Schizophrenia and Human Nature

© 2002, Jason Stuart Ratcliff

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Contents:

Overview

Part 1: Stigma and Cultural Exclusion

My Experience With Stigma

Everyone’s Experience With Stigma

Part 2: Schizophrenia and Human Nature

Schizophrenia and Political Liberalism

Webs of Significance

Suffering Before the Incomprehensible

The World Viewed Through a Conceptual Framework

The Psychotic Belief System

The Egocentric World of the Schizophrenic

Human Nature

Thoughts Versus Emotion

Hallucinations

Application of the Hypothesis to Other Schizophrenics

The Function of Dreams

Part 3: The Blessings of Madness

Schizophrenia and Creativity

Cultural Plasticity

Mysticism

Ought We to Cure Schizophrenia?

A Final Word

Acknowledgements

*Note: I have deleted the chapter "Meaning and Humor" in Part 2, as well as the entirety of "Part 4: Analytic Implications," consisting of the chapters "Conceptions and Things in Themselves" and "Mysticism and Logic", because of lingering doubts about the validity of the ideas these chapters contain.*