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Submit Your Reflection about "Room for J: One Family's Struggle with Schizophrenia."

Not Recognizing Schizophrenia as a Debilitating Mental Illness Is Foolish and Dangerous (April 26, 2007)
I am a 36-year-old man. My late mother suffered from the psychiatric illness of paranoia schizophrenia. Because we were very poor, our access to competent mental healthcare was inadequate. This along with a psychiatric community that was still struggling with antiquated treatment methods and prognosis meant that my mother was incorrectly diagnosed until around the time I left the house at the age of 17.

Schizophrenics are strongly discouraged from having children. There is a reason for this: having a mother tell a small child that she hates him and considers him the enemy one day but the next day be caring and loving scars that child for life. I know this from painful personal experience. This is not to make you feel sorry for me but to illuminate the fact that schizophrenia is not a "personality type" or someone speaking a "different language" but is, in fact, a terrible, terrible illness demanding rigorous therapy and oversight of the sufferer.

When schizophrenics have an episode, they do not see reality as it truly is, i.e., the car is red but the schizophrenic sees the car as blue. When I tell the sick person to look at the red car, they will become upset because they see a blue car and are wondering why I am playing such a mean trick on them. There are far better examples than this, but the bottom line is that this is a very serious illness not to be brushed aside as some sort of spiritual event.

I feel some sympathy for the parents, but I feel more for the young man himself. I don't believe his parents are accepting the facts of his illness and the role they could be playing. It is not alright for this man to walk around thinking he is God. This means that he needs to have his medication adjusted. Wake up! This is a very sick person who needs far better care than he has been obviously given.

Steve Craton
Marshville, NC (Listens to SOF Podcast)

A Nurse's Thoughts (May 9, 2006)
As a psychiatric nurse with 30 years experience, now in seminary to become a priest, I say a hearty "thank you" to the Hansons for their honesty and courage, to Krista for your thoughtful and compassionate questioning, and to this station for presenting topics so crucial to our floundering world. When I first set foot on a psychiatric unit, many years ago, I did sense a very fine line separating health from illness; function from dysfunction. I believe this still holds true today, perhaps more so, as we teeter on such a fragile brink of world sanity.

Joel's story is similar to many I have had the honor of listening to over the years. I am grateful that many of us, including the Hansons, have realized the importance of releasing the concept of "fixing" mental illness. In truth, it is much more complex. Indeed,there is a horrible ugliness to mental illness. More and more I am dodging the swings of patients striking out in angry violence. My gut is roiling in anxiety 90 percent of the time. I often ask myself why I do this work.

In my frequent attempts to answer my own question, I wonder about hunger — spiritual hunger. There always seems to be a restlessness that I sense in myself and in my patients. Is it hunger to connect? Theologians tell us that separation from God is sin. Aren't we of American culture so terribly separated from any notion of God, other than our golden-calf-of-consumerism? I often find much more connection to God through the strong and simple faith of the poor in third world countries and in my patients who are ill.

I spend many hospital evenings teaching poetry to the mentally ill. Surprisingly, the results often send me to the restroom to wipe away tears in a quiet corner of thanksgiving. Windows seem to open where words of remarkable wisdom sift through, often rendering me speechless. It has become sacred work, this fragile dance of caring for, and learning from, "beloved sons" and daughters. It seems when I least expect it, I am suddenly seeing the face of God. It may quickly alter, become dark, cloudy, confused. But I have learned to trust the reality of its Presence.

I do not find Joel's expression of us all being connected as "new agey." I consider it quite prophetical, more like the mystical body of Christ. I have witnessed this strange, mystical way as it rises from garbage heaps to be carried on the backs of kindly ambulance drivers. I have known it to drive its broken-self from corporate offices through psychosis while following the "H" signs for "hospital." All this is occurring in longing and hunger to reconnect to a sense of wholeness.

