The case of "Sponge" (Depression, Schizophrenia, Repressed Memories)
Casebook of Biblical Psychiatry © Version 7 (CBP-7)
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Based upon |
Casebook of Biblical Psychiatry© brings the principles of Biblical Psychiatry to life based upon real-world cases and familiarizes Christians with different types of situations. This practical companion volume to Biblical Psychiatry© includes not only diagnosis, but also in-depth discussions by experienced Christians for Biblical approaches to treatment. This meticulously detailed volume of dynamic real-life case studies is simply a "must read" for all clinical Psychiatrists, mental health care professionals and Christians interested in expert opinion on today's treatment approaches. Psychiatric students, educators, and practitioners—as well as social workers, nurses, medical physicians, and interested laypersons—will find this unique volume of inestimable value in their day-to-day work.
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The case of (Depression,
Schizophrenia, |
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The case of "Sponge" |
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Biopsychiatric labels DSM-5 |
Schizophrenia, depression, suicidal |
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Checklist Behaviours DSM-7 |
Selfishness, immaturity, laziness, "psychotic hissy fit", duty shirking, bad parenting, deception, lying, lack of contentment |
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Insights MMPI-7 |
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Quick Pick EDS-7.1 |
Sources of personal trauma: I was Dumped and am stuck with a man I don't love. I experienced Death, my neglect as a mother led to the death of my daughter Complaints: I feel Unhappy |
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Self-disablement EDS-7.2 |
Escaped all of her home duties by vacationing in the asylum where they do the cooking and laundry for her. |
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Chemical imbalance EDS-7.3 |
Yes. Although before the era of prescribed psychiatric drugs (1950's) which create chemical imbalances in the brain, at this point in history Opium was the only drug widely used to create chemical imbalances in the brains of the insane. She ingested Opium a short period. This indicates she doesn't have brain damage and will not develop Tardive Dyskinesia. |
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Benefits EDS-7.4 |
To escape criminal prosecution: EDS-7.4.1 Escape duty or life situation: EDS-7.4.4 Sympathy: EDS-7.4.5 Alibi for impending failure as an adult or failure at school, work or home: EDS-7.4.7 Invalidate God's law: Desire for divorce without adultery: EDS-7.4.9 Smokescreen for secret sin that is soon to be discovered: EDS-7.4.10 Avoid deserved rebuke, criticism, shame: EDS-7.4.11 Self-punishment for personal failures or to ease a guilty conscience: EDS-7.4.12 |
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Monetary EDS-7.5 |
- |
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Annoyance Scale EDS-7.6 |
High |
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Diagnostic Laws EDS-7.7 |
Law of Narcissistic Behaviour Choice (NBC) EDS-7.7.1.NBC Law of Derivative Personal Benefit (DPB) EDS-7.7.2.DPB Law of Domino Problem Transference (DPT) EDS-7.7.4.DPT Law of Symbiotic Treasury Parasitosis (STP) EDS-7.7.6.STP Law of Diagnostic Anosognosia Relativism (DAR) EDS-7.7.7.DAR Law of Habitual Smokescreen Decoy (HSD) EDS-7.7.10.HSD Law of Pediatric Multifarious Obfuscation (PMO) EDS-7.7.12.PMO Law of Anticipatory Warthog Psychosis (AWP) EDS-7.7.13.AWP Law of Total Nefarious Recall (TNR) EDS-7.7.14.TNR |
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Determine the Problem |
She began to sulk when she realized she settled for second best husband. She became psychotic when she killed her daughter through neglect. |
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Ask a Child |
I had a crush on a guy who didn't like me and I felt guilty when our dog got run over by a car because I left the gate open. EDS-7.7.12.PMO |
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5 years later EDS-7.7.LPT |
Repented, restored |
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The case of "Sponge"
Carl Jung, psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, narrates a woman's unhappiness with her husband leads to the death of her daughter.
