Subject: Re: TP: Please let's not talk about schizophrenia...!
From: fi@whittaker.rice.edu (Fiona Oceanstar)
Date: 1990-11-05, 05:19
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

Bernie Roehl writes:
>> >> By now, most everyone on the net has heard many, many times in many, many
>> >> different newsgroups that schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder
>> >> are *not* the same thing.

Thank *you*, Bernie!  I, too, am tired of such discussions.

Gary Newell writes:
> >Just a minor point - I have never heard of a case of MPD in which one of the
> >personalities was an alien or an animal or a demon etc. (maybe I've just
> >been lucky enough to miss them???) however I have seen plenty of accounts
> >of people who thought they were possessed or thought they were Christ or
> >an alien or an animal or whatever - so my question is - what do these people
> >suffer from? I would assume that it *is* some form of schizophrenia - no?
> >If so, it could account for the confusion.....

Well, being the resident alt.tv.twin-peaks psychiatrist (if there are any
others out there, they haven't clocked in yet (-: ), I'll take a stab at
this one.  It's perfectly reasonable, Gary, that you've never heard of
a case of MPD in which one of the personalities was "an alien or an animal
or a demon etc." since the worldview of psychiatry (unlike the worldview
of TP) doesn't allow for such way-out possibilities.  Call us stodgy,
call us hide-bound, but aliens coming to Earth and possessing people, well,
that's a little wild. (-:

Now if what you meant is that you've never heard of a case of MPD in which
the person *claimed* or *believed* that one of their alternate personali-
ties was "an alien or an animal or a demon etc.", I have to agree with you,
I've never heard of that, either.  'Doesn't mean it couldn't happen.  But
it's unlikely, because MPD sufferers tend to be very pragmatic and realistic
*except* for their central notion that they are split into multiple persona-
lities--which, in itself, isn't really "delusional" in the way we usually
think of that word.  It has often been said, in fact, that MPD develops in
a strong, intelligent person whose likelihood of becoming psychotic is less 
the norm--almost as if there are two routes you can go in response to the  
overwhelming childhood torture that MPD sufferers nearly always have had:
either you break down and become schizophrenic, or you don't break down--
that is, you retain your ability to test reality--and you become MPD.  

But that doesn't mean you can't have MPD and schizophrenia (or some other
form of psychosis-producing illness) simultaneously.

Let me put it this way: in the worldview of psychiatry, the notion of
being possessed by a demon is *psychotic*--that is, not in accordance with
traditional western scientific (or even agreed-upon community standards)
of reality.  If you think you're possessed by a demon, you are delusional.
Delusions are a symptom, not a disease.  Just as having a rash doesn't mean
you have German measles, having a delusion doesn't mean you have schizophrenia.
Garden-variety clinical depression, which something like 1 out of 3 of us
will get at least once in our lifetimes, frequently includes delusions, for
example.

Enough speech.  The point is, TP reality is not necessarily regular reality,
the reality of the worldview of psychiatry.  In my (personal, TP-head) opinion,
I think it's more likely that Philip Gerard is possessed by a spirit named
"Mike" than that he has MPD *or* schizophrenia.  So, the haloperidol (Haldol)
keeps the spirit from "coming out."  All that tells us is that Haldol alters
his brain in such a way that the demon can't speak or manifest itself at
such times.  If I had "Mike" inside of me, Haldol might have that effect on
me, too, and I'm not schizophrenic or MPD.  It's a powerful drug.

Enough already.

Wasn't the voice of the demon awesome, by the way?  "I have seen God..."
Whoa--I'm hooked!!  :-)

--Fiona Oceanstar