Finally, knowing its power proven by medical science, I pray! I pray that we might become as the poet Rumi states "holes in the flute." I pray that we will be quiet enough to listen well. I pray a prayer of thanksgiving to you Joel, for being who you are! To you and to all the folks who helped bring us your story I pray blessings upon your journey! Amen and amen.

Pamela Mitchell
Saratoga Springs, NY (WVPR, 89.5 FM)

Self-Realization and Joel's World-View (May 8, 2006)
As always, your show is highly thought-provoking and brings to light the relativistic view of one's reality. The perception of the world around is one's reality, and the perception is influenced by environmental, experiential, and biological conditions, among other factors, bringing in likely changes in the neural pathways. Due to extreme circumstances resulting from one or more of these conditions, the reality one experiences could be quite different from the "norm," yet quite consistent in one's view of the world. Joel's world-view may fall in this category.

In the Eastern philosophies, the reality is the manifestation of the universal spirit in material forms. The intuitive realization of this basic truth is the goal of many spiritual explorers and is often known as self-realization. This realization of one's unity with the universal spirit comes in many ways — devotion, knowledge, meditation and service. However, they all seem to alter one's "normal" mode of perception of the world around and provide a higher state of awareness, most likely due to changes brought about in the neural pathways in the body. Could it be that Joel has come to this state of self-realization quite by accident due to some biological event when he was around 20?

Joel's parents have tried their best to understand Joel's view of the world which is consistent, but an outlier from the accepted "norm." Yet one gets the feeling that they are not quite ready to accept his claim to be God, probably due to their religious background which considers such claim as blasphemy. Interestingly, Eastern religions proclaim the unity in the apparent diversity in the world, as manifestations of the same spirit, and hence do not see any contradiction in Joel's claim. Rather than trying to suppress Joel's wonderful view of the world with forced medication, his parents may wish to explore the ways his ideas and views could be helpful to the seekers striving for self-realization, thus also helping him to gain emotional acceptance in the process. There are many secular organizations which may be helpful in propagating his philosophical and spiritual insights to the world at large (such as, Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, CA; Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, Honesdale, PA).

Chinmoy Bose
Green Brook, NJ (WNYC, 93.9 FM)

Not Necessarily Very Unique (May 8, 2006)
My wife, who is a psychiatric social worker, informs me that the delusion that one is God or Jesus or some other religious figure is among the most common among the mentally ill. This story would have been considerably more interesting if it had focused on the possible relationship between mental illness and the visions experienced by saints or mystics.

Stephen Haliczer
Sycamore, IL (WNIJ, 91.1 FM)

Mental Illness and God (May 8, 2006)
I was a little confused about J's parents response to the question about schizophrenia and the concept of God. As I understood their response, they talked about not liking the downplaying of his condition when others say, "He could have been a shaman." Did they ever talk about their own questions about those we call saints, who heard voices and saw visions. Where is the line in these situations? Is it when one considers oneself God, one has crossed the line to mental illness?

Catherine Hegge
Hudson, WI (KNOW, 91.1 FM)

Being a Shaman (May 8, 2006)
I always enjoy your program very much. While listening to Room for J the family commented that people would say to them "In another culture he could be a shaman." A shaman is a person who can walk in both worlds, the reality that we all agree upon and the one in which she communes with God, the divine, whatever we want to name the spirit we connect with. The shaman can enter and leave these realities at will. And so J couldn't be a shaman because his ability to be in this world is impaired. His insights may be complex and sometimes illuminating, but that isn't being a shaman.

Missy Stevens
Washington, CT (WNPR, 88.1 FM)

Coincidence? (May 7, 2006)
In the 1972 movie, The Ruling Class, Peter O'Toole played Jack, a schizophrenic who thinks that he is God. The beginning of Joel's manuscript is nearly identical to the way in which Jack describes himself in the movie. A coincidence?

