Ausie psychiatrist replies to Ivan's SCHIZO TALK

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

 

This is an unchanged copy of an e-mail I received today

from an Australian psychiatrist (and shamaness) Maureen B. Roberts

in response to my previous e-mail

and the "poem" titled SCHIZO TALK.

 

I think her novel and refreshing approach to schizophrenia

is long overdue in the psychiatric community,

and I am looking forward to visiting her website

and reading her forthcoming book.

 

Love,

 

Ivan.

 

----------------------

 

Ivan Frimmel wrote:

> I have never been formally diagnosed, hospitalized, psychoanalyzed

> or otherwise treated for schizophrenia - and God only knows that I

> probably should have been.

 

Hi Ivan

 

Stuff the 'formal diagnosis' (given that many folk are wrongly

diagnosed as schizophrenic by psychiatrists, and many who are

schizophrenic are wrongly labelled as something else!). If you

wish to check yourself out against my Schizophrenia info., none

of which is belittling, stigmatizing, or patronizing, read:

Schizophrenia: Your Questions Answered at

 

http://members.nbci.com/jungcircle/SQuest.html

 

I hereby designate you as a 'potential shaman' (which all

schizophrenia sufferers are). Psychiatrists do not cure the needs of

soul, but simply prescribe damaging medication that band-aids

(often necessary) symptoms. For the record, I never call any

schizophrenia sufferer 'mentally ill." In my view (and theirs), its

the (biologic) psychiatrists who are sick and delusional.

> so far I have been able to cope

> with my life, as difficult as it may have been, without any

> psychiatric intervention, to the dismay of many people who know me.

> However "odd" I may be, look or act,

 

Good for you! You have every right to be you. Let others own

their fear, bigotry and paranoia - don't let them dump it onto you

by their suggestion that *you* have a problem. You are a

Percevale, a 'Holy Fool' who sees the Grail and is wiser than

those who assume that true knowledge is acquirable through

textbooks, diplomas and cerebral theories.

> I don't have two

> "personalities" unaware of each other, or any periods of unawareness

> of what's going on in my life and mind, just lots of conflicting

> needs, thoughts and feelings, and many "roles" that I am "playing",

> and a constant battle with their integration and transcendence.

 

Ivan, this IS precisely what schizophrenia involves, and it's a

divine gift of the gods. Celebrate it, own it, and love your

amazing, multifarious self.

 

In

> fact, most of the time I am quite comfortable with the way I am and

my

> life is, and often secretly wonder why there are not more people

like

> me - and arrogantly believe that the world would be a much better

> place if there were.

 

Not arrogance, but truthful insight on your part. We need more

folk like you - non-egotistical, creative, caring, sensitive,

non-materialistic.

> In the "poem" I am using the term schizophrenia as an exaggerated

> metaphor for what is, in my opinion, the dualistic and paradoxical

> predicament of almost every so-called "normal" individual - and to

> emphasize the importance of clear AWARENESS (perhaps with meditation

> as the first tool or step towards a greater awareness) of all of our

> internal contradictions, conflicts, uncertainties and

> unpredictabilities. I believe that a clear AWARENESS (especially

> the awareness of who I really am, of "my" essential self, of WHAT

> IS) is the most important factor for integrating and transcending

all

> these dualities and multiplicities - for healing our sense of

> alienation, and in my "poem" I tried to emphasize the need for free

> expression of our uniqueness, even downright "madness", in the

> "outsider's" healing process.

 

Bloody hell, Ivan, this is brilliantly expressed. Again, please may I

quote you in my book? Yes indeed; I resonate with your vision

here 100%. What I'm arguing in my book is that what psychiatry

derogatively labels as 'mental illness' (schizophrenia), is from

another perspective the *conscious expression* of what most folk

experience as a *conflict between conscious (one side of the

personality) and unconscious (opposite, or multiply diverse side).

With schizophrenia, we have divine ambivalence consciously

celebrated, i.e. the opposites are owned and granted equal value.

As Plato said, if our madness is the gift of the gods, then it is to

be

treasured as a gift to humanity. Much wisdom comes only

through madness.

> I don't think one can be totally mad if one is totally aware of

one's

> "madness" - and one certainly does not to shy away from

> expressing one's "madness" (uniqueness), or from being called

> "mad"... If anyone calls me "mad" I see it as a compliment - I

> certainly don't need or want to be like anyone else. I am

not "trying"

> to be different - I just am different. And yet, nothing human is

alien

> to me, and I have a lot in common with most people in the world,

even

> those formally diagnosed as schizophrenic.

 

Again, this is superbly expressed. As Jung said, not all that is mad

is insane. I'm the same; most psychiatrists would see *me* as

schizophrenic, or 'delusional'. It's a value judgment made by a

society that has not yet learned to live comfortably without egoic

defences and amidst the warring opposites.

> I fact, paradoxically, I believe that on the deepest level I am one

> with the Whole Universe (God, Reality) and an expression of It, and

> that, essentially, in Reality, there is no separation or duality

> between "me" and the Universe, only Oneness and Wholeness.

 

Again, yes; same here. This is a quality of the 'exploded ego' -

similar to mystical vision; dualism transcended through the

experience of connectedness - via shared soul and compassion -

with all.

> I am sending you a whole bunch of stuff that I wrote recently. If

you

> can use it - go ahead.

 

Yes, please send whatever you'd like to. I'd be honoured to read

it. Thanks for sharing some of your fascinating life story. Glad I

met you. Hope you make it down to NZ - just a jump away from

Australia.

> It sounds like you have a

> very interesting and fascinating job, and a fulfilling life.

 

I don't have a job, Ivan. I have a vocation (meaning the 'call of

the gods'). A job is simply what you do for money. A vocation is

what you *must* do (whether you're paid or not), or else you go

insane, or get sick, or die.

 

Thanks for permission to use your poem. I'll be sure to use the

edited version! Did you get into my website?

 

Kind regards & safe journeys [keep in touch!]

Maureen R.

http://members.nbci.com/jungcircle