Diagnosed Schizophrenia and Belief and Intention Interpretation

A friend of mine recently emailed me three articles written by academics, based upon tests and trials of diagnosed schizophrenics, and from the perspective of using ToM (theory of mind) analysis. I didn't like the articles very much because they seemed to be saying that diagnosed schizophrenia stems from a lower kind of consciousness, and I find that very psychiatric, mentalist, and simply not true. Diagnosed schizophrenia, like human nature, has both lower and higher levels of awareness to it, simultaneously, and at different intervals. I also didn't like the way the articles talked about so-called delusions, as if they are entirely false belief systems. So-called delusions can be based upon facts and experiences, even though they may not be literally true in the ordinary sense or on a surface level.

Also, for example, the first article mentioned that supposedly people with diagnosed schizophrenia have great problems with interpreting their own and other people's intentions, but it didn't mention that other groups can also have great problems with this such as science, religion, and especially psychiatry.

This view that people with diagnosed schizophrenia have a special great difficulty in understanding their own and other people's intentions, mitigates the fact that oppression and repression can suppress intention interpretation, or deprive people of seeing things as they really are, especially if they are marginalized, socially isolated, and not integrated into society.

I think it is a very common, dangerous, and pernicious belief and ideology in psychiatry, social work, and mental health, that people with mental health problems have a special and great problem with understanding their own and other people's intentions. It also takes away choice and freewill, because if you assume that a person doesn't have any awareness of their own intentions, then you can very easily deprive them of the freedom and rights to express their choices and intentions. If you assume that diagnosed schizophrenics have a problem understanding other people's intentions, then you can also justify bullying, terrorism, and oppression and suppress any criticism or protest that the person may have about those things.

The view that diagnosed schizophrenics have a great difficulty in understanding other people's beliefs, assumes that everyone must or should have the same belief systems. What of the Conservative, Liberal, and Labour parties? Do they have great difficulty in understanding each other's belief systems? Of course not, they just hold different ideological opinions and which separate them as different parties. To say that a person doesn't understand other people's beliefs, is to want to proselytize them and impose one person or groups values upon another person or group, when we can agree to differ, or part ways in our beliefs and thinking. If everyone believed the same thing it could amount to totalitarianism. Also, not understanding someone else's beliefs, can mean not agreeing with a false consensus, and making that inference about it that it is just not understanding someone else's beliefs, can be a way of suppressing radicalism or individualism of any sort.

The view that diagnosed schizophrenics have great difficulty in understanding other people's intentions is simply not true, as many people with mental health problems (including myself) are very good at identifying the prejudices and intentions of other people. Not least, this includes an awareness of things like double-effect. Double effect means that there can be both an effect and a cause of an action. For example, someone might carry out harmful and destructive actions, with good intentions, even though this has bad or harmful results and consequences. In this way, the person or persons justify the harmful act or actions. On the other hand, a person can carry out bad or harmful intentions and actions even though the result is good (this is what psychiatry does).

I don't believe that people who are diagnosed with schizophrenia have a great problem with understanding their own or other people's intentions. It's a matter of human nature and human error, and doesn't specially or specifically apply to any isolated minority or oppressed group in society.

I disagree with one of the first statements in the articles that hallucinations are perceptions that occur with the absence of external stimuli. I think that is completely false and nonsense, because hallucinations can be based upon things like traumatic events, being abused, and upon external stimuli of some sort such as loud noises, forced images, or stress. It's not my experience of hearing voices that there's no external stimuli, and certainly not the view of the Hearing Voices Network.

I also find the view that schizophrenics have delusions that people are lying to them or out to harm them ridiculous. Who says that people are not lying to them or out to harm them? It depends on your view of human nature. Maybe biological and social psychiatry has a very idealistic and utopian idea of human nature, but in my opinion human beings can lie and can be very harmful, and because there can be marginalisation and discrimination and some people are used and abused as non-participants in the system.