Carl Wilcox
Clemmons, NC (WFDD, 88.5 FM)

Schizophrenia Does Not Require Medication (May 7, 2006)
Joel might view himself as Jesus Christ or God, but that does not always require medication. Biblically, there are passages in Christian history about us as all as part of the mystical body of Christ. Also, his comments could be seen theoretically as satire of how Jesus Christ felt himself as the most important person (which of course is a very controversial statement which I apologize in advance for any offense.)

Joel's difficulties could be solved by therapy. Not all cases of schizophrenia require medication. He may mean something that people do not understand. Ask Joel what he means when he calls himself Jesus. He may not mean anything harmful. We speak different languages by our training. Some of us need training on use of words to meet cultural patterns.

James Struck
Chicago, IL (WBEZ, 91.5 FM)

Space for Joel (May 7, 2006)
I have just listened to your program on Joel. I am appalled at the vanity that Joel's parents still hold so tightly after having so many years to experience Joel as he is. Even the title "Room for J" intimates at their true intentions, as, if their heart were actually open and loving, the title would have been "Space for J." Throughout the entire interview the overwhelming undertone was to apologize for J or his words and to point out his goodness as something for which they could personally take credit as his parents. This theft is a form of mild violence and injustice towards Joel. Where is the space for Joel to be allowed credit for being good and why must they steal that away from him and take it as their own, as some function of their parenting and leave him only with the part that embarrasses them as his own?

It was difficult for me to listen to them quote Joel's sentiments on love and ignorance, as both parents clearly were clinging so desperately to ignorance and had not fully embraced this teaching of love. If all things and non-things come from the source a source some refer to as God, then Joel too is merely another manifestation of the source and arguably is God. So let us learn from this manifestation of God as with all of the manifestations experienced at Walden. What isn't God?

I feel sadness and compassion for Joel's parents as they excuse and continue to deny the God in their son. Perhaps this serves to explain why they fear and feel being Judas, as indeed in their hearts they know they are in effect betraying him still. This is evident; as I listen to them deny their son and what makes him so beautiful over the airwaves before us all on National Public Radio. Your program was an opportunity for them to honor their son fully. Do they not comprehend that their son could listen to your program? Where is their love?

Your program regularly inspires me. It sometimes brings me to tears. I wept amidst the reading of a poem by Rilke just last week. Although most of the time I find myself listening with patient kindness to your guests as they struggle within the limits of their willingness to understand what lies just outside the reach of the sphere, they have chosen to believe constrains them from accepting all of what is. Generally, it is at this point that their models of God are preserved despite the encountering of phenomena that appears to contradict their beliefs. It is at this very moment that the signal is lost, the connection is broken, the flow of God is lost. It is perhaps as impossible for us to lose God as it is for a fish to lose the ocean. It is perhaps just as possible that I am completely wrong.

John Tebbens
Chicago, IL (WBEZ, 91.5 FM)

Potassium Could Help (May 7, 2006)
I am the parent of a profoundly deaf and autistic son, born in l958. It was only about ten years ago that we discovered that his potassium reserves are not those of other persons, despite the many bananas he consumed. He was working with a crew loading bales of hay, in the heat, and wiped out mentally and physically. I took some potassium tablets to him in the field, and not only did his strength return, so did his mental attitude, he happily threw a bale of hay over the load to celebrate.  I thought then, how about keeping him on a potassium tablet a day, in hopes that he would not become depressed at his "failures" — largely stuff in his life associated with how far behind everybody he is due to his deafness — no language at all until age 10.

Like a miracle, if he continues with his potassium daily, he does not fall into the perseverative mental conditions which are destructive to his well being. I also recall that my father, when he was treated for cancer, would sometimes become low on electrolytes, particularly potassium. Dad would grasp at things in the air and want others to collect them. The week before he died he said to me, "I want to tell you what I was thinking when I went nuts… I was young again and mother and I were going to have to live in a shack (depression folks) and diamonds were falling out of the sky so we wouldn't have to live that way." It was the administration of potassium which cleared Dad's mind, to allow him, in the last week of his life, to tell me something that I regard as a discovery which might help others.

