The End of Laughter: A Memoir
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.
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.
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.
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.
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