"I still recollect very well a case which greatly interested me at the time. A young woman had been admitted to the hospital, suffering from "melancholia." The examination was conducted with the usual care: anamnesis [psychiatric case history], tests, physical check-ups, and so on. The diagnosis was schizophrenia, or "dementia praecox," is the phrase of those days. The prognosis: poor. This woman happened to be in my section. At first I did not dare to question the diagnosis. I was still a young man then, a beginner, and would not have had the temerity to suggest another one. And yet the case struck me as strange. I had the feeling that it was not a matter of schizophrenia but of ordinary depression, and resolved to apply my own method. At the time I was much occupied with diagnostic association studies, and so I undertook an association experiment with the patient. In addition, I discussed her dreams with her. In this way I succeeded in uncovering her past, which the anamnesis had not clarified. I obtained information directly from the unconscious, and this information revealed a dark and tragic story. Before the woman married she had known a man, the son of a wealthy industrialist, in whom all the girls of the neighborhood were interested. Since she was very pretty, she thought her chances of catching him were fairly good. But apparently he did not care for her, and so she married another man. Five years later an old friend visited her. They were talking over old times, and he said to her, "When you got married it was quite a shock to someone… your Mr. X" (the wealthy industrialist's son). That was the moment! Her depression dated from this period, and several weeks later led to a catastrophe. She was bathing her children, first her four-year-old girl and then her two-year-old son. She lived in a country where the water supply was not perfectly hygienic; there was pure spring water for drinking, and tainted water from the river for bathing and washing. While she was bathing the little girl, she saw the child sucking at the sponge, but did not stop her. She even gave her little son a glass of the impure water to drink. Naturally, she did this unconsciously, or only half consciously, for her mind was already under the shadow of the incipient depression. A short time later, after the incubation period had passed, the girl came down with typhoid fever and died. The girl had been her favorite. The boy was not infected. At that moment the depression reached its acute stage, and the woman was sent to the institution. From the association test I had seen that she was a murderess, and I had learned many of the details of her secret. It was at once apparent that this was a sufficient reason for her depression. Essentially it was a psychogenic disturbance and not a case of schizophrenia. Now what could be done in the way of therapy? Up to then the woman had been given narcotics to combat her insomnia and had been under guard to prevent attempts at suicide. But otherwise nothing had been done. Physically, she was in good condition. I was confronted with the problem: Should I speak openly with her or not? Should I undertake the major operation? I was faced with a conflict of duties altogether without precedent in my experience. I had a difficult question of conscience to answer, and had to settle the matter with myself alone. If I had asked my colleagues, they would probably have warned me, "For heaven's sake, don't tell the woman any such thing. That will only make her still crazier." To my mind, the effect might well be the reverse. In general it may be said that unequivocal rules scarcely exist in psychology. A question can be answered one way or another, depending on whether or not we take the unconscious factors into account. Of course I knew very well the personal risk I was running: if the patient got worse, I would be in the soup too! Nevertheless, I decided to take a chance on a therapy whose outcome was uncertain. I told her everything I had discovered through the association test. It can easily be imagined how difficult it was for me to do this. To accuse a person point-blank of murder is no small matter. And it was tragic for the patient to have to listen to it and accept it. But the result was that in two weeks it proved possible to discharge her, and she was never again institutionalized. There were other reasons that caused me to say nothing to my colleagues about this case. I was afraid of their discussing it and possibly raising legal questions. Nothing could be proved against the patient, of course, and yet such a discussion might have had disastrous consequences for her. Fate had punished her enough! It seemed to me more meaningful that she should return to life in order to atone in life for her crime. When she was discharged, she departed bearing her heavy burden. She had to bear this burden. The loss of the child had been frightful for her, and her expiation had already begun with the depression and her confinement to the institution. In many cases in psychiatry, the patient who comes to us has a story that is not told, and which as a rule no one knows of. To my mind, therapy only really begins after the investigation of that wholly personal story. It is the patient's secret, the rock against which he is shattered. If I know his secret story, I have a key to the treatment. The doctor's task is to find out how to gain that knowledge. In most cases exploration of the conscious material is insufficient. Sometimes an association test can open the way; so can the interpretation of dreams, or long and patient human contact with the individual. In therapy the problem is always the whole person, never the symptom alone. We must ask questions which challenge the whole personality." (Memories Dreams Reflections, Carl Gastav Jung, 1961 AD, p 115)
