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Schizophrenia and the Unconscious

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Schizophrenia and the Unconscious

Postby Infinitude » Wed Jun 21, 2017 10:41 pm

Has anyone else noticed a significant link between schizophrenia and unconscious processes?

I won't give a definition of what the unconscious is, but I'll illustrate via examples.

Now, for me, I did have delusional thinking, but what it tended to be was that: I would have psychic (of the psyche, I'm not referring to mind-reading) contents just come to me, and this was most intense during an "episode". The contents could be a reaction to a stimuli I was exposed to, generally words from others, either written/typed or spoken, where a hidden meaning was being transmitted to me from my brain, and other times it would be when, say, going for a walk and I would have all of these thoughts come into my mind that I could guide, sure, but I wasn't consciously coming up with their content. I'm not -that- creative, as creative as I may be :P So then the faulty thinking comes in through: supposing that because these thoughts have come to me, that they must be a reflection of reality, and hence I orient my behaviours around what my mind is telling me. In actuality, these are just connections that exist, but they don't reflect the reality of the situation - just the associations that may be drawn from what I experienced.

Another example is auditory hallucinations, specifically "voices". Now, it is clear to me that the voices would be a manifestation of the unconscious. People generally don't identify with their unconscious. Some people see it as another side of themselves, but others would see it as something external to them or something possessing them. So these voices may not be identified as being the person experiencing then, because they come not from the conscious mind but the unconscious. It's definitely worth noting that having a dialogue with your unconscious is actually healthy, and it's sort of a situation where seeing something as a problem makes it a problem. It's actually fairly normal to have messages come to you from your unconscious. But if you see it as intrusive and harmful, because maybe there is something within you that you would rather leave repressed, or maybe you are engaging in faulty interpretations of what is going on, then if this comes on really strongly it may be seen as unbearable.

So the theme here is: messages transmitted to you from your unconscious mind. Everyone gets this to some degree, so I am unsure as to where it crosses the line into actual schizophrenia. But I would say that the more strongly the unconscious is attempting to communicate with you, the more symptomatic you will seem.

Modern medicine seems to see these symptoms as the problem, and so attempt to suppress them, but in my view that is only going to lead to worse outcomes overall. Like, if you have the flu and you try to get rid of it by suppressing only the cough, while the actual sickness remains active. The proper course of action then is to try and make the dialogue you are having with your unconscious be more suitable to your desires, so that you see it not as a negative but a positive. Understand that the messages relayed to you aren't to be taken necessarily as a direct reflection of truth but is more to do with the connections hidden within your mind. Moving past the faulty thinking associated with negative experiencing of these events is certainly possible, except the information is hard to find regarding what is going on and what to do about it.

I will finally note that the activity of the unconscious varies in intensity across many timescales. For example, myself, I no longer have this activity at all because I am no longer so possessed by my unconscious processes. The thoughts don't just come upon me like they used to. But surely, surely this is the case with everyone - that everyone at certain times gets these unconscious messages but because they're dealt with more appropriately, and are seen as less threatening, most people avoid the schizophrenic label. Remember too, that schizophrenia is often associated with the experience of undealt with trauma. It is often seen as a healing mechanism regarding damage that has been dealt to the psyche. There is often pain in a healing procedure, and that's what happens here, but the healing has to happen.

Thanks.
Dx: schizoaffective, social anxiety AKA spiritual and self-conscious
Infinitude
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