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Essay 10 Schizophenia and Mythology
Campbell makes a very interesting claim about the relation of mythology to mental illness which deserves close attention. He compares mythological images with the images experienced whilst undergoing a psychosis. This comparison is on a par with that made by Freud between the rituals and symbolism we find in myths, and the behaviour and narratives of paranoid psychotics such as Schreber. Carl Jungs work on the collective archetypes of the unconscious has been referred to several times throughout Campbells writings but it is not clear that Jung can provide us with the theoretical underpinnings we find in Freuds Kantian Philosophical Psychology. Both Psychologists appear however to believe that the root of the problem lies in the unconscious, which for Freud contained instincts with an essentially sensory-motor character.
In an interview where his disagreement with Freud was commented upon, Jung claimed that the disagreement occurred because his work was grounded in Kantian Philosophy. Freud also claimed his Psychology was Kantian, so the disagreement appears to turn upon this issue. If, however one appreciates Freuds commitment to Darwins Theory of Evolution plus the presence of Aristotelian Hylomorphic principles in Freuds works, then, it would appear that at least insofar as Freuds later work was concerned, where we see clearly the influences of both Plato and Aristotle, there is more Philosophical content in Freud’s theories, especially when one considers the extent to which Kants work contained a number of hylomorphic principles. Jungian Theory proceeds in a completely different direction, attempting as it does to present a trait-based theory of personality. Freud, on the other hand attempted to produce a principle-based theory, where the reality principle was intimately connected to both the pleasure-pain and energy regulation principles which operate on different psychological levels ranging from the instinctive to the level of higher mental processes.
There is of course something interesting about Jungs theory of the collective archetypes, as it appears to address problems arising from our descriptions of the inner reaches of the outer world. Aristotle claimed in his work on the soul entitled De Anima, that the first actuality of the body in the actualisation process of human psuché, is the soul. Spinoza elaborated upon this by claiming that the first idea of the mind is the idea of the body. Freud in turn builds upon these principles in his later work and asserts that the Ego is an agency of the mind and one of its primary functions is the protection of the body and this testifies to the fact that the Egos is an advanced vicissitude of the instincts: instincts that are dedicated to the fulfilment of a large variety of different kinds of needs ranging from self-preservation to more advanced projects connected to the love-life and work-life of man.
Melanie Klein elaborated upon this point by pointing out the complexity of the ego and that it can be “split” into the good ego and the bad ego in a similar fashion to the way in which the baby’s idea of the mother can be split into a good mother and a bad mother. Kleins hylomorphic theory also speaks about the relation of the ego to part and whole objects like the breast of the mother . In circumstances where the baby’s basic physiological and safety needs are met, howeve,r both the breasts and the mother will be incorporated into the whole object of the person of the mother. For Jung this Kleinian account would belong to what he called the personal unconscious of an individual and this for him was a different realm to that of the collective unconscious he was interested in, with its more abstract and advanced images of deities and devils.
Cambell refers to this process of “splitting” in this chapter on Schizophrenia (a term which literally means “split mind”). In his attempt to chart the depth of the waters of schizophrenia in its various forms Campbell states:
“the first experience is of a sense of splitting. The person sees the world going into two: one part of it moving away; himself in the other part… He may see himself, for a time, in two roles. One is the role of the clown, the ghost, the witch, the queer one, the outsider. That is the outer role that he plays, making little of himself as the fool, a joke, the one kicked around, the patsy. Inside, however, he is the saviour, and he knows it. He is the hero chosen for a destiny.” (Page 218)
Campbell was startled by the resemblance between schizophrenic experiences and the experiences of the hero embarking on a dangerous journey into the unknown. We are dealing here with more serious mental health issues which “envelop” patients like Schreber and causing an “oceanic feeling” in which the individual feels at one with the entire universe. In such states schizophrenic patients may feel that they have lived forever through many lifetimes, and will continue to do so ad infinitum. Freud clearly saw such experiences to be psychotic and anathema to the temperate life of a man whose ego is following the reality principle or the principle of the Golden Mean. There is clearly an aesthetic element to such a life which is founded on the harmony of the faculties of sensibility, understanding, and reason: a life in which whole objects are not part or bad objects but, rather, good self-sufficient independent objects. This would be one aspect of the Freudian Reality Principle, which in Aristotelian terms, would understand the material, efficient, formal and final causes of our object relations. Psychotic states such as those connected above with the “oceanic feeling” function, for Freud, were related to two principles: the energy regulation principle (regulating primitive pleasures pains and anxieties) and the pleasure-pain principle relating to more complex experiences. Campbell has the following to say on this topic:
“Ineffable realisations are experienced; and, in fact, as we read about them, we can only be amazed. I have now read dozens of accounts; and they correspond, often amazingly, to the insights of the mystics and to the images of Hindu, Buddhist, Egyptian and classical myth…. For example, a person who has never believed, or even heard of reincarnation will begin to feel that he has lived forever.”(Page 219)
Freuds case-study of Judge Schreber reveals a complex picture of the interplay of unconscious and conscious processes rooted in sexuality. The sexual organs, amongst all the organs of the body which, on the hylomorphic view, are important physical conditions of the human soul (psuché), are more connected to intense pleasurable and painful experiences. Images also supervene in relation to these experiences. Freuds interpretation of Schreber’s case referred to fixations and regressions to an early stage of libidinal development. Putative conscious experiences relating to beliefs that one loves somebody are shown instead to be disguised feelings of hate, and Freud explains the mechanisms responsible for such reversals. We should however, be aware that Freud claimed in relation to his interpretation of Schrebers symptoms, that he was dealing only with one type of paranoia. He was also careful to point out that his exposure as a consultant to these types of cases was limited because the authorities did not believe in favourable outcomes for such patients.
Indeed, the Schreber case, like that of Woodrow Wilson was based on the material from autobiographies and biographies. Campbell also spoke of different kinds of schizophrenia. He distinguishes between those psychoses in which the sufferer is passive and overwhelmed by the experience and the presence of high levels of anxiety, and those in which there is an active decision to bring about the psychotic experience through various techniques including meditation. In the former case the condition often requires some form of treatment in an institution because suicide attempts and violence towards others is a part of the symptom pattern.
Campbell also refers to a “literary” case reported by R D Laing. A case of a 38 year-old Royal Navy man by the name of Jessie Watkins who felt as if he had died, but also felt that he could see himself as a baby had hear himself cry. Both Schreber and Watkins felt themselves to be superior to God. Watkins, in particular, felt burdened by the work he was called on to do partly because God was a “madman”. Campbell refers to the work of Silverman and the distinction he draws between cases of paranoid schizophrenia and what he calls “essential schizophrenia which is related to shamanic psychotic crises. Silverman points out that in cases of paranoid schizophrenia one encounters hyperattention accompanied by an acute awareness of immanent threat and danger, resulting he argues, from an inability to confront the terrors of the inner world.
The shamanic psychotic experience, on the other hand, is more like that of the journey of a hero whose outcome ends positively when the inner and outer life have reached some kind of accord.Here too the shaman may experience an “oceanic feeling” in which he feels he and the universe are one. The paranoid schizophrenic, on the other hand is drowning in relation to his unconscious images, whereas the shaman and other so-called “essential schizophrenics” and mystics are swimming with their unconscious tide. The explanation for such a state of affairs, then, may depend upon future development s in the field of Philosophical Psychology and in the field of future scholarship into the powers of the human psuché.