Fight Club was on TV last night. Between loads of laundry I was able to watch it again. It’d been a while since I’d last watched it and I forgot what a good movie it was. The ending is particularly interesting and is pretty much the only detail I remembered from watching it before. Of course… more than anything now it just reminded me of work.
I think we’d have to put a check in Edward Norton’s “Speaks to unseen others” box on his assessment form.
I started thinking about some of our more psychotic patients. We had one for a while that was even described by the doctors as “grossly psychotic”. Nothing he said made sense… and he’d spend all day just chatting away with someone we never did have the pleasure of meeting. We’ve got a patient now that does the same thing. All day long she just smiles, chats, frowns, and responds to someone.
I listened to a tape once that was supposed to simulate what hearing voices must be like. It was a recording of a lecture in a college classroom with intermittent, paranoid-esqe voices inserted over the speaker’s voice. It also demonstrated how the words we say to someone who’s psychotic might sound differently to them or, in some cases, become completely altered in their mind. It was an interesting little tape. I’m not sure how accurate or realistic it was. But it was interesting none the less.
In the case of Edward Norton’s character, I’m not sure if he would be considered schizophrenic or if, instead, he’d be diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (what used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder). Technically speaking, the person he interacted with was another version of himself. I’m not exactly sure where the line is drawn between psychosis and split personalities. Some mental health practitioners don’t believe Dissociative Identity Disorder even really exists.
Whatever his diagnosis might have been, I have to wonder if it was really a bad thing for him. Granted… he ended up heading a terrorist organization by the end of the movie. And he did beat himself to a bloody pulp on several occasions. But he enjoyed it and he enjoyed his interaction with his unseen other. A lot of our patients seem to enjoy spending time with their own unseen others, too. Most of them don’t go on to blow up the headquarters of credit companies. But they appear to like having a constant companion on their journey through life.
So I have to ask myself, perhaps in a very unprofessional manner: is it really that bad for them either?
I know that having someone else’s voice in your head would get old and start to drive even the most controlled and disciplined person a little mad. I know what it must look like to the rest of the world (I see it everyday… I know what it looks like… haha). I’ve seen what happens when the unseen other that follows people around isn’t necessarily a personal advocate or friend.
But on the plus side, you’d never be alone. You’d always have someone to talk to. You’d never have to eat at a restaurant by yourself or go to the movies solo. And while the rest of the world might think you’d completely lost it, to you it’d feel perfectly normal (like it did to Edward Norton’s character). All that matters to each of us is our own perception of the world and our experiences. So if you had a friend that only you could see, would it be comforting?
Is that why some people develop alter egos and psychosis? Loneliness? If you could create a best friend that was always around and was always interested in what you had to say, would you? Even if no one else could see him or her?
Only one word of advice: if you do decide to splinter your personality to keep yourself company… please pick someone more interesting than Brad Pitt. I’d hate to see you bored to tears by your unseen other…
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I’ve seen Sybil, and if that story really is as true as the movie depicted it, then I believe the only people who make it hard for the person are the people around them. If enough people tell you you’re crazy, then you will eventually believe it.
I’d like to think that the people who do have multiple personalities, schitzophrenia, etc.. are actually pretty used to having another side of themselves, or hearing other voices…and are probably relatively normal in their own eyes…and it’s when someone TELLS them that they are crazy that they start realizing it may not be normal..and then it freaks them out.
My Uncle has schitzophrenia, and he really didn’t realize that anything was wrong until he explained to his Dad that the reason he up and left to go visit him from Arkansas to South Carolina in the middle of the night is because the radio was telling him to go find his true love, and his dad pretty much freaked out. What if nobody had reacted to it the way they did? ya know?
But who knows.
*Cousin, not uncle.
Well I’ve always said that an issue wasn’t a real issue until it starts to interfere with your daily functioning. Ok… I’m not the original creator of that saying. But I believe it.
If your cousin wasn’t being bothered by his condition (and it wasn’t hurting him or anyone else), I’m not surprised he never realized something wasn’t quite right.
Do you think we should leave people with “mental illnesses” alone unless they become dangerous to themselves or others… or should we try to treat them regardless?
Well, it would be easy to answer that question if there weren’t so many people bothered by others who have mental health problems. Since being “different” isn’t easily accepted, I’m sure there is no way people could go about their lives talking to people who aren’t really there…someone will eventually intervene and get them help.
So then you think the problem actually lies with the people who are bothered by others with mental illness? ;)
(Yes… I’m leading you somewhere with this…)
Well, not the “initial” problem… but yes, there are problems with people who aren’t accepting of mental illnesses…as well as disabilities, and so on.. but it lies within themselves.
What about this for a thought…
Who’s to say that WE aren’t the ones with the mental illness? Maybe we are all supposed to have different personalities and/or hear voices…but since there are more of us who don’t (supposedly..lol) we have all formed an alliance and made everyone else the “different ones.”
What would it be like if the roles were reversed?
An older post might be in order here: Assuming the Best
Something like that, maybe?
wow..good call on finding the right repost!
So if we endure all kinds of tests in order to release the “demons” or “the disorder,” if people who had multiple personalities and voices are one day the majority, then all of us who are lacking them would be considered developmentally disabled, right?
We don’t endure brain tests in order to “fix” a person who can’t use a certain part of their brain…we have just come to the conclusion that they have some sort of brain damage and can’t function as well as others who don’t have brain damage. So why do we endure tests in order to get rid of mental disorders? Maybe they are using MORE of their brain (we have talked about this), maybe they are just functioning on a HIGHER level then the majority of people do… so why do we assume there is something wrong with them, when really, there may just be something wrong with US?
Or maybe… just maybe… there’s nothing wrong with any of us. Just as you and I have completely different personalities, maybe some of us just have completely different funtionalities. Yes… I made that word up.
But you get the point, right?
Well, I think that may be the most logical conclusion we have come to! haha..nice word by the way. Not everyone is accepting of everyones personality traits..so I guess it makes sense for others to deem some “functionality” traits as wrong, as well. Good Job D!