Time and Being
There's an unnoticed convergence between two strands of academic literature on schizophrenia: 1) a neurological 'soft signs' approach that reveals subtle but pervasive dysmetrias -- abnormal postural homeostasis and eye movement, disordered temporal structuring of events occurring closely together, phase-lagged reaction to stimuli leading to atypical crossmodal binding, proprioceptive anomalies due to retarded corrollary discharge, quirks of synchrony measured by EEG, and so forth; and 2) a phenomenological 'first person' approach that articulates the connections among diverse subjective disruptions -- weakened or distorted ipseity (sense of self), disorders of passive synthesis (gestalt formation), loss of natural self-evidence (common sense), changes in social attunement, and so on.
The point of convergence might as well be called autoaffectivity: the essential core from which all the other symptoms spring seems to be a temporal disorder of reafferance. Our own action gives off endogenous information which is re-incorporated into our expectations and helps us structure our perception and proprioception concurrently and dynamically, as well as providing the fine structure of our affectivity and motivation; even tiny but ubiquitous disruptions in the timing of these signals can alter our sense of volition and reality (the so-called 'positive symptoms' of schizophrenia), as well as destabilizing the normal formation of intention and its satisfaction (the so-called 'negative symptoms').
The schizophrenic person is constantly surprising themselves, both negatively and positively; the increased prediction error triggers wild swings in dopamine release, leading to abrupt swerves of attention and abnormal meaning-formation; the world as manifest to them becomes increasingly uncoupled from consensus, and they get trapped inside themselves while still moving around in the world. They can't communicate properly because the usual attunement to objective events and other people's microexpressions is off kilter, and because they can barely even think in a straight line even on their own terms.
There is typically a long-simmering prodromal phase where the basic autoaffective disorder is sub-clinical, and which may never develop into psychosis or even be discernible as more than quirky or irritating to friends, family, or the person themselves. Depending on the vagaries of genetics and biography the manifest personality type can look vaguely ADHD-avoidant or PTSD-anxious, but the cardinal sign is a proneness to absorption and emotional lability -- what's most vaguely called 'being sensitive'. Due to the fragility of your own endogenous rhythms, exogenous stimuli are particularly invasive; other people are experienced as having a disproportionate influence over one's being, and either avoided because this is felt as threatening or clung to because it's felt as affirming.
As kids these people are typically physically and socially awkward, and prone to have vivid imaginations (often more keyed in to phantasy than reality); as they progress to adulthood they usually acquire sophisticated coping systems which allow them to pass as mostly normal. The smarter you are, the better your chances of passing. Traumatic events are the single most powerful predictor of how the condition progresses: the earlier, more frequent, more various and more severe the traumas, the worse the prognosis tends to be. This appears to be because trauma is excitotoxic, and it's pretty easy to disrupt brain rhythms by killing off interneurons and damaging white matter.
I'm one of the lucky ones. Some of my friends have not been as lucky.
The point of convergence might as well be called autoaffectivity: the essential core from which all the other symptoms spring seems to be a temporal disorder of reafferance. Our own action gives off endogenous information which is re-incorporated into our expectations and helps us structure our perception and proprioception concurrently and dynamically, as well as providing the fine structure of our affectivity and motivation; even tiny but ubiquitous disruptions in the timing of these signals can alter our sense of volition and reality (the so-called 'positive symptoms' of schizophrenia), as well as destabilizing the normal formation of intention and its satisfaction (the so-called 'negative symptoms').
The schizophrenic person is constantly surprising themselves, both negatively and positively; the increased prediction error triggers wild swings in dopamine release, leading to abrupt swerves of attention and abnormal meaning-formation; the world as manifest to them becomes increasingly uncoupled from consensus, and they get trapped inside themselves while still moving around in the world. They can't communicate properly because the usual attunement to objective events and other people's microexpressions is off kilter, and because they can barely even think in a straight line even on their own terms.
There is typically a long-simmering prodromal phase where the basic autoaffective disorder is sub-clinical, and which may never develop into psychosis or even be discernible as more than quirky or irritating to friends, family, or the person themselves. Depending on the vagaries of genetics and biography the manifest personality type can look vaguely ADHD-avoidant or PTSD-anxious, but the cardinal sign is a proneness to absorption and emotional lability -- what's most vaguely called 'being sensitive'. Due to the fragility of your own endogenous rhythms, exogenous stimuli are particularly invasive; other people are experienced as having a disproportionate influence over one's being, and either avoided because this is felt as threatening or clung to because it's felt as affirming.
As kids these people are typically physically and socially awkward, and prone to have vivid imaginations (often more keyed in to phantasy than reality); as they progress to adulthood they usually acquire sophisticated coping systems which allow them to pass as mostly normal. The smarter you are, the better your chances of passing. Traumatic events are the single most powerful predictor of how the condition progresses: the earlier, more frequent, more various and more severe the traumas, the worse the prognosis tends to be. This appears to be because trauma is excitotoxic, and it's pretty easy to disrupt brain rhythms by killing off interneurons and damaging white matter.
I'm one of the lucky ones. Some of my friends have not been as lucky.