• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Schizophrenia: The Bearded Lady Disease

ramonmercado

ramonmercado

CyberPunk
Joined
Aug 19, 2003
Messages
58,356
Location
Eblana
Schizophrenia: The Bearded Lady Disease - New Book Offers Evidence That Mental Illness Caused By BisexualConflict And Gender Confusion

Main Category: Schizophrenia News
Article Date: 26 Jul 2006 - 0:00am (PDT)
Article Also Appears In Health / STDsWomen's Health / OBGYN

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medical ... wsid=48028


Schizophrenia remains a mystery for many patients and doctors, but in his new book Schizophrenia: The Bearded Lady Disease (now available through AuthorHouse), J. Michael Mahoney offers evidence for a theory that would not only explain the cause of this particular ailment, but the root cause of all functional mental illness.

Mahoney has spent 40 years investigating this theory about mental dysfunction. In this collection of 639 quotations from psychologists, patients and the biographers of famous schizophrenics throughout history, he outlines the theory that severe, unconscious bi-sexual conflict and gender confusion are the primary causes of all mental illness. He draws from the writings of other doctors who believed that such gender identity crises sparked abnormalities in the brain, and their opinions, in addition to the dozens of other ideas, provide "unshakeable truth" to this hypothesis.

"This is a fixed law of nature, unassailable and constantly operative in every case," Mahoney writes. "No other species but man is afflicted with mental illness because no other species has either the intellectual power to repress their sexualfeelings, nor the motivation to do so."

He writes that the term "schizophrenia" is an arbitrary name given to designate the end-stage of a process beginning with slight neurosis. All neurosis is caused by this sexal confusion and becomes more pronounced depending on the severity of the bisexal conflict and gender disharmony. A fascinating glimpse inside the minds of schizophrenics through the lens of this unique theory, Schizophrenia: The Bearded Lady Disease examines this hypothesis in a complete collection of ideas from experts who have made it their life's work.

Mahoney spent his career as a journalist in Ohio and Georgia. He also worked as a foreign correspondent in Africa. While working in Georgia, he developed an interest in psychology. After his early retirement, he began research for Schizophrenia: The Bearded Lady Disease. Judith Walker, the artist who painted the original work on the book's cover, studied at Sarah Lawrence College and now lives in Paris.

AuthorHouse is the premier publishing house for emerging authors and new voices in literature. For more information, please visit http://www.authorhouse.com.

AuthorHouse
http://www.authorhouse.com
Click to expand...
 
Some people think homosexuality is a mental illness. Now this bloke thinks mental illness is a homosexuality. What's the difference?
 
"AuthorHouse is the premier publishing house for emerging authors and new voices in literature."

Strongly suggests a VanityHouse. :p
 
It sounds a load of old tosh, he's got an idea and he's determined to ascribe everything to it.


"No other species but man is afflicted with mental illness..."
Click to expand...

That's bollocks to start with.......
 
It is a load of old tosh indeed, and it flies in the face of scientific research, of which this man appears to be completely ignorant.

Schizophrenia is a completely separate issue to gender confusion and homosexuality.
I think this fellow is conflating them all together because schizophrenics may also have associated problems, among them gender confusion and sexual confusion.

I have met plenty of transsexuals, gay and bisexual people - all of whom have suffered gender and sexuality confusion during their lives - and the majority I have met are definitely not schizophrenic as well. I have met a few who have schizophrenia too.

Transsexualism and homosexuality, according to various researchers, actually have a physiological cause as a result of foetal brain development - i.e. parts of their brains have developed in a certain way as a result of hormonal influences whilst in the mother's womb.
Schizophrenia, on the other hand, may develop later in life as a result of chemical and electrical imbalances in the working of the brain.
 
The whole thing reminds me of the lesbian-schizophrenic-veterinary character on Emmerdale farm! And that was almost as bad as having a woman (i.e., one who was born female) play the token transexual on Coronation Street! I mean I'm sure there were plenty of genuine transexual actors who would've relished the role :roll:
 
Mythopoeika said:
It is a load of old tosh indeed, and it flies in the face of scientific research, of which this man appears to be completely ignorant.

