Integral/Holistic view & approach to schizophrenia

[Being]

Madness Radio Interview with Mike Cornwall on Jungian Approaches to Madness and Renewal -

https://www.madinamerica.com/2012/10...s-and-renewal/

http://www.madnessradio.net/madness-...hael-cornwall/

"What if people struggling with madness could explore their emotions in a supportive sanctuary? Do frightening 'psychotic' experiences have the power to transform and heal? Is breakdown also breakthrough? Michael Cornwall became a therapist after surviving his own crisis -- without medication or psychiatric treatment. For more than 30 years he has worked in the tradition of Carl Jung and R.D. Laing to support people to go through psychotic states in medication-free community settings, including John Weir Perry's Diabasis House in the 1970s. https://www.madinamerica.com/author/mcornwall/ http://altmentalities.files.wordpres...nwall-diss.pdf "

[Being]

Originally Posted by Gem

Anyway, what I found out is, the term 'mental health' arose in the discourse in the 1980's as part of the deinstitutionalisation narrative... which the DSM III (1980) reflected by vastly expanding the number of diagnostic categories, blurring the distinction between them, and defining very common everyday thoughts feelings and behaviours as 'symptoms', as well as expanding diagnoses to particularly include children. This manifested socially as integrating the the previously confined mad with the free population, which meant dissolving any clear boundary in the we(sane)/them(insane) identity structure. In effect, this meant instead of having the 'mentally ill' as an abject Other, we introduced 'mental health' as a concern for everyone. This was clearly reflected by the high inflation in rates of diagnosis and prescriptions of that time. (Particularly among children)

You make some good points, & yes, i totally agree.

[Being]

Corbyn: Disabled people 'demonised' by austerity politicians -

http://money.aol.co.uk/2016/11/11/co...y-politicians/

"Jeremy Corbyn said disabled people and those on social security had been "demonised" by some politicians as he slated the Government's record over help for society's least fortunate.
Mr Corbyn, at the Labour Party's launch to develop policies to fight discrimination and promote disability equality, said some disabled people had faced "horrifying" hate crime since Brexit.
The Labour leader said: "Some politicians have sought to legitimise cuts, demonising people with disabilities as scroungers and shirkers - remember that language that was used in the past?
"We will never use that language. It is out of court, unacceptable, and should be unacceptable in any kind of decent civilised society.
"And they have whipped up hatred towards disabled people.
"The hate crime that has grown particularly since the Brexit referendum has been horrifying.
"Horrifying in its racism, horrifying in its misogyny, horrifying in its homophobia, horrifying in its attacks on people with disabilities across the country."
The event, attended by 50 disabled people, heard they were now being "vilified" as "skivers" and the "undeserving poor".
But half of all people in poverty in the UK are disabled or live in a household with a disabled person, which Mr Corbyn said was a "shocking" indictment of the system."

[Being]

Curing Schizophrenia via Intensive Psychotherapy

https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/11...psychotherapy/

[Being]

http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/0...-nears-100000/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD6fvzGIBfQ

[Being]

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/mission-statement

https://www.thevenusproject.com/

https://newearthnation.org/

http://www.thrivemovement.com/

http://www.auroville.org/

[Golden Eagle]

DSM-IV Religious and Spiritual Problems
LESSON 3.8 Shamanic Crisis
Table of Contents

Description • Associated Clinical problems • Treatment • Case Examples • WWW Library

Description
Shamanism is humanity's oldest religion and healing art, dating back to the Paleolithic era. Originally, the word shaman referred specifically to healers of the Tungus people of Siberia. In recent times, that name has been given to healers in many traditional cultures around the globe who use consciousness altering techniques in their healing work.

Historically, shamanism has been confused with schizophrenia by anthropologists because shamans often speak of altered state experiences in the spirit world as if they were "real" experiences. While the shaman and the person in a psychotic episode both have unusual access to spiritual and altered state experiences, shamans are trained to work in the spirit world, while the psychotic person is simply lost in it.

But in many traditional cultures, psychotic episodes have served as an initiatory illness that calls a person into shamanism. Mircea Eliade writes:

The future shaman sometimes takes the risk of being mistaken for a "madman". . .but his "madness" fulfills a mystic function; it reveals certain aspects of reality to him that are inaccessible to other mortals, and it is only after having experienced and entered into these hidden dimensions of reality that the "madman" becomes a shaman. (Mircea Eliade. Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries. New York: Harper and Row, 1960. Page 80-81)

As the person accepts the calling and becomes a shaman, their illness usually disappears. The "self-cure of a psychosis" is so typical of the shaman that some anthropologists have argued that anyone without this experience should be described only as a healer. The concept of the "wounded healer" addresses the necessity of the shaman-to-be entering into extreme personal crisis in preparation of his/her role in the community as a healer (Halifax, Joan. Shamanic Voices. New York: Dutton, 1979)..

Traditional cultures distinguish between serious mental illness and the initiatory crisis experienced by some shamans-to-be. Anthropological accounts show that babbling confused words, displaying curious eating habits, singing continuously, dancing wildly, and being "tormented by spirits" are common elements in shamanic initiatory crises. In shamanic cultures, such crises are interpreted as an indication of an individual's destiny to become a shaman, rather than a sign of mental illness. If the illness occurs in an appropriate cultural context, the shaman returns from the crisis not only healed, but able to heal others.