Maybe potassium won't help everybody, my daughter is a physician and has suggested it to parents of other autistic children, and so far it hasn't helped a one of them, she says.  But, for the people it could help, it would be worth further exploration.

Leona Heitsch
Bourbon, MO (KWMU, 90.7 FM)

National Spiritualism (May 7, 2006)
J's religion sounds very similar to the beliefs in National Spiritualism. Channeling is expected of the weekly speakers, who are called "mediums." The declaration of principles conclude with #9: "We affirm that the precepts of prophecy and healing are divine attributes proven through mediumship." God-like wonderful loving spirits speak to us and through us all every day. Those who "channel" were often thought schizophrenic, as children, or before they discovered this religion.

Susan Maclachlan
Jewett City, CT (Listens to SOF OnDemand)

The Pain of the Relatives (May 6, 2006)
It was interesting to hear of how the parents of J could accept him and help him caringly survive in the world. I unfortunately encountered a different reaction from parents when I found my ex-husband was mentally ill. His parents have denied the true extent of his illness and they did for the years before I knew him too. They have spent their time blaming me, the universe, or anyone or anything else instead of helping him. Unfortunately for the sake of my children and myself, I had to give up and move on. I finally learned that when dealing with him, like the Hanson's learned with J, you have to accept that living with him is living on a different planet with different rules. When that can be done there is some peace. But it is not easy, it is awful, it is painful, and it is potentially destructive to those who are forced to share that planet with him. While the Hanson's views are beautiful, they did not really convey how awful it can be when one becomes the victim of these illnesses. My sons now understand their father better, but the pain he inflicted on their psyches will remain forever.

Jaye Knight
Auckland, New Zealand (Listens to SOF OnDemand)

The Uniqueness of a Schizophrenic Person (November 12, 2005)
Something I found interesting in this program was the comment on people being frightened to meet a schizophrenic person out in public. I think it is ironic and sad that we have to be frightened of people different from ourselves because it is society that has made it so, by pushing these people to the fringes. In fact we are all these people, it is just that some of us can control or suppress our uniqueness to the point of political correctness. Some of us can't, and if we are too different, we receive a label and an unspoken order to stay out of the public eye. Sad that we can't be more accepting; it will be a great day when uniqueness isn't persecuted.

Joel's father said, "It makes you look at spirituality as not about what you believe in but what you experience and allow yourself to experience in the form of caring and having the faith that somehow caring makes a difference and doesn't have anything to do with what you believe in." The example he used was Joel sitting in a pew and blessing everyone and blessing the service. He had extremely different beliefs, but what really mattered was the blessing. This makes me think of the moral goals that most religions have in common. I think it bespeaks the things of importance, and reminds us what our focus should be. Like that saying, it is 5 percent what happens and 95 percent your attitude about it. We could change that to say it is 5 percent your beliefs, and 95 percent your benevolent actions.

The last thing I wanted to comment on goes back to individuality and uniqueness. When it came to taking medication, Joel said, "Why are you trying to limit me. You want me to be just like the rest of you." I find the thought that medication was intended to make him just like the rest of society to be sad and true. Let me make it clear I'm not trying to downplay the highly beneficial effects in certain people, for example, Joel when he went off it he put himself in harm's way. I think in some individuals, they must take it otherwise they will put themselves or others in harm's way, but in other individuals it only serves to limit them, like Joel said. I have a friend who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He doesn't take his medication, and lives on his own. He is in his own world so to speak much of the time, but that doesn't mean he should be on medication. All it really does for him is make him depressed and lethargic. So he doesn't take it. He is arguably the most giving, caring, friendly, selfless, and loving person I know. And to think, if he were forced to take his medication, he would be essentially lifeless and less likely to make a positive impact in anyone's life, including my own.

