Case Studies of Schizophrenia (anti-psych)

Razael wrote:I wish jung did more stuff with psychosis or a text devoted to it, I hear quotes but never really know the source. seems jung talks about it by talking about normal.

Well, he didn't label it psychosis though, he would have labelled it a psychic healing crisis, or some such. I haven't read any of his books, but I have heard his dreams and reflections one recommended by someone with "bipolar". Although again I haven't read any of his books, I do understand his model -I think its very close to the truth, and my own experiences of recovery from mental illness.

Thanks for pointing out John weir perry. I had heard of him I think, but wasn't familiar with the name, will check some of his stuff out one day, along with the jung book I vaguelly gestured at above.

@Razael

Thanks for that. I found six John Weir Perry books on Amazon, but as far as I can tell, none of them is a collection of case studies. "The Self in Psychotic Process" has one case study. Better than nothing, and I intend to read it, but can you recall what the case study book was? I'm guessing you may have misattributed it to Perry.

(Here is the list of his books that I found: http://www.amazon.com/John-Weir-Perry/e/B001JRXWNA )

"Rethinking Madness" looks interesting, though I'm unsure how detailed the case studies can be, since they are at most 15 pages, and sometimes less than 10. There appear to be six of them, plus a page or two about the onset of psychosis in a few additional individuals. If I were very concise and ignored analysis almost completely, I might be able to give a passable history of my psychosis in fifteen pages (7000 words). Maybe.

the self in psychotic process is what I was thinking of, didn;t realise it was only one case study, thought it was more

far side of madness had 12 case samples to explain the context....but don't think its that detailed actually flicking through I only found a table of the 12 cases and what was going on for each of them, they must be detailed somewhere.

he also uses a lot of quotes from historical figures to explain the process is normal part of spiritual development.

as I said I have to read it again to understand it, I skimmed through the whole lot when I was coming off zeldox so where my experience went wasn't about digesting what I had read.

Don't know if these involve case studies or detailed accounts, but I found a short list of people who have recovered from schizophrenia and whose ideas about recovery should therefore be interesting:

Daniel B. Fisher, Eleanor Longden, Jacqui Dillon, Ron Coleman, Leah Harris, Louise Gillett, Will Hall, David Oaks, and Jim Gottstein.

(thanks to Suzanne Beachy)

I've checked out the first one, and he advocates rehabilitation and an effort to return to what he calls "consensus reality". He says meds should be used if necessary, but reading between the lines he seems to think they might even be counter-productive. He also points out that schizophrenics in developing countries do better, probably due to greater community support and no undignified treatment and labelling at least to the same extent as in many parts of the West. In any case, feeling part of a normal human community seems to be the most important aspect in recovery, according to him.

I'm leaving this here because I'm guessing the lessons bridge psychiatry and anti-psychiatry, and belong more to the latter than the former.