Schizophrenia is a completely separate issue to gender confusion and homosexuality.
I think this fellow is conflating them all together because schizophrenics may also have associated problems, among them gender confusion and sexual confusion.

I have met plenty of transsexuals, gay and bisexual people - all of whom have suffered gender and sexuality confusion during their lives - and the majority I have met are definitely not schizophrenic as well. I have met a few who have schizophrenia too.

Transsexualism and homosexuality, according to various researchers, actually have a physiological cause as a result of foetal brain development - i.e. parts of their brains have developed in a certain way as a result of hormonal influences whilst in the mother's womb.
Schizophrenia, on the other hand, may develop later in life as a result of chemical and electrical imbalances in the working of the brain.
Click to expand...

Myth has pretty much summed it up here. Although, on certain rare occasions or circumstances, one may lead to the other, but most of the time they are very separate disorders.
 
Uh-huh.

From his homepage:

Upon graduation from college in 1952, the author/compiler worked briefly for the federal government before spending four years in the Air Force. Thereafter, he began work as a journalist, first in Ohio and then Georgia, with a two-year hiatus as a foreign correspondent in Africa. It was while working as a journalist in Georgia that he developed his abiding interest in psychology, having been assigned to do some reporting in that field.

Fortunate circumstances enabled him to take early retirement, and he has devoted his full attention since 1966 to doing research that has led to the publication of Schizophrenia: The Bearded Lady Disease. Mr. Mahoney is also the author of the poem XCIRCUM (www.XCIRCUM.com).

He presently lives in Northern California, and has three children and five grandchildren.
Click to expand...

So he's an independently wealthy hobbyist with no formal psychological or psychiatric training. Excellent.

Statement of Purpose

The reason I have compiled the 639 quotations in this study, all dealing with the subject of mental illness, with special emphasis on the condition termed "schizophrenia," is to prove the hypothesis that (as Dr. Edward J. Kempf so clearly stated in quotation 001 herein), ". . . in man every case of emotional neurosis or psychosis is the result of more or less conflict and confusion involving bisexual differentiation."

To my knowledge only two investigators have ever unequivocally taken this view, the other being Dr. Maurits Katan, who is quoted later in this work.

The scarcity of investigators who have reached this conclusion is most astounding, considering the enormous amount of evidence supporting it. Why has the scientific community been so stubborn in resisting this hypothesis? Why has this hypothesis been catalogued as just one of many inconclusive theories which attempts to explain madness?
Click to expand...

Why indeed? Undoubtedly the same reason *they* are keeping the reality of perpetual motion machines, free energy and the TRUTH about whatever from gaining widespread acceptence. It's always a blessing to the rest of us when the one man who can devote his whole life to pursuing his revelation is, against all odds, finally allowed to publish.

His other website, cited above, www.XCIRCUM.com, makes me think he might just possibly have some penis issues (among other issues) of his own.

XCIRCUM

by J. Michael Mahoney

(with apologies to W.S.)

To cut, or not to cut—that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The scalpels and razors of outrageous surgeons

Or to take arms against a sea of Circumcisers

And by opposing end them. To defy, to protest—

No more—and by a protest to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand unnatural shocks

That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To defy, to protest—

To protest, perchance to prevail; ay, there's no rub,

For in that protest of defiance the prevailing may come

When we no longer shuffle off this mortal prepuce,

Must give them pause. There's the respect

That makes calamity of violating Nature.
Click to expand...
 
According to this site, my hunch about the publisher wasn't wrong:

"AuthorHouse (formerly 1st Books): Not recommended. A vanity publisher.
5/17/06 - If you don't know by now, AuthorHouse lost a libel suit in court. It seems that the courts and jury decided that a publisher couldn't disavow itself of what it published. In other words, AuthorHouse should have vetted what it accepted before publishing. Now they owe several hundred thousand dollars and may have to pay even more in punitive damages."

More about that libel case here

And this page, which is broadly-speaking in favour of subsidy ie vanity publishing, considers them as the worst option for authors.
 