Shaun Fife
Maple Grove, MN (KNOW, 91.1 FM)

Does God Have Boundaries? (July 25, 2005)
My response was a bit similar to Jay Bessey's — the possible connection between a disease and a (very) altered state of spiritual consciousness. The mention of "all being one," however, is hardly New Age, given that many advanced practitioners dating back to the early Sufis and Sikhs, among others, have attained a state of awareness in which they feel they "are God" — many of whom then had their heads removed or were killed in other violent ways for their temerity. Fritjof Kapra stressed the connection between all forms of life, and Buddhists stress an energy connection among all things, some of which Westerners tend not to consider "alive." The big question might be: Where does God stop and all "else" starts?

Constance Cohen
Charlottesville, VA (WFFC, 89.7 FM)

Finding Residential Care Facilities for the Schizophrenia Sufferers (July 21, 2005)
I just finished Room for J by Dan Hanson. Please thank him for sharing. It describes my struggles over the past 18 years. The end result of all this caring is a nursing home. Is there something better? I wish Mr. Hanson would research and publish a follow-up on good quality long-term residential housing.

Tina Galvin
La Grange, IL (WBEZ, 91.5 FM)

Understood Rather than Feared (July 21, 2005)
This week's program reminded of the story they tell at Friday night meetings of the Catholic Worker. A while back Robert Coles came to visit the house when Dorothy Day was there. She was seated at one of the tables listening to a woman who was babbling — talking so fast and so softly that no one could understand her.

Coles stood there waiting for a chance to speak when Dorothy Day looked up at him and asked, "Did you want to speak to one of us?" Maybe that's a key to understanding the schizophrenic, or maybe better, they want to be loved rather than feared as dangerous or held in awe as displaced shamans.

Steven John Bosch
Floral Park, NY (WNYC, 820 AM)

Sharing My Similar Story (July 20, 2005)
Today's SOF program about Dan and Sue Hanson's son, Joel, sounded painfully familiar. My purpose for writing is not to merely echo a similar story, but to offer help to the Hansons and other families who feel helpless to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder.

I am now a 28-year-old professional working in a gratifying field of rehabilitation for individuals with combined vision and hearing impairment. I used to be an awful lot like Joel. I suffered my first bi-polar disorder when I was 21 — Joel was 20. Like Joel, I had religious delusions about my identity as the next soon-to-be-discovered enlightened Zen Buddhist thinker of our day. I also thought my boyfriend was Jesus.

I believed, as well, that I was the reincarnation of "Pass-A-Million," a legendary prostitute of old. The story goes that in some distant century in Japan, men who visited Pass-A-Million would attain enlightenment and never have desire or attachment for this material world again.

Thankfully, like Joel, I had loving and terribly concerned parents, who had no choice but to remove me from the city in which I resided — kicking, screaming, crying, to take me to a mental hospital close to their home. I remember at this time, like Joel, that I paid no heed to my personal safety: taking cat-naps in alley ways and forests, going under bridges alone to find a homeless man (not necessarily a horrible risk — but if I would do that today, I would take a few more precautions), and more. Like Joel, I had an obsession with "The Truth." I wrote about it on the walls of my rented apartment in Sharpie pen.

In the mental hospital, my roommate was a schizophrenic. I heard that schizophrenia was a possible label for me, but the doctor settled on "bi-polar." In the hospital, I was very conspiracy-minded — thinking that all the patients who gathered daily near a window to read the Bible were simply there to foil or impede my plan of bringing Buddhist enlightenment to this backwards world.

Like Joel, I resisted medication at every turn. I was on and off of resperitol, lithium, depecote. By the time I left the hospital, I was drooling and walking with a funny drag in my step. A very different departure for the girl who came in doing a hospital gown fashion show her first night's stay. This person without a spring in her step was not the me I knew… nor the daughter my parents knew. Now, as time goes on, I am able to separate myself from my experience, and see it from the perspective of my parents — how horrifying this all must have been.

