John Ravilious

Schizophrenia

A study in new treatment procedures for this condition

John Ravilious 2008 

What I want to do in this piece of writing is to explain the nature of schizophrenia.  And this is a complex business, and so there are going to be all sorts of bits of a theory coming in at all different angles.  However, I hope that when you see the whole thing laid out, you will see that whatever your views on schizophrenia, this theory, in fact, all makes good sense. 

And now everyone knows that these people are mad.  You have only got to look at them to see this.  So I hope I can put this incorrect idea right with you. 

What I want to do now is to come in at one of those angles.  What I have been doing is surveying people, and I have been asking them to breathe in and out as fast as they can.  And what a silly thing to be doing, but the results I got from this survey were absolutely fascinating.  I managed to establish four main groups, with different abilities to breathe.  And now the first lot I surveyed were so-called normal people, and here I found that some could breathe in and out easily, and others could not do this quite as well. 

Now in this survey there appeared to be three other main groups.  And the next group, and of course the group that interested me, were the schizophrenics.  And now this might surprise you, but these people were completely hopeless at breathing, so that if you taped up their mouths, they would quite likely suffocate. 

And now there was also a third group of sort of near schizophrenic people, who seemed just like normal people, except they said that they had these little voices inside their heads.  And now this group could all breathe in and out, with the greatest of ease, so these semi-schizophrenic people were in complete contrast to th real schizophrenic lot.  One group could breathe extremely easily, and the other could hardly breathe at all. 

Now I want to mention in passing my fourth group, and these I call the criminal voice hearers, and believe it or not, they do exist.  And now this lot were heavily built and appeared to be able to breathe easily, but I did not dare to do a proper survey. 

This is my survey here then, and I am afraid the number of people I interviewed, was not large, but the results I got were more or less 100%.  So I think my findings are significant. 

So now it looked as though there could be some link between schizophrenia and a shortage of air to the brain, and thinking about this, it does not look so dreadfully unlikely.  If you starve the human brain of oxygen, then there is no reason why the ability to think properly should not suffer, and to say the least, these people were extremely short on oxygen.  So now I felt I had made some progress, and the thought occurred to me that it might now be possible to show the exact nature of this nasty condition. 

I want now to come in at another of those angles.  You see I am a schizophrenic myself, and I have been in six mental homes as a long stay patient.  And now this is a little detail I noticed during my stay in all these hospitals, it so happens that I have never yet met one of these people who wanted a drink.  So schizophrenics don’t breathe properly, and never ever want to drink alcohol, and what a funny business.. And why?  Well it seems that there could be a link between the medication given to slow down the mental activity in the mind of the mental patient, and the ability of alcohol to presumably do the same thing.  So I think the tranquillisers they give to schizophrenics mimic alcohol. 

So now it looks as though people who drink regularly slow down their own mental activity.  So it is almost as though people medicate themselves, with a mind dampening drug, before the mental breakdown occurs.  And so people who drink regularly never have mental problems, or at least never become schizophrenic.  And so it looks as though if you don’t happen to like alcohol, and also you can’t breathe easily, then you could be in considerable danger of becoming schizophrenic. 

Note:  I have a feeling that every effort is being made to suppress a gene that causes schizophrenia.  However if one does this, one in fact suppresses this dislike of alcohol.  So I guess if we do this too much we could end up as a nation of alcoholics. 

Note:  It seems to me that drinking alcohol must be heavily selected against.  But as it prevents schizophrenia, it is even more positively selected for.

What I need to do now is take a look at the human race in general, and what we see, I think, is an animal, i.e. the human kind, who has a problem.  We are a social creature, and we support each other in a very real manner, and this has created a problem for evolution.  You see, we have made ourselves far too comfortable for our own good, and our genetic health has tended to suffer.  And okay, I see life as designed to operate in the wild state, with lots of competition between creatures.  And of course we humans do compete, but I think this competition is insufficient to maintain our genetic health over many generations. 

So what I think is happening is that nature, or evolution, is looking for an answer to this problem.  So now I want to map out the paths being taken by human evolution, that I think are designed to address this problem of over comfort.  And this is a bit tricky to explain, but what I suspect is that schizophrenia could be part of a sexual downgrade effect, that has evolved to sort of remove the weak looking individual. 