Another great book from a hobby psychologist...
:roll:

:?, delusional man... and a crap poet as well.
 
I've seen the book advertised in the New Statesman, expensive colour ads ( we NS readers dont fall for that sort of stuff though). Hes spending a lot on the book , wonder how its selling?
 
He's not saying that bi or homosexuality causes mental disease, as evidenced when he suggests that non-human animals don't have similar problems(even though they clearly demonstrate homosexuality). He's saying that repressing it, and being conflicted and anxious about it is causing the problem.
I realize that homosexuals are frequently persecuted, and rightfully quick to defend themself, but i think those jumping all over this guy might be a little quick to judge him.
 
Somewhat reminds me of Colin Wilson's complete lack of understanding of any sexuality other than male straight, and his application of bizarre psychological theories based on this. I've just been reading his otherwise excellent book the Devil's Party, about false messiahs throughout history, then kept having to pinch myself when i reached a chapter about how gay men were "women trapped in a man's body". And constant repetition of the words "perversion" and "deviancy".
 
about how gay men were "women trapped in a man's body".
Click to expand...

Hmmm. I liked that book as well, but Colin does have a few things to learn. I didnt find that phrase particularly opffensive though. The US Horror writer Poppy Z Brite describes herself as a Gay Man trapped in a Womans body; well in that case I reckon I'm a Lesbian trapped in a mans body.
 
Sighs. This theory is soooooooo bad that I don't know where to begin - there seems to be a splash of Freud and some psychobabble. Schizophrenia is a spectrum disorder - there is no one cause. There is a wide range of symptoms; indeed, you two patients diagnosed as schizophrenic may not have the same symptoms. Gah.
 
My own experience is that when people hold ideas which they self-declare to be "unshakeably true" they'll hold quite different ones a year from now - if not by this time next Tuesday.
 
have been sent the book to review.

it's a big book and I do have others to do so it may be a while before you'll see a review published.
 
This is total hogwash. Mental illness (whether schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, OCD, whatever) is not caused by "gender issues".

And animals other than humans can most certainly display mental illnesses. Dogs and cats--and probably other mammals--can display signs of OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). Some of them have even been treated with Prozac, under a veterinarian's supervision!

Somehow I don't think most dogs and cats spend much of their time fretting over their sexual preferences. I have a much-loved cat, and I can assure you that it is totally uncatlike to get hung up about sexuality!! :p
 
synchronicity said:
Mental illness (whether schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, OCD, whatever)....
Click to expand...

I've never felt entirely comfortable describing OCD and the other garden variety neuroses as "mental illnesses," at least not in the sense that that phrase is used by the community at large. (Let me re-phrase that a little bit - it is the people around us who decide whether we are "mentally ill" or not.)

I know a veteran police homicide detective with OCD and also a nationally-reknowned neuro-surgeon. Yet absolutely nobody regards the brain surgeon or the cop as being "mentally ill." (And I've not yet mentioned the world-famous photo-journalist, the bus driver, the upper-echelon banker, three high school teachers and two psych ward RNs.)

In fact that is the watershed between neuroses and psychoses - the neurotic feels "crazy" FROM THE INSIDE ONLY, while the community at large regards her as the very bellwhether of normalcy. On the other hand the psychotic regards himself as being "entirely normal" (after all, what can possibly be more normal than being God Almighty?), while EVERYBODY ELSE regards him as irredeemably bananas.

That's why until comparatively recent years it was so damned difficult for many neurotics to get competent mental care - even psychiatrists and clinical psychologists saw nothing which needed to be treated. The neurotics sailed right under the "radar" of the standardized tests, which were intended to flag down psychotics.
 
It's a shame that given schizophrenia's status as arguably the most written about mental health 'issue' that it's the one that's least understood and the least tangible in that as a spectrum disorder it can be fairly nebulous too.

What makes all this worse is that writing like this only exacerbates the situation.

That said, it would be great if being a bearded lady was a true marker for schizophrenia and that Imac was prescribed rather than Largactil, Halperidol or Olanzapine! :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top