The Hanson's statement about Joel sitting in the snow, waiting for aliens, reminded me of a time shortly after I returned home from the hospital. A NASA spaceship (1999) was taking off, and I felt that it was imperative that I listen to the Beastie Boys "Intergalactica" and prostrate myself before the TV, before proper take-off could commence. During that time while I was recuperating at my parents' home, my boyfriend's mother held more prayer meetings than I will probably ever know about on my behalf. I was not a Christian. In a desperate plea to help me during that time, she told me that she had a special prayer language (more about that later), and asked me if I believed that Jesus died for my sins. I said "Yes," but I had lied. I did not believe that I was a sinner. I asked for a Bible, but never read it. For a time, I wouldn't leave the house without it, however.

I had another episode three years later, after I had returned to a semi-normal life. The shell-shock fear of seeking answers to faith had finally lifted (I felt I could never return to Buddhism again). I began seeking answers from a neighborhood New Age witch who practiced Reiki, tarot card readings, Meridian Line Alignment, psychic surgeries, palm reading, and good old psychic readings.

If the first time was manic, the second big episode was depressive. And it was bleak and black, and hopeless. I reached a point where I was so broken, that I was willing to try anything. ANYTHING, even Jesus as a last resort. Interestingly, a morning following my decision to look to Jesus, I awoke with the words in my mind, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." I had never read the words in Romans 3:23 before that experience.

This was great news, as I knew that if even I was a sinner, that there was a savior for me, and that this whole Jesus thing might actually work out. I was overjoyed to know that I was a sinner. Long story (please forgive me, but I feel very passionate about sharing this) not-so-short: I became a born-again believer of Jesus Christ. I was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of my sins, and later filled with the Holy Ghost, by evidence of speaking in tongues (Acts 2:38, Acts 19, to reference a couple scriptures.)

Here's where it ties back into my mental health: It was the winter following my summer conversion when I felt prompted during prayer to ask for a healing for my mind so that I would not have to take Depecote any more. I was scared from other failed attempts of stopping my meds, but in faith, I obeyed. I truly felt delivered. My journal writings from that night alone in my bedroom express the surprise and joy of receiving a healing from the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are a couple "experiences" mentioned here. My faith is not comprised of only experiences however, but grounded faith in the Word of God. I never had a clue that someday I would be a believer and sharing a mental health testimony online with a bunch of people I may never communicate with.

To the Hanson family, I have faith that the Divine Healer, the Lord Jesus Christ, is more than capable of healing your son, Joel. First, there must be prayer that he receives the revelation that he is not God, that in fact, he is a sinner in need of salvation. After he accepts this and repents, an appropriate response is baptism in JESUS' NAME. Thirdly, is the promise of the gift of the Holy Ghost. I know that sounds preachy, sorry. I also know that today the emphasis on the mental health awareness movement is acceptance, not so much "fixing." This is in no way supposed to be condescending message to a family who has surely sought numerous avenues of help already. I am glad that together you have found a sense of peace about your son's illness. I just believe that you are caring parents and deserve to know what worked for another young person.

2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of love, and of a sound mind." That was the promise that healed me. With thanksgiving and prayer for your family.

Alyssa Leighton
Milwaukee, WI (WUWM, 89.7 FM)

Is Joel God? (July 20, 2005)
How I enjoy your show! Could you explore the possibility that, indeed, Joel is God. Perhaps the gnostic scripture of Thomas would help with this idea. This "lost" gospel chapel was not one on which the early "physical" church could be built. There is a professor from Harvard who has written about these scriptures. She would be an excellent guest. I listen to your show while driving the calm, quiet Miami highway on Sunday morning. It sets the tone to my beautiful Sunday mornings. May God continue to bless you in your endeavors. A faithful listener in South Florida.

Shannon Curran
Miami, FL (WLRN, 91.3 FM)

Good Work (July 20, 2005)
I thought your interview with Dan and Sue Hanson was thought-provoking and wonderfully insightful. You seemed to value Joel's views as I do, after reading much of what he's written. Your show is much needed, Krista. Keep up the good work.

