“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(9:19.) You have schizophrenic models, in other words, and the particular model chosen in any case, at any given time—for the models change—gives indications quite clearly of the person’s basic problems and dilemmas. Such cultural models are present in society to begin with, because in one way or another they express in an exaggerated form certain portions of man’s psychological reality that he does not as yet understand. This applies to the “good” schizophrenic models and to the “bad” ones—that is, to the gods as well as to the demons.

There were no schizophrenics in the time of the pagans, for the belief systems did not support that kind of interpretation. This does not mean that certain behavior did not occur that you would now call schizophrenic. It means that generally speaking such behavior fit within the psychological picture of reality. It [did so] because many of the behavior patterns associated, now, with schizophrenia, are “distorted and debased” remnants of behavior patterns that are part and parcel of man’s heritage, and that harken back to activities and abilities that at one time had precise social meaning, and served definite purposes.

(A one-minute pause at 9:29.) Devils and demons have no objective existence. They have always represented, again, portions of mankind’s own psychological reality that to some extent he had not assimilated—but in a schizophrenic kind of expression, projected instead outward from himself. Therefore, it does not seem he must be held accountable for acts that he considers debasing, or cruel. He isolates himself from that responsibility by imagining the existence of other forces—the devils or demons of the nether world.

(9:35.) On an individual basis, the schizophrenic carries through those cultural patterns. The contrasts between, say, the superior self or the idealized self, and the debased self, may vary. They may be brilliantly apparent or somewhat blurred. In many such instances there will also be at least a short spurt of intense but scrambled, perhaps garbled, creative activity, in which the individual tries to recognize these various elements, as mankind himself has attempted many times in the creative, sometimes garbled creation of his own religions (with soft irony).

One of the most rare and extraordinary developments that can occur in schizophrenic behavior is the construction of a seeming superbeing of remarkable power — one who is able to convince other people of his divinity.

[...] The inceptions of almost all religions have been involved one way or another with these schizophrenic episodes.

There is certainly no need to romanticize schizophrenic behavior, for its romantic-like elements have long been coupled in the public mind in an unfortunate manner, seeming to place the madman and the genius in some kind of indefinable relationship. [...]

There are many other deep psychological connections beneath schizophrenic behavior, but since this book is also devoted to other subjects, we will go on to other ways in which conflicting beliefs bring about mental or physical dilemmas.

Norma A and B represent fairly simple examples of schizophrenic behavior, and indeed I have kept the story simple to keep the issues clear. [...]

In the kind of schizophrenic behavior we have just been discussing, hypnosis is frequently used as therapy, often in an attempt not only to introduce the two levels of the personality to each other, but also to uncover the time they originally split off in such a fashion.

People with schizophrenic difficulties often enjoy word games and puzzles, so they may well use these to confuse any therapist. [...]

[...] Instead of forming such segmented selves, another person, as mentioned earlier, might enjoy the use of power, yet be so frightened of it that he or she experiences an epileptic episode instead of a schizophrenic one.

[...] A schizophrenic suffers from a division between thought processes and emotions. [...] Yet the schizophrenic can also keep the use of his or her primary intellectual capacities.

[...] Suddenly people with paranoidal characteristics, as well as schizophrenics,² emerged from the wallpaper of this slickly styled civilization. [...]

[...] Often the person labeled schizophrenic is so frightened of his or her own energy, impulses, and feelings that these are fragmented, objectified, and seen to come from outside rather than from within.

[...] The paranoid and the schizophrenic are trying to find meaning in a world they have been taught is meaningless, and their tendencies appear in lesser form throughout society.

[...] The same can occur in adolescence, and easily be misinterpreted as a schizophrenic episode.

Secondary personalities and schizophrenic episodes are also somewhat characteristic — again appearing as sudden explosive behavior when conflicting beliefs are damned up and held back. [...]

(“The nurses told me that woman has a history of mental trouble,” Jane said, “and has been diagnosed as schizophrenic.” [...]

[...] This can propel him or her into a rather severe schizophrenic reaction, in which the scientist now defends most fanatically the same ideas that he rejected most fanatically only a short time before.

Ruburt (Jane) today received a letter from a man who would certainly be labeled a schizophrenic. [...]

An analyst might consider Augustus as schizophrenic and label him neatly, but such terms are basically meaningless. [...]

[...] In cases usually called schizophrenic, the beta acceleration is not supported by the stabilizing attributes of the other known frequencies.

In your York Beach experience had you not been able through your peculiar creative abilities to form those images outside of yourselves, and so endow them with a physical reality, you might very well have instead turned yourself into schizophrenic personalities. [...]

[...] As fragments of a personality break off in the manner that I explained for schizophrenics, so in some cases part of an entity reincarnates before it should, does not carry its full mental gene blueprint, and therefore causes trouble and confusion. [...]

[...] The male in particular has been taught to separate love and sex, so that a schizophrenic condition results that tears apart his psyche — in operational terms — as he lives his life.

[...] Certain mental problems would be called schizophrenic —period—with little attempt being made to understand that a certain unique individual had drastic problems differentiating between realities.

[...] When Jane called him the lawyer told Jane that his client was a 27-year-old schizophrenic who’d confessed to killing a certain woman he’d met in a Seth class both attended some years ago. [...]

The person labeled schizophrenic, momentarily or for varying periods of time, lacks a certain kind of psychological veneer. [...]

There are countless instances where “schizophrenic episodes” occur in otherwise normal personalities, where for learning purposes and periods of growth the personality sorts its parts out, and helps them enlarge their frameworks.

[...] In a way, under certain conditions, some schizophrenic situations can give you righter glimpses of inner psychological mobility, a mobility that was focused and directed as you grew through childhood. [...]

[...] You have almost what you could call a schizophrenic relationship, existing, say, between Parker Books and Prentice’s trade-book division. [...]

[...] I wondered if he was schizophrenic. [...]

[...] You have a schizophrenic condition then. [...]

[...] On Saturday evening he leafed through some of the Seth material briefly, then pronounced it the work of a clever schizophrenic. [...]