Posted by Mark H. on January 21, 2005, at 17:27:14
In reply to PSYCHOTIC *THEMES*, posted by pretty_paints on January 19, 2005, at 17:32:12
Interestingly, the Internet both exposes the similarity in psychotic themes and inadvertently promotes them (see, as one potential source, the Illuminati Conspiracy Archive at http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/).
The themes change somewhat with time: when a friend of mine had a psychotic break about 35 years ago, her concerns were mainly about Nazis, telephone calls from the dead, and someone putting poison in her food. I doubt that younger schizophrenics are as intensely concerned with Hitler and the Third Reich, although poison remains an active theme due (I suspect) to the sense that something external must be causing the terrible sense of being threatened.
Since there is no objective reality (what we think of as reality is actually just consensus, isn't it?), then the reality experienced by psychotics is subjectively as valid as that of "normals." Here again, the Internet provides opportunities for mutual support and reinforcement for beliefs that the majority experience as distorted (see, for instance, the Mind Control Forums at http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/).
What is the source of the homogeneity of psychotic themes? Is it that our minds "break down" in similar ways? Is it that psychotics fail to filter out the ideas at the fringe of our culture? I'm interested in what others think.
Mark H.
poster:Mark H.
thread:445024
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050117/msgs/445360.html