The Schizophrenia Complex: How Do We Love Those in Chaos?

Guest Eve Maram, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst in Orange, CA. Her book, The Schizophrenia Complex, presents a clear-eyed and compassionate understanding of our encounters with severe mental illness.

The submergence in unconscious chaos that defines schizophrenia triggers negative emotions in others—yet Jung on psychosis showed that we are different from those patients only in degree.

Significantly his Word Association Test proved that the unconscious influences everyone’s daily life in multiple ways.

Moreover, Jung’s psychiatric work with psychotic convalescents led to his ground-breaking discovery of the collective unconscious, humanity’s mythopoetic substrate.

Understandably we shy away from people in psychosis because they are living out our own radical and universal mad parts. But, instead of turning from the schizophrenia complex, we can acknowledge our shared darkness and stretch into connection.

Then, as Eve Maram’s story depicts, we may find eros has the power to constellate hope, courage, and tenacity in the face of chaos, helping us discover that we are more than before.

Here's the dream we analyze:

“I am about to play tennis on a public outdoor court with 4 or 5 other guys and a coach. As we are walking onto the courts, I ask "are there any tennis prodigies from the neighborhood who play here?" Coach says no and I am a little disappointed. We spread out on the courts to get ready for a drill, and I step into a big pile of dog poo. I am disgusted, and I yell out to the other guys. They don’t hear me but they do notice that I am walking off the court. Just outside of the court, I stomp and scrape my shoe in a small grassy area, but I can’t get the dog poo off. It is clinging to my shoe with claws-it is actually a furry brown creature. At first, I think it is dead but as i stomp it comes alive and starts to fight back.”

REFERENCES:

Eve Maram. The Schizophrenia Complex. https://a.co/d/9NORqZJ

John Weir Perry. The Far Side of Madness. https://a.co/d/gxpIuXu

Nathan Filer. This Book Will Change Your Mind about Mental Health. https://a.co/d/atN5Syv

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