Comments on: How exactly does trauma cause “schizophrenia”? A revised double bind theory

By: Alan

Alan — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:11:46 +0000

Ungh…Interesting…what have you done about it?

By: Ungh

Ungh — Thu, 06 May 2010 19:38:42 +0000

I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had a textbook schizophrenogenic mother. I suffered constant and sustained double bind situations for all my life. there is no doubt in my mind this is the trigger for schizophrenia.

By: lillian

lillian — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:40:58 +0000

I want to know if there is a group of people that I can share an experience,that I have lived , with someone who fits into this category.

Similar to a group who helps family with Alzheimers .

I have been a Care Provider for 10 years and have had experience with people suffering from different situations.

This experience is very different but I have learnt from it and from my personal research.

Thank you.

lillie

By: Lia Govers

Lia Govers — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:51:54 +0000

I already have posted something on this site of Ron Unger. Before 1999 for three years and a half I suffered in an open way a delusional paranoid schizophrenia, but with the help of a human psychiatric approach in Italy and several years of a psychodynamic psychotherapy I am fully recovered nowadays. In my years of therapy I always talked to my psychotherapist of situations of my past childhood and adulthood that were full of double bind communications between my mother, sometimes my father and me. Also in my autobiographic story that will be published in an english version within 2010, I hope, it is full with messages and situations of this kind.
And my psychotherapist and psychiatrist in their years of work have always found this kind of messages been very true for schizophrenic persons. Not only Bateson wrote about it, but also Luc Ciompi in his book Affect and Logic!

By: Alan

Alan — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:14:57 +0000

Presently, the most significant double bind associated with “schizophrenia” is the general manner in which its treatment is undertaken by the psychiatric profession.

The psychiatrist promotes that the individual has a brain disease of unknown etiology that requires a life long regimen of neuroleptic drugs.

Both the “disease” and the drug treatment render the individual incapacitated.

This is a double bind of epic proportion.

By: vikas

vikas — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:43:41 +0000

My brother who never shown a any kind of abnormalsy who is highly qualified orthopedic surgeon; suddenly shown a change in his behaviour who started talking which is quite out of subject, and also afraid of his own boss.Later he bacame voilent and started shouting at one night, we admitted him to a mental hospital there he got cured and become very normal as before but after one year because of one decision that he couldnt take without my parents opinion and my parents opinion was quite against him,that was a very small issue and again he got the mental unbalance that he had received previously also,he is a married person ,father of 1 year old and his histroy defines him as wise amongst general.He is again in hospital.Is there any permanant solution for getting a very good doctor back to his work without any hindrance without converting himself to animal??

By: RonUnger

RonUnger — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:06:41 +0000

To Petra – I agree with you that double binds can be very dangerous, but I think not so much when they are faced in a calm way, as in Zen. Then people get them for what they are, they see through the binds, and are actually then more innoculated against the forms of double bind they might encounter in the world. At least, that’s my sense of it.

By: Petra

Petra — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:58:10 +0000

Double bind is very dangerous when it is perfomed to somebody – who already has experienced this form of communication in their childhood.

No zenmaster should ever have tried this metode – I nearly died form it… Instead IT hit my brother….

By: RonUnger

RonUnger — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:35:57 +0000

Marian’s comment was interesting – seems to be pointing toward a kind of situation where if you notice a double bind, that proves you are crazy for being so sensitive! Kind of adds another layer to the bind…..

“Anon” offers a comment that highlights some of the most common problems in the mental health system. One is the often repeated dogma that mental and emotional problems are a “brain disorder” – by which they mean, it’s something that can only be addressed by doing something directly to your brain, such as by ingesting medication. No wonder Anon says this induces a helpless feeling! The people who say it are most often people who are worried about what might happen if a person doesn’t take medications, and they don’t realize how much helplessness they are inducing. The thing about being diagnosed with PTSD and nothing being done about it is also common – in fact people often don’t even get asked about past trauma, so they usually don’t even get as far as the diagnosis of PTSD, at least if they have already diagnosed stuff like schizophrenia and bipolar. Sad.

By: anon

anon — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:22:21 +0000

Dialogue has shaped a lot of the way I’ve seen this illness. If it can be called a brain disease, which I no longer believe. I know that if I were to seek advise from my father it would be “you need medication because you have a brain disorder” where if I were to talk to lots of other people they’d say “there’s nothing wrong with you at all. I don’t think you’re sick” you can argue that my dad knows me pretty well, but in some ways…he doesn’t know me….and it’s hard to know for yourself. So when someone is constantly emphasizing sickness and medication…it makes one feel helpless. I actually have been diagnosed with PTSD but nothing has ever been done about it in psychiatry nor has it even been approached.