Schizophrenics, Delusional People & the Internet

[August1991]

Years ago, before the Internet, when I was young and naive, I had a job opening mail for a large corporation known to the public. Frequently, we used to receive letters or post cards in a strange scrawl that would wind around the page, with script in jagged edges. To the extent the letters were coherent, they would describe such things as microphones implanted in dentures. (Anyone who has had a job such as mine knows what I am talking about.)

I suspect that such people no longer write letters to corporate or government PO boxes. They now post on the Internet.

FOR years they lived in solitary terror of the light beams that caused searing headaches, the technology that took control of their minds and bodies. They feared the stalkers, people whose voices shouted from the walls or screamed in their heads, “We found you” and “We want you dead.”

When people who believe such things reported them to the police, doctors or family, they said they were often told they were crazy. Sometimes they were medicated or locked in hospital wards, or fired from jobs and isolated from the outside world.

But when they found one another on the Internet, everything changed. So many others were having the same experiences.

....

“These people lead quietly desperate lives,” said Dr. Jeffrey A. Lieberman, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University. “And if they are reinforcing each other and pulling people toward something, if they are using the Internet and getting reinforcement, that’s good.”

NYT

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In the past, an editor of readers' letters would have chuckled over these letters and then thrown them in the garbage. Now, we all wade through these occasionally strange posts until Greg invariably bans the poster.

It appears now that these delusional people have found web sites where they can congregate. I don't know if it's a good thing.

Edited June 14, 2009 by August1991

[Oleg Bach]

A crazy person who knows he or she is crazy is not crazy - those that are crazy and unaware they are nuts are crazy.

[Oleg Bach]

A crazy person who knows he or she is crazy is not crazy - those that are crazy and unaware they are nuts are crazy.

Looking for Napoleon...and Jesus...and the real president of the United States of America - and while I am at it....the reincarnate of Hitler -----oh and Moses.........and who ever controls the nuclear weapons world wide ---- I know you are out there...

[AngusThermopyle]

those that are crazy and unaware they are nuts are crazy.

All though you've paraphrased a bit, thats a very old and cliched saying Oleg.

[sharkman]

I believe the internet has done much to harm such people, as well as those with unhealthy tastes, shall we say. It has also done much to help criminals, sexual predators, nazis and your garden variety aryan nation enthusiasts. I remember hearing that bulimics were starting to find others on the net who felt the same, and were beginning to think that there was nothing wrong with their behavior.

No matter what your deviant behaviors or tastes, the internet welcomes with open arms. It's a shame, because it can be such a helpful tool as well. Is it too powerful a tool to be in the hands of some?

Edited June 15, 2009 by sharkman

[Bonam]

The internet has allowed everyone to communicate with everyone else on any topic they like in almost any format they like. It's an extremely powerful tool that has changed the nature of our civilization. Like any powerful technology, its use can produce both positive and negative effects. While providing a forum where persons of questionable levels of sanity can reinforce each other, or where others can spread hateful ideas, may not be a good thing, the benefits of the freedom of information on the internet far outweigh such problems, in my opinion.