For example, the Siberian shaman Kyzalov entered a state of "madness" lasting for seven years which resulted in his initiation as a shaman. He reported that during those years he had been beaten up several times, taken to many strange places including the top of a sacred mountain, chopped into pieces and boiled in a kettle, met the spirits of sickness, and acquired the drum and garment of a dead shaman. In our society today these experiences would be considered evidence of a psychotic disorder and could possibly result in hospitalization. Yet when Kyzalov recuperated, he reported that, "the shamans declared, 'You are the sort of man who may become a shaman; you should become a shaman. You must begin to shamanize.' " (Halifax, Joan. Shamanic Voices. New York: Dutton, 1979)..

Referring to the "wounded healer" concept, Kalweit argues the shamanic crisis is:

[Being]

This is relevant to the discussion -

The Election: Of Hate, Grief, and a New Story

http://charleseisenstein.net/hategriefandanewstory/

"Normal is coming unhinged. For the last eight years it has been possible for most people (at least in the relatively privileged classes) to believe that society is sound, that the system, though creaky, basically works, and that the progressive deterioration of everything from ecology to economy is a temporary deviation from the evolutionary imperative of progress.

A Clinton Presidency would have offered four more years of that pretense. A woman President following a black President would have meant to many that things are getting better. It would have obscured the reality of continued neoliberal economics, imperial wars, and resource extraction behind a veil of faux-progressive feminism. Now that we have, in the words of my friend Kelly Brogan, rejected a wolf in sheep’s clothing in favor of a wolf in wolf’s clothing, that illusion will be impossible to maintain."

[Being]

i'm working with a new healer. She seems adamant that within a different cultural context what i have been through would have been seen, treated & apprehended as a Shamanic crisis/initiation & that by now i'd have been a powerful Shaman.

The reality is that i wasn't raised within a Shamanic culture - But Western Capitalist society. i went through mental health difficulties in childhood - i have been through 7 major/severe psychotic breakdowns, 4 hospitalisation, & have been medicated most of the past 27 years.

i have been made utterly dependent on an anti-psychotic/neuroleptic medication, which i have been on for 17 years. If i stop taking it i end up in very severe illness. This year i've Not been feeling too well again, especially over the past few months. There doesn't seem a way to more fully resolve things & part of me has accepted the schizophrenia diagnosis, & the realities of a long term/life long severe illness/condition.

There hasn't been enough in the way of access to appropriate alternative to address things differently. It's a struggle enough trying to maintain a degree of stability in the community & independent living, with all that entails, especially with maintaining eligibility for what little help i get with money in social security from the Government. i've been too unwell to work for a long time now.

It confuses me seeing alternative healers & exploring alternative views on psychosis/schizophrenia. Wouldn't things have resolved more by now if it was all more a spiritual/shamanic crisis? Why am i Not able to more fully resolve things after trying my best to from day one, & having worked with alternative/spiritual healers for the past 15 years?

Due i feel to multiple factors i don't feel right at all at the moment. There has been a lot of stress & worry over recent years, my overall circumstances & dynamics are very hard. i do have a lot of challenges & difficulties in my life.

My dreams are incredibly vivid & weird. i keep getting into very odd states of consciousness, very odd anxiety states. i feel drained a lot of the time & overwhelmed with everything. The way this society/culture/civilisation is bothers me a lot. The way a lot of people are bothers me. It's been very difficult to focus on things, & i haven't properly read a book in years.

It's a hard one. On paper i do fit having being through a very severe case of schizophrenia. As much as i have focused on a spiritual/healing path things are Not resolved, far from it. i wonder if i ought to largely give up with all the spiritual work & working with healers? & try & focus on a far simpler life of self care & taking things easy.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Being

i'm working with a new healer. She seems adamant that within a different cultural context what i have been through would have been seen, treated & apprehended as a Shamanic crisis/initiation & that by now i'd have been a powerful Shaman.

The reality is that i wasn't raised within a Shamanic culture - But Western Capitalist society. i went through mental health difficulties in childhood - i have been through 7 major/severe psychotic breakdowns, 4 hospitalisation, & have been medicated most of the past 27 years.

i have been made utterly dependent on an anti-psychotic/neuroleptic medication, which i have been on for 17 years. If i stop taking it i end up in very severe illness. This year i've Not been feeling too well again, especially over the past few months. There doesn't seem a way to more fully resolve things & part of me has accepted the schizophrenia diagnosis, & the realities of a long term/life long severe illness/condition.

There hasn't been enough in the way of access to appropriate alternative to address things differently. It's a struggle enough trying to maintain a degree of stability in the community & independent living, with all that entails, especially with maintaining eligibility for what little help i get with money in social security from the Government. i've been too unwell to work for a long time now.

It confuses me seeing alternative healers & exploring alternative views on psychosis/schizophrenia. Wouldn't things have resolved more by now if it was all more a spiritual/shamanic crisis? Why am i Not able to more fully resolve things after trying my best to from day one, & having worked with alternative/spiritual healers for the past 15 years?

Due i feel to multiple factors i don't feel right at all at the moment. There has been a lot of stress & worry over recent years, my overall circumstances & dynamics are very hard. i do have a lot of challenges & difficulties in my life.

My dreams are incredibly vivid & weird. i keep getting into very odd states of consciousness, very odd anxiety states. i feel drained a lot of the time & overwhelmed with everything. The way this society/culture/civilisation is bothers me a lot. The way a lot of people are bothers me. It's been very difficult to focus on things, & i haven't properly read a book in years.

It's a hard one. On paper i do fit having being through a very severe case of schizophrenia. As much as i have focused on a spiritual/healing path things are Not resolved, far from it. i wonder if i ought to largely give up with all the spiritual work & working with healers?

& try & focus on a far simpler life of self care & taking things easy.

Sounds good to me.