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Originally Posted by kerry
Been thinking about schizophrenia in relation to the Aurora theater shooting since Holmes was under the care of a psychiatrist who specializes in it. Why is it the case that the auditory hallucinations they hear are often so violent and brutal? I've never heard of a schizophrenic having auditory hallucinations telling her to buy her next door neighbor an ice cream cone? Am I just mistaken and actually the hallucinations are typically a mix of kindness, compassion and brutality? It's easy to see where people could mistake schizophrenia for demon possession if the voices typically spur people to painful deeds? In fact, I can see where schizophrenia may have given rise to the whole idea of demon possession to begin with. Anyone have experience with a kind, gentle and compassionate schizo?
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My wife is a psychiatrist and she says that there are definitely individuals with pleasant or benign auditory hallucinations. My guess is that these folks usually aren't disruptive or so disorganized that they can't interact with society in a constructive fashion.
The other thing that may be going on is that schizophrenics usually pick up on the fact that they are different from non-schizophrenics. "Normal" people usually color their interaction with the obviously mentally ill with a combination of concern/fear/avoidance/judgement. In the eyes of someone who already has some psychotic and mood disturbances, it's easy to see how this could be interpreted as the world having it out for you. There was a psychologist on CNN the other night whose brother is schizophrenic, and he basically said as much when explaining how to interact with a psychotic person - don't lie, don't endorse the hallucinations, but also don't be judgmental and try to acknowledge that the person is indeed experiencing what he thinks he is experiencing, even if you know that it isn't real.