flow beyond that. Knowing how to experience and create joy in MORE ways is a good skill for being more conscious about the intention we are setting for the life quality we want. I often think of life in terms of a game -- in which there are multiple lives within the game; always more abilities and tools and treasures to discover and use; and more passages to be explored. Getting "stuck" in any dead-end for an excessively long period of time is not good game-play.

What are your own impressions, duszek, about the danger/health of feeling stuck and escaping inwardly? How does a person get unstuck... must they change circumstances, or can they change what they do within those circumstances to keep themselves vibrant?

Is “schizophrenia “ being used in this thread to reference the clinical, psychotic disease (as I have been using it) or to mean schizophrenic-like behavior?

Very good points are being made, but being unable to distinguish reality from the unreal is more than what is being described here.

I assume that schizophrenia can develop from a certain behavior under certain circumstances.
It does not occur to a person like a stroke when a blood vessel bursts all of a sudden.

How many of us here are heading towards it ?
Just wondering.

Do prisoners develop it perhaps ? Or hermits ?

I cannot think of anything as an answer to your questions, Lacewing. Not at the moment. Perhaps some time later, I don´t know.

It is known what can cause depression, for example some terrible changes in one´s life like death of a mate or losing one´s job or suffering from an accident.

A psychosis is something I don´t know much about.

Coelho has explained a little to me what schizophrenia is about.

It is important to know what makes a person "crazy". Anybody can get crazy one day so it´s good to be prepared, don´t you agree ?

duszek wrote: ↑Mon Jul 16, 2018 5:12 pm It is known what can cause depression, for example some terrible changes in one´s life like death of a mate or losing one´s job or suffering from an accident.

This is true for exogenous depression. Endogenous depression is different.

Everyone creates a world for themselves; some are closer to reality, others close to pure fantasy; but none are quite at the limits of either end.

The trouble with worlds close to reality is that they can be a bit dull and boring or painful.
The trouble with fantasy worlds is that reality can creep up behind with a nasty surprise.

Take your pick....

What I never understood was why a schizophrenic would obey a voice in their head telling them what to do. Surely there would at least be an internal argument if an internal voice is telling a person to do irrational and unethical things?

Listen up! Schizophrenia is the title of this thread, yet the thread is rife with misconceptions about schizophrenia.

You cannot create schizophrenia. You cannot get schizophrenia from another person. Being stuck in life is not a risk factor for schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a form of psychosis; i.e. a person loses touch with reality.

The disorder is characterized by relatively fixed delusions and hallucinations. In addition to having false beliefs and hearing voices that others do not hear, a schizophrenic displays disorganized thinking and speaking.

A core symptom of schizophrenia is a deficit in cognitive abilities. Most schizophrenics fail to accept that they have any illness at all rather than suspect that they have a mental disorder. They are irrational, totally out there and just plain crazy.

A straightforward description of schizophrenia appears in Wikipedia.