This is how I see an effect operating, and I think it works like this.  If an individual happens to look feeble, then they are signalled at, and now these signals instruct their subconscious minds to drive them to mimic insanity.  So this idea may look a bit improbable, but if you could put a halt to Joe Public and his signals, that he directs at weak looking people, then all schizophrenic breakdown would stop. 

And now I think this as an effect makes good sense, and it would do the trick, and would reduce the chance of someone producing children, as no one wants to have mad children. 

And now I said that when you see the whole thing laid out, I will make sense.  And now my feeling is that this should exist, as it would do what is needed, and also it could have evolved. 

And now you are probably thinking that none of this exists, but as a schizophrenic myself, I want to say that it does indeed exist.  And I also want to suggest that it is this effect that is responsible for generating schizophrenic people, who are these people who mimic insanity. 

You could say that what the human race needed was the reintroduction of some form of survival of the fittest in the Darwinian sense.  And now this little trick returns us to a means of the removal of the weak and feeble from the breeding stock, and so it does what is needed.  This then is like a further development to what happens in the wild.  And I am sorry if the action looks somewhat brutal, nature had a problem and so she has developed an answer to this problem. 

And now as I was saying, we have made ourselves far too comfortable as a creature, and this little feature seems to have evolved in order to address this problem.  And if it so happened that it didn’t exist, well you might say that it would be a very good thing if it did exist. 

And I can hear your disapproval, this effect simply does not exist, but it does exist you know.  Let me put it like this.  If it didn’t exist, there would be no schizophrenic people, as this is a particularly nasty condition, that almost stops people from having children.  And don’t you think that natural selection would have eliminated it by now if it didn’t serve some very good purpose.  Anything this limiting will be selected against.  But schizophrenia continues, and it’s still with us, so that I think it just must serve a purpose in the scheme of things.  And okay, I suppose this doesn’t prove what schizophrenia is caused by, it could be some mystery virus that has never been traced, but I very much doubt that it is this.  I think I am right and that this is like a sort of trap mechanism for the weaker person, that takes them out of circulation.  And if you look at schizophrenics, they are indeed all weak looking people.  But now if you see lots of them together, you see that the apparent madness they seem to suffer from, is almost identical in every case, and this seems a bit odd.  Surely they can’t have all gone mad in an almost identical manner, and in fact they look exactly like they are all pretending to be mad. 

I hope you don’t mind now if I spell this out.  Schizophrenia must be very heavily selected against indeed, and it is not disappearing from humankind.  So it just has to serve some useful purpose, and my explanation of what I say this purpose to be does figure.  So I say that this is a natural selective device, that has evolved in order to replace or supplement competition between people. 

At this point I need to have another of these changes of subject.  What I want to talk about is what Charles Darwin called natural selection.  He saw a process where competition between creatures, against the setting of their habitat, resulted in the maintenance of health and form.  And now I suppose this could account for what we actually find, but I want to introduce another mechanism, which would do the same thing, but which I think could be a necessary step in evolution, where life forms are extremely complex, and it works like this.  I think the brain is much more of a two part arrangement than one might think.  And I see a mental action here which has evolved specially as a supplement to this natural selective competition between creatures. 

So what I want to describe now is the interactive process that takes place in all higher animals.  So I think we are all split minded, and both of these minds are like complete people, if you see what I mean.  But now each of these people has a different and specialised part to play.  So I think that what we see is these two separate minds, and one of them is a tester, and tests the other.  So I see a human being as consisting of a mental tester and a tested. 

Now I need to explain this carefully, both of these minds have separate memories.  And now the tested mind i.e. the ego, we see a memory for the past.  But now it so happens that the mind that does the testing, i.e. the subconscious mind, has a memory for the future and the past.   And now this arrangement works by the tester testing the actions of the tested, and then rewarding the tested (ego), by adjusting its luck. 

And now I can hear you thinking no, this has to be complete nonsense.  But I want to come back at you now and say that if such an arrangement did develop, it would do the job of improving on simple survival of the fittest.  And this trick of one mind testing another, would in fact test the whole creature.  So if it does exist it would be a very good feature to develop. 

