Variety Of Human Worlds

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

We are in the same temporal and cultural dimension, but each of us lives in a separate world. It is obvious that the other's world is worthy of recognition and respect, as long as its content is safe for others. This is an article about how the inner content depends on mental health, how worlds converge and collide, and also about the distortion of reality using the example of one of the most interesting pathologies of the psyche.

Once I fell in love with a man and projected onto him the most beautiful of my inner world. Very quickly the projection cracked, and I undertook to sew it up with excuses, but the critical mind stopped in time. And then, plucking up the courage, I took a closer look.

Then I was led to a big question by his outward manifestations, lifestyle, judgments, habits - they were logical in the context of his traumatic biography, but something confused me.

Moving away from the shock of otherness, I undertook to observe, analyze and compare, again justified it, and again twisted my thoughts along the worn-out rails, could not glue the picture, either traumatic or neurotic, and carried this to my colleagues, where he immediately became a paranoid psychopath as a doctor.

I revised the books and DSM criteria, shed a tear about the personal, and for me it became one of the lessons that there are subjects who live next to me in the same temporal and cultural context, but at the same time have a different content of reality.

The otherness of the content of the psychopath's reality, of course, is very uncomfortable for others, but it is quite tolerable in comparison with the pathological distortion of the reality of the paranoid schizophrenic.

The conviction of a paranoid in his own delirium usually does not bother anyone until it turns out that he is not in a hospital, but, for example, in a position, and has a certain amount of power. Then the question of the psychic reality of the other becomes significant for those who fall under its influence.

The saddest thing is that the question itself is not raised in practice. Who will question the mental health of a superior when his delusional ideas, judgments, arguments and demands that cause confusion or maximum indignation are packed in the categories of ethics, good intentions, universal or national values.

It is believed that mental illness should give itself out immediately and loudly, around the clock shouts from the balcony. But there is no one quieter and more thoughtful than a paranoid schizophrenic, he works carefully, systematically and subtly, like a former KGB officer.

I often leaf through criminal chronicles and a little envy the discipline and methodology with which it was possible to pass a corpse through a meat grinder for a week, turning it on exactly at 09:00 and turning it off at exactly 19:00, so as not to arouse suspicion among neighbors.

In my memory, there is one rare and valuable case of hospitalization a couple of days (or maybe hours) before the murder was committed. In the tenth year of marriage, the woman noted her husband's isolation and coldness, and attributed it to an age crisis, and after a while she woke up at night from a flashlight - he was looking for something on her body and immediately turned it off (the psychiatrist replied that there were traces of numerous lovers). As for further manifestations, the wife immediately realized everything, said that she was urgently leaving for her mother, and by some miracle she persuaded him to "heal his legs" for two weeks until she returned. It remains a mystery to me how he signed a voluntary consent to be admitted to the hospital, but if he had read what he was signing, it is not known how long this woman would have lived.

This story is a will of chance, because paranoia is difficult not only to hospitalize, but even to identify: he is alert and waiting for a catch, he can be very smart and inventive (among them were famous scientists obsessed with the idea of his discovery), he probes the waters and covers his tracks, he will do everything so that no one suspects.

The most interesting thing is that failures happen out of the blue, when everything is calculated, except for the most obvious. One paranoid, I don't remember the source, during interrogation in the case of his wife's suicide, gave himself away very naturally: "Maybe her conscience was tortured for the fact that she cheated on me with all the men in the city."

Because of his own projections, the chances of a layman to recognize the most secretive of mental distortions are approximately zero, so the collision of human worlds can look like: "he is just very jealous", "he just does not understand", "he has such a character", and pathology will show itself post factum in the regional department.

As there are no two physically identical people, so there are no two psychic worlds with the same content. We constantly double-check our content, compare with others, reflect, ask ourselves questions and doubt, we worry when we do not know, and this is an indicator of health.

People with accentuations and psychopathies are very sane, it's just that the otherness of their worldview is quite pronounced. Psychopaths are amenable to psychotherapy and are able to change their content under external influence: if you talk to them, explain, show reliable facts, they are able to change their view of reality, and this is the most important thing.

But there is also the group with the greatest difficulty in dealing with internal content. The distortion of reality due to schizophrenia is so coherent inside and often inaccessible to outside influence that it requires first the attention of a doctor, including on the subject of social security. And then a psychotherapist can also work.

Acceptance of the diversity of human worlds and the presence in some of them of possible irreversible pathology is first conclusion.

A change in content and a reversible distortion of reality can be the result of misinformation, lack of information or deliberate suggestion, therefore it is important to choose sources of information correctly, be able to search for it and check it, tactfully ask another instead of speculation, listen and reflect, and this second.

About the gaps between the worlds. They can show themselves in misunderstandings, conflicts and questions about the behavior of another. Any gap, if it is not sewn up, can have consequences, therefore, to reduce it, it is important to compare, compare points of view, ask questions and talk to each other, arrange family and universal discussions for the sake of searching among the different and opposite things in common and uniting. And this third.

AND fourth, last thing. Trust in another world. Making friends, finding teachers, psychologists or supervisors, joining communities on the basis of common values, meanings, beliefs, views and vision of reality is also valuable because, if necessary, they can be trusted to bring clarity to their personal picture.

Illustrations: Alexey Kondakov, Ukrainian artist

Psychologist Mila Grebenyuk

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