Posted by Racer on August 21, 2006, at 9:50:28
In reply to Re: historic CSA *trigger*, posted by Estella on August 20, 2006, at 22:36:25
> > All I'm saying is that some people seem to think that it is hard to find an uncontroversial case of schizophrenic symptoms prior to 1800 hence according to their argument...
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> Or they could of course conclude that their argument is fine and hence whatever conclusions they want to draw about the social construction of repressed memories would also (probably) apply to the social construction of schizophrenia.
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>This actually came up in my cultural anthro class lo those many years ago. (As in, when the earth's crust was still cooling -- or twenty-mumble years back.) My Anthro prof -- whom I really respected and liked, and who had done a LOT of field work in South American Indian village societies -- brought up the 'shaman' tradition, and described many attributes of the typical shaman. (I'm just using that word since it's pretty recognizeable. I'm talking about the village spiritual leader, the mystical visionary, however you'd describe him. Oh, yeah, sometimes female, more usually male.) He gave most of his lecture, with all of us scribbling like mad, before finally asking us, "And does this sound familiar to any of you?" No one had an answer. Lots of blank faces turned towards him.
He said, "These cultures had a job for the mentally ill," and went on to describe what very well may have been schizophrenia, but couched in more positive terms. The delusions as the gods speaking through the shaman, but more importantly -- someone who probably wouldn't be able to care for him/herself, someone who probably wouldn't be able to be a productive member of the society in the way a mentally healthy person would, someone who might not have survived in the "civilized" world through most of history, that person had a position of prestige in the society which included having other people provide food, shelter, and the other needs of survival.
So it's entirely possible that schizophrenics have existed for millenium, but be difficult to detect, because the symptomology was described in positive terms.
Regardless -- schizophrenia and repressed/recovered memories are different phenomena, and this thread started out as being about the latter, not the former. So, going back to the latter...
I, personally, am not a disbeliever in repressed memory, although I do believe that where it exists it's quite rare. I don't much believe, though, in recovered memory. If repressed memory exists, it's surely possible that some people recover those memories. But the sorts of cases of recovered memory that I've read about lack any sort of credible evidence. There's too much evidence, to my mind, of manipulation on the part of therapists 'treating' those individuals. (Manipulation in the neutral sense, of molding the reports, probably unconsciously or inadvertantly.)
The book "Satanism in America: How The Devil Got Much More Than His Due" talks about the numbers involved in the one area of satanic ritual abuse of children -- the reports show that more children would have to have been killed in this country during the past thirty years than were actually born! Reports like that get my skepticism up. (Even if I can't spell it. "Scepticism?")
OK, I'm done now. I couldn't sleep last night, know I'm not making much in the way of sense...
We're all free to believe what we believe. I'm only sharing what I believe, and a little about why. This is in no way a criticism of anyone with opposing beliefs.
Peace, love, and recycle, Everyone!
poster:Racer
thread:629255
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060808/msgs/678680.html