Now you the reader, are probably disagreeing with what I have just said.  But I am afraid what I want to do now is to stretch your credibility even more, and hope that when I have finished this discussion, it will all make sense and seem probable.  So here goes then. 

In the case of schizophrenia, we have these two independent minds, and both of these minds have an independent speech ability.  So as I say I happen to be a schizophrenic, and I can carry on a perfectly normal conversation with another person, who is inside my head.  So now in my case, we have the tester who can communicate with me inside my head, and the ego, or tested mind, which can hear what the tester says, but can also talk out loud of course.  I hope you have followed all of this. 

I now want another change of subject again, as I want to talk about this breathing problems that schizophrenics suffer from.  Now why on earth is it that schizophrenics can’t breathe properly?  Well as an explanation, I think we must look at human courtship procedures, and it seems to work like this.  When the human male chooses a partner, he will more often than not choose a lady with a small nose, and this is because he finds ladies with small noses are sort of kinky and interesting. 

But now I claim that this is in fact him choosing a lady he will be able to control, as she will not be able to get enough air to her lungs.  And now this of course will result in the production of children with small noses, who cannot breathe properly. 

And now are you ready for this?  I say we have this mechanism which is searching out and sort of downgrading weak looking people, and then asking them to mimic insanity.  And now we as a creature are producing a supply of people who can’t breathe well.  And now if you can’t breathe, then every aspect of your health will suffer. 

So now I think we have an effect which is generating what looks like weak people, and which is then asking these false weak people to mimic insanity.  And now this is all getting over-complicated, but I think it has to be how it actually is.  So schizophrenics are actually false weak people, who have been asked to mimic insanity, because they seem to be genetically inferior.  But in fact they are not inferior at all, they are perfectly healthy. 

And now I want to give a quick summing up.  I think I have shown fairly convincingly that schizophrenia is like a disposal state for people who see nature as inferior.  And I think I have also shown that nature has got this wrong, and that the people who actually get disposed of, are mostly misfits who can’t breathe properly. 

Now I say that a mechanism has evolved where a second person within the human mind, so to speak, assesses, then rewards the person themselves.  In other words we all have a second mind that rewards success. 

And now if you happen to be a normal person, you could well have no experience of any of this action.  So how am I going to prove to you that this is the case.  Now this doesn’t of course prove this point, but I can have long conversations with a second person, who is inside my head.  And here I hope you don’t think I am lying to you.  And now this other person does indeed have a memory for my future, and a very good memory of the future.  And I am afraid you are just going to have to trust me on this, what I say here is true.

And now having said this, I hope you can see that this seemingly normal person could in fact be part of a success rewarding device, that aids evolution. Where the human race has made itself far too comfortable.  And so evolution has developed this new health push effect involving a link between two minds. 

And now I think I am sticking here, as I don’t think I am going to be able to produce anymore proof of this.  But such an aid to evolution would be extremely useful, and I myself experience all the parts that make up this aid, though if you are a normal person, you may well know nothing about any of this. 

And now if I complete the picture and fill in the rest of the detail, I think you will see that this does all fit together as part of a whole.  So for humankind, I see two new mechanisms, that have evolved to aid our natural selection process where this has failed us.  And one of these mechanisms takes out of circulation any weak person, and the other mechanisms is a mental feature that is able to reward any individual, where they prove effective. 

And now I hope you are not going to say that I have got this all wrong.  As proof of these ideas I want to say that if these two actions or mechanisms, did happen to be as I say they are, then they would indeed be a useful aid to our long term health where we are over-comfortable,  and the ? to their evolution exists.

And now I say this is exactly what we humans need.  So what I need to do now is to outline my brief.  And I am not really providing entertainment, so you could say my sole aim is to help schizophrenic people, and so what I want to do now is to put forward two new treatment strategies.  There is in fact a huge amount I could say about this condition, but it seems sufficient to restrict my pallet, and paint this limited picture. 

And now the next thing I want to talk about is these people I referred to as near schizophrenics.  And these are the people in my survey, who could breathe extremely easily, but who otherwise seemed just like normal people.  Now one might wonder who exactly these people are.  To explain where they have come from, I need you to imagine thousands or even millions of years of existence, for these sort of false genetic failures, i.e. false schizophrenic people. 