Karen Speerstra
Randolph Center, VT (WRVT, 88.7 FM and Web Audio)

A Sense of Openness and Ease (July 20, 2005)
When you first mentioned the name, Dan Hanson, I thought, "I wonder if that could be the Dan Hanson I once interviewed" and, as I listened, I realized that it was. I and a colleague wrote/edited a collection of stories about/by people who had managed to bring a strong sense of individuality and spirit to their work lives, and Dan was one of our contributors. This was apparently before he knew that his son was schizophrenic, as that never came up in the conversation, but the reason we selected his story as one of those for our book was the same sense of openness and ease in thinking outside the box which he displayed on your show.

As a former psychologist and newly licensed religious science practitioner, I am so grateful for Dan and his wife's willingness to share their thoughts, feelings, experiences with their son. It is a fresh perspective on schizophrenia which needs to be heard; it is not romantic, nor is it clinical — it is, however, very human and humanizing, and I, for one, would be thrilled to be sitting next to Joel in church knowing that he is blessing me. And thank you for bringing this story to our attention.

Laurel Reinhardt
Asheville, NC (WCQS, 88.1 FM)

A Powerful Disconnect from Reality (July 18, 2005)
The interview with the Hanson's was um… interesting. I'm drawn to all-things-schizophrenic since my mother was one. (Add "paranoid" to schizophrenic). Hearing someone else describe living with a schizophrenic produced both episodes of PTSD and a sort of bizarre validation (which I apparently still need) that I wasn't and still am not — crazy.

I would argue the Hanson's on one point: schizophrenics do not have "interesting insights" to share. And when we think they do, we are losing our own grasp of reality which is easy to do because they are so utterly convincing. My mother assisted the mayor of Philadelphia, Richardson Dilworth, in running the city by way of imaginary head phones. At nine years old, I would rush home to take care of her, and find her in a dark bedroom gesturing to me to be quiet, while she carried on extended, complex "conversations" with the mayor. Interesting insights? Oh hardly. The only thing that is "interesting" about schizophrenia is how totally and irrevocably the wiring of the brain is skewed to produce such a powerful disconnect from reality.

Beverly Johnson
Philadelphia, PA (WHYY, 91.0 FM)

Room for All (July 17, 2005)
"Is there room in our culture to consider a schizophrenic personality as another form of human difference and diversity?" First you would have to define for me, who "our" is, and what "a" schizophrenic personality is. Like very other single descriptor, "people with brown eyes," for example, there are very limited conclusions one can draw from so little information.

There is no single, stereotypical definition of schizophrenia, and no single, stereotypical definition of a person with the illness. A "Jewish" personality? An "African American" personality. Who would dare posit such a statement. We dare not assert such prejudice toward those groups, yet we dare assert the same prejudice toward another? How is that possible?

People with schizophrenia are here, and are already a part of our culture: Dr. Dan Fisher, a psychiatrist and member of the President's Mental Health Commission, is recovered from schizophrenia, as are about 33 1/3 percent of those people diagnosed with the illness, according to the latest research. Dr. Fred Frese heads a program in Ohio for people, like himself, with schizophrenia — he is not fully recovered — and Dr. John Nash won the Nobel Prize.

Schizophrenia, like any illness exists in degree, from mild to severe. The negative stereotype, drawn from an ignorance of the illness, harms. Not only does it harm people with the illness, it harms us all, for in our ignorant response to stereotype, we also harm ourselves.

Harold A. Maio
Ft. Myers, FL (Listens via Web Audio)

Hypnosis as a Treatment? (July 17, 2005)
Drs. Herb and David Spiegel have written texts which may help a psychotic patient such as you describe this morning to get appropriate diagnosis and treatment. Their theory I believe would put your young man in the company of John Nash who was certainly bipolar and misdiagnosed by his psychiatrists. We don't have great drugs once a patient who is wired for bipolar disease gets broken. The Spiegels used self hypnosis successfully in some patients but the time involved precludes my use of this modality to any extent and midwest psychiatry is not interested much in hypnosis. The eye roll usually can differentiate bipolar wiring from schizophrenic pattern which is associated with almost no ability to roll eyes up.

