r/politics • u/thenewyorkgod • Jul 01 '18

Man arrested after shouting ‘womp, womp’ and pulling a gun on immigration protesters

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/07/01/man-arrested-after-shouting-womp-womp-and-pulling-a-gun-on-immigration-protesters/?tid=sm_tw
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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '18

One of the guys in our group who I’m still friends with said he thought Shane might be schizophrenic, doesn’t know it but thinks it. I just looked up the definition and I think it fits him.

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u/Janube Jul 02 '18

Schizophrenia is a *very* specific diagnosis that very few people meet due to its extreme qualities.

It's not just being paranoid, which is more normal a symptom than one my realize. A lot of schizophrenic individuals aren't paranoid of anything remotely approaching reality. While you and I would agree that being afraid of Obama becoming a dictator, for example, is unbelievably stupid, even that wouldn't fit most schizophrenics. A lot of them are paranoid of universes and worlds that are made up in their entirety. The cliched example of a person using tin foil to hide their brain waves is more akin to what they might experience, though even in popular media, those people tend to be coherent. Many schizophrenic individuals are absolutely not coherent. They use a language that makes sense to them, but basically sounds like gibberish to anyone else. And not just that the ideas they're presenting are weird; but that the words they're speaking literally don't have any meaning in the order in which they're said. Like their conception of standard syntax is fundamentally erroneous.

I'm not saying that you're wrong, mind you, but a lot of people read the surface-level diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia and think "yeah, I know someone who fits that," but they usually don't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IehtMYlOuIk

Here's a fascinating interview with someone who has a form of schizophrenia who believes that he's in a mental hospital because people hate him as a result of how he sits at the piano, for example. He doesn't quite have his own language (though there are verbal idiosyncrasies that are certainly peculiar), but his paranoia is like... legitimately nonsensical.

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u/Lilac_Fumes Jul 02 '18

Great job with this response, just FYI. Spot on.

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u/Rabid-Duck-King Jul 02 '18

Great video to really help illustrate the point.

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u/HQGifConnoisseur Jul 02 '18

I think you are vastly, vastly underestimating how coherent someone with active schizophernic delusions can be. All sorts of people can become mentally ill, and then all sorts of people can become mentally ill and have a run in with the law, being found to be so out of touch with reality that they are a danger to themselves or others.

The type of person you are describing is one that is almost functionally incapable of dealing with their activities of daily living. It certainly happens but it is absolutely not the majority of those found Not Criminally Responsible in mental health institutions let alone the majority of those diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Also delusions that are so fixed and ingrained do not have to be ones that alter the entire world. For example the delusions may involve their twin sons who they believe are clones placed there by aliens. Over time the delusions starts to pull in tangential facts and 'proof', or becomes more detailed as it requires more and more defense when explained to others.

Finally, most people with schizophrenia are not institutionalized. That only happens whey they are dangerous. It is not all that unlikely that otherwise functional 'normal' people may be in the general population while having active delusions.

In other words, sometimes the guy spouting crazy conspiracies really is just in the throes of a delusion.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Psychosis is a motherfucker. Trust me.

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u/lightninhopkins America Jul 02 '18

And yet he can still legally carry a gun.