And now these fake failures are most unlikely to produce children, so that any children they did happen to have, would be very well tested for health.  So here the possibility exists for an evolutionary step.  And what seems to have occurred is the development of a new human gene.  And if you happen to carry this gene, and it happens to be expressed, then you will become a sort of ‘schizo type’ and have this internal test and reward feature I talked about earlier.  But you will in fact not be schizophrenic, and will be freely able to breathe. 

So these people will be luckier people, and they are also healthier people.  So this seems a very desirable feature to have, as it bestows great health and vigour. 

And now to recap, we have a creature, man, who has formed himself into social support systems, and has made himself far too comfortable for his own long term genetic health.  And now evolution has used our speech ability to generate a new feature, where if you fail you lose, and if you succeed you win.  And this is a mental feature that operates internally, and so is very hard to trick. 

Out there in our world, there are many health promoting features that have developed, but almost all of them suffer from life’s cheats.  This new trick seems like a good one.  It operates semi-automatically from within the human mind, and so it’s quite hard to prevent it from working.

So this is more or less the whole story, and I think that one of the main details that is evident is that there is nothing at all wrong with schizophrenics.  They may look feeble, or even pathetic, but if you were in their position, I think you would probably look just like they do. 

So what I want to do now is to hint at some bits of treatment, that I think could be used to supplement the normal medication procedure in a mental hospital.  And these are tricks I have tested on myself, and which seem to be harmless, and also extremely effective in helping me with my mental state. 

My first trick involves schizophrenics, who I say should where possible, be given surgical operations, in an attempt to free up their ability to breathe.  I have had this treatment myself, and it made a big difference.  And now also where this will help, they should wear a clip in their nose.  I do this and it works well for me, and my ability to breathe is now excellent. 

And now something else I find extremely useful.  Joe Public, as you might call him, sees these people looking thin and dejected, and I say he sends signals at them, that instruct their subconscious minds to make them pretend to be insane.  I don’t want to pull punches here, but this is what actually happens. 

And now I have found quite a good way of dealing with this problem.  What I do when I am out in the street, is to wear six vests, all on top of each other.  Okay, so I do tend to overheat occasionally, but Joe Public now thinks that I have a huge chest, and so has more or less stopped sending his signals at me. 

Now I ran proper tests on this, and wore a ripped coat, and made myself look thin, and Joe public was absolutely horrible to me.  I then wore four vests, and smartened myself up with new clothes, and generally kept my body warm, (schizophrenics tend to be cold).  Joe Public was then as nice as apple pie to me. 

So this looks like a simple move that will work.  It involves no drugs, no hospital, and no great cost.  And believe it or not, the result of my doing this is that my mind is almost completely quiet.  So I am going to say that this works well.

And now I want to claim that these little tricks should give these people an existence similar to the ‘schizo’ type life.  Okay, so they will still have the voices in the head, and this voice will still occasionally be a nuisance, and try to give instructions to actions, that then fail.  But this will be as part of a natural test and reward action, that must seem as normal. 

So I suppose you might think that life for these people is less than perfect, but I have no problem in my life.  Okay, so I hear voices inside my head, but I take no notice of them.  I take a tablet each day, and everything is quite acceptable. 

Remember a wonderful life is, in many ways, something you should never wish on anybody.  Creatures don’t benefit from the good life where this occurs over many generations.  So I think that where one has like a head whisper, that operates a sort of formal natural selection action, that tests and then rewards.  Well life isn’t going to be perfect, but it will be about as good as it can reasonably get.

Clever statisticians have proved beyond all reasonable doubt that we can inherit schizophrenia.  But it seems to me that if you can't breathe well and you dislike the taste of alcohol, and you also have a voice inside your head that talks to you, then you are almost certainly going to develop this condition.  OK, then so the statisticians are right, one can inherit this, but it's not like it's a single gene that then makes you go insane.  So I say that there is no gene that results in schizophrenic people like they all think, and I dare say this is how they would all like us to think.

© John Ravilious 2009