David Auner
Ironton, MO (KWMU, 90.7 FM)

Not the Usual Story (July 17, 2005)
My husband and I listen to your program almost every Sunday and almost always find it of great interest and sometimes inspirational. I have also recommended this program to a number of my friends. I thought the program today would be of particular interest to me as there is bi-polar illness in my immediate family. We also are members of NAMI and have gone to a support group for many years. We have heard the stories of many distraught family members during that time.

Although I found it interesting to hear about Joel's ideas and his family's desire to accept him as he is I thought the program could have addressed just how difficult mental illness is on the whole family. Joel's experience with the ambulance is so far distant from our family experiences which have included the swat team, shackles, jail, anger, and hate. It has not been a pretty picture. Mental illness takes on many faces and Joel's is only one of them. I hope your listeners who may not be familiar with this illness will not take this story to be the usual one.

Elizabeth Marcus
Gables, FL (WLRN, 91.3 FM)

Questions Raised (July 17, 2005)
As always, your show raises a number of interesting questions that are only just below the surface. Is there a Joel who exists apart from this disease? One might also ask if the "prophets" throughout the ages were actually high-functioning schizophrenics. Did Moses, Jesus, Elijah, Mohammed, Joan of Arc, and Joseph Smith have Joel's condition? Are Western society and medicine now such that there can never again be another Mohammed or Moses? If so, does every human being experience what Joel experiences, but normally to a much lesser degree? Is there a biological component to religious insight? Is there a sort of insight to be gained from people such as Joel that is, while not "objectively" true, important to the human condition. In asking these questions, I hope not to offend or to overemphasize his condition. He is one of many thousands who deserve our help and compassion.

Jay Bessey
Louisville, KY (WEKU, 88.9 FM)

The Real Question (July 17, 2005)
What a great informative interview. It should be listened to by everyone to help them understand themselves in relation to others. In reality, J's ideas are not so strange. What is wrong in thinking that we are in fact an extension of God on earth? After all, are we not made by his design and in his image. If instead of what and how we think, we measure "mental illness" by the results of our actions, I would question who is mentally ill by looking at what all of the "sane" people in history have done and are now doing to their fellow man and the world we live in. The real question about mental illness in my mind is not what you believe or how you think or express it, but rather your propensity to harm yourself or others.

Richard Caruso
Rosemont, PA (WHYY, 91.0 FM)

Romanticizing a Demanding Disease (July 16, 2005)
Please leave R.D. Laing behind and read something else. Mental illness is not an "alternative reality," that is romantic and glamorizing a sad and sometimes dangerous situation. My son had his first psychotic break last year after years of destructive behavior. It is a demanding disease. Our new bishop is establishing a new office for the disabled and we are working toward including the mentally ill. This patronizing and romanticizing the mentally ill is infuriating. Try helping a beloved son who is mentally retarded when you are both below poverty level and without health insurance.

Jamie Ballenger
Charlottesville, VA (Listens via Web Audio)

The Conflict of Experience (July 16, 2005)
I am what the rest of the world refers to as a non-believer who nevertheless believes deeply that your show is one of the most valuable constructs our entertainment society has produced. This conflict is always hard to explain, but a snippet of a much anticipated epiphany hit me while listening to your show this morning.

You assumed an important remark of Joel's that "there's no love in ignorance" as a tragedy of the failure of love. I see it exactly differently: as a failure of ignorance. Short of beginning my first tome and never getting round to walking the dog this morning, you presume love a priori and ignorance an aberration somehow of love, or a reflection of no love, or of love failed. Quite to the contrary from my point of view, ignorance must be overcome in order for love to arise. Love may be a priori, but ignorance is a priori to that! Love your show!

James Heck
Galena, IL (KUNI, 90.9 FM)