Culture; The Preventive Factor Against Schizophrenia

It is lonely at the top (Ferriss, 2012).

To the degree that someone is out of touch with reality, it is to that degree that they are out of their mind. Conjestina Achieng’s son, Charlton Otieno, has opened up about his mother's struggle with mental illness that adversely affected her well-being. She was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, or paranoid schizophrenia, a chronic mental illness in which a person loses touch with reality. The boxer's son speculated that his mother's illness could have been the result of loneliness and not a concussion because her X-ray tests revealed that she had no brain damage that could have been caused by punches she might have received while boxing (Oduor, 2022).

"Culture is identity made flesh." - Dr. Amos Wilson

In this society, we emphasize individualism, but in reality, there is no such thing as an individual. That is a social fiction that does not exist in reality. Individuals are a synthesis of social experiences; they are a unique combination of us as a result of interacting with others and having undergone social experiences; they are our unique way of expressing our social relations, but who we are and what we are are a result of social relations. It is not something that is unique to us and is not shared on some level with others. The very fact that you speak a language means that you have a shared identity on some level. If you were a complete individual, no one would understand what you were saying. You would not fit in an audit system or society. Imagine you could be a complete individual if you were alone in space, but what would be the point? Even the concept of "individual" can only achieve its point within a social structure and in terms of relating socially with someone else. Otherwise, it is pointless. It is the society that creates the individual. 

So, identity is a cultural product. It is the incarnation of ecological and cultural practice. Identity is culture-made flesh. It is an instrument for expressing social power. What makes us individuals is our unique way of integrating, expressing, and relating to the community, through shared social knowledge, techniques, resources, and values. The material we individualize is an essence, social material made available by a social system; a set of social relations. In other words, we are individuals in our ways of dealing with and relating to social things, not individuals in and of themselves, lest we speak our language. Do you want to see the ultimate individual? Take a look at the schizophrenic in full flight. He speaks his language, lives his entire existence disembodied, and has no idea where his body ends, and his mind begins. He is everything and everyone; an echo chamber that echoes everyone he meets. He can't distinguish himself from anything else; he's locked in his world, locked away from reality, and therefore he has to now be taken care of by others because he becomes a danger to himself and sometimes others. 

The social system is not out there. It is within each of us. The individual is a social creation, which is why individuals in different societies differ from individuals in other societies since they individually represent their social groups. When someone is not socially defined, he becomes antisocial. The disintegration of a social system often leads to individual disintegration; people begin to lose their minds, sense of self, direction, purpose, and meaning when society unravels. People commit suicide during economic depression and other times, such as when jobs are lost. When the social system fails, all those self-made and self-determining people all over the world come crashing down. It is that social structure that builds the infrastructure of the individual, and now you're going to have some jokers try and make you think that you can be a person totally unto yourself and that the essence of freedom represents atomized individuals with no relationship to community and no communal obligations and so forth.

Ultimately, an identity and a personality are cultural instruments, and it is through this identity and personality that the culture expresses itself, is perpetuated, has an impact on the world, expresses itself as power, and defends itself as power, hence defending its members. When people are detached from culture, they stand alone, undefended, and vulnerable, and opponents can now destroy them (Wilson, 2018). 

References

1. Wilson, A. (2018). Dr. Amos Wilson Culture & Problem Solving. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMb4zEaouHI&t=2123s

2. Oduor, M. (2022, June 13). Conjestina Achieng’s son painfully recalls how he watched helplessly as his mom’s health deteriorated : K24 TV. Www.k24tv.co.ke. https://www.k24tv.co.ke/lifestyle/conjestina-achiengs-son-66357/

3. Ferriss, T. (2012). The 4-hour workweek : escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich. Harmony Books.