I’m listening to Joseph Campbell speak about mythology, schitzophrenia, and shamanism. Campbell is speaking in the late 1960’s.
The schitzophrenic (multiple personality disorder) suffers a psychological trauma so great, he must retreat into his own psyche and rely upon a language of symbols to help deal with it. He adopts archetypal identities who are stronger and “more real” than his own to fight the damage done to his own core personality. And the suggestion here is the psychologist should not try to eliminate the psychosis, but assist the patient through the process — allowing the iconic personalities to do what they must; acting as heroic figures working against the psychosis. As if schitzophrenia wasn’t so much a disorder but the way the brain deals with a disorder, or a psychic wound: by adopting these personalities to help the core personality recover.
The shaman, on the other hand, also deals with iconic identities: the gods. He summons and communes with them, speaking with them for guidance, counselling, and omens of the future. Putting his mind into a “higher state” where the language of symbols communicates truths that cannot be communicated with our own limited conscious vocabulary.
I’m utterly fascinated and distracted all at once.