An essay written by Sarah Gallant of the IRIS Art Club.
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SCHIZOPHRENIA AS A
SPIRITUAL ILL
Schizophrenia and its many subtypes can be understood and successfully navigated (as it is in the realm of psyche's storms) when looked at as a journey from darkness into light, when its symptoms are considered a valid in the realms of this experience, and not just in terms of disease and things to be gotten rid of rather than explored. All of life is a journey, each individual is in a phase of this journey and is experiencing things relevant and relative to his progress and his process. To deaden or eliminate symptoms entirely is to lessen an individual's chance of synthesis of experience and incorporating the knowledge that exists therein into the essence of his being. Schizophrenia is primarily a spiritual sickness or quest and only secondarily effects the brain. To treat it only as a brain disorder is to miss out on the growth potential often masked by the symptomology or deadened by the over use of psychiatric drugs. There are ways through astrology of determining what phase an individual is likely in, the ways in which he can best respond to the problems, the direction he should be headed toward and the reasons for this quest to begin with. There are many invaluable insights into personality, talents, shortcomings, and the growth potential of the spirit. There are many suffering from mental illness' constant crises who are in the process of transformation from one mode to another, be it in the way of synthesizing dual natures, the move from instinctual living to mental, the move from matter into spirit, et cetera, et cetera. When viewed in this way treatment would be more in the line of understanding and aiding in the integration of self rather than the subduing and eliminating of symptoms, and alternate ways of being. There seems to be much more humanity, and actually, much more sense and validity, at least from this viewpoint in this kind of approach.
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