“But partly it was my own professional background, my training in psychology, that rather than helping me—made it almost impossible for me to face what was happening. Back when I studied psychology in the 1950s, there was only one cause for all mental illnesses, even the most severe: a faulty upbringing. Everything was tied to the way you were raised. There were different schools of thought, of course. Some practitioners followed a Freudian model where understanding the id, the ego and the superego gave the answer to everything. Some followed Jung, with his emphasis on unconscious myths. But everyone believed that it was early life experiences that were behind mental disorders. A patient with serious mental problems had been subject at an early age to unacceptable pressures, to confusing messages, or to some destructive behavior on the part of the parents.” WisdomPsychologyHuman NatureReflectionMental HealthParentingInsightChildhood TraumaFreudFamily Dynamics Book:The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness Source: The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness
“All my ideas had been wrong. Schizophrenia wasn't a split personality. It was a brain disease, a chemical imbalance. People with schizophrenia did hallucinate. They heard voices commanding them to do things. They heard voices talking about them. Sometimes they had delusions, like that they were the Prophet Elijah, or Moses. People with schizophrenia were very sick. Mostly the disease started in people who were very young, just starting their lives. Sometimes drugs helped get their hallucinations under control. Sometimes drugs didn't help at all. Very often people with schizophrenia didn't get better. Some of them spent their whole lives in institutions.” RealityTruthPsychologyAwarenessHealthMental HealthPsychiatrySchizophreniaLife StrugglesBrain Disease Book:The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness Source: The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness