The End of Laughter

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>This story is an eye witness account of schizophrenia. No one knows exactly what it is or what causes it. It tends to run in families. It is there at birth but usually doesn't show up until the late teens or early twenties. One woman noticed the bizarre behaviour when her son was seven years old and was blamed for it until he was out of school. In some cases symptoms don't show until the late thirties or later. Sometimes it doesn't show up at all.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>A mental illness is a disease of the brain. The word schizophrenia is the Greek word for split brain or broken brain. Schizophrenia seems to shake it up and dislodge every part from its connections. Logic goes out the window. Nothing makes sense anymore Nothing is predictable except the unpredictable.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The next thing to vanish is a sense of humor. Jokes are not funny anymore paradoxically because they are illogical. It is the non sequitur the unexpected which makes us laugh. But a schizophrenic doesn't laugh.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>We base our actions our convictions and our predictions on logic. If someone is angry or afraid there must be a reason. It must be somebody's fault. For someone in their late teens or earyl twenties that someone is usually the mother who is blamed: refrigerator mothers. If it is someone over thirty it's the wife. Men are rarely blamed. If his wife is schizophrenic people feel sorry for him. If the man is schizophrenic they feel sorry for him and blame the woman in his life. In fact no one can be blamed anymore than we blame people for diabetes multiple sclerosis or Down syndrome. </span></p>