Discussion:
Here is a spoiled attractive woman, used to getting what she wants from men, who chose to have a psychotic "hissy fit" when she learned she learned she missed snagging the rich industrialist's son and married her second choice. But her immature and sinful pouting led to the death of her daughter. This is a classic case of a woman caught in an unhappy life situation who fabricates psychotic behaviours to escape, combined with guilt over contributing to the death of her daughter through selfish neglect. The good looking woman was spoiled and pampered and used to getting what she wanted with her blonde tresses. After 5 years of marriage, she realized that she could have had the man of her dreams but was not stuck with second choice. While she begins pouting in her unhappiness, she did not perform her duty as a mother which caused the death of her child. This gave her a second reason to become psychotic. Jung's silly dream therapy and hypnosis counseling method of "discovering the secret" is a cheap replica of pastoral counseling, where people disclose secret things to their church minister. The story narrates as if Jung cured the woman, once he told her the secrets of her own past… things she had already told him under hypnosis. In fact, she cured herself because she was worn out and tired of the charade and was looking for a way to snap out of it and return to normal responsible adult life.
Notice that Jung correctly matches the timing with life trauma:
1. She became depressed (started to sulk) when she learned the object of her eye escaped her annoying clutches.
2. She became suicidal and psychotic when her own selfishness led to the death of her daughter.
What is important to notice here is that the psychiatrists had diagnosed her with schizophrenia with a "poor prognosis". She was committed to an asylum and drugged with opium, which has the same basic stupefying effect as all modern psychiatric drugs. Today she would be told she has a chemical imbalance in her brain, when she fabricated everything as an escape from two unpleasant life situations: Not married to her first choice and the death of her daughter. This case differs little with most of those under "psychiatric care" today. However it is important to remember that she knew her behaviors were not a medical issue but a behaviour choice, yet she chose to endure removal from her home into an asylum (which provided escape from her second choice husband) and drugging, which stupefied her into apathetic indifference the same as if she had just gone to the local bar and got real drunk.
Jung himself complicates the process of determine why she was so sad. Rather than persistently asking why she was sad, he got into dream interpretation and hypnotized her to learn her inner thoughts. Jung used hypnotism as a way to learn the inner thoughts of his patients: "In my courses on hypnosis I used to inquire into the personal history of the patients whom I presented to the students. One case I still remember very well. … In the beginning I employed hypnosis in my private practice." (Memories Dreams Reflections, Carl Gastav Jung, 1961 AD, p 116,118) Now I have no problem with hypnotism except it is a trick to make people tell you things they might chose to lie about otherwise. On the other hand, people can lie under hypnotism as well. So simply asking why a person is sad, and being persistent about it, is the best approach. Ignore all psychobabble about the "collective or personal unconscious" and repressed memories. If someone cannot remember something it is either not bothering them or it never happened. If it is bothering them, they always know why but most often lie to hide it.
In the end, she pulled herself together and went home to the life she had chosen with her second choice husband. For the first time in her life, she couldn't get by on good looks alone to get what she wanted. The good looking spoiled brat, finally grew up and accepted her life situation but look at all the trouble she caused everyone in her passage into adult life. Additionally, she also destroyed herself because when she returned, she was forever remembered as the "crazy suicidal woman".
Benefits from behaviour: This illustrates the Law of Narcissistic Behaviour Choice (NBC) EDS-7.7.1.NBC
- To escape criminal prosecution: EDS-7.4.1. She may have thought there was some criminal responsibility if she told the truth that she watched her daughter suck the filthy sponge. It is like a mother watching a child walk across of busy road or play with a gun and not intervene.
- Escape duty or life situation: EDS-7.4.4. She wanted to escape the life she had and wanted the life she missed with the rich boy "first choice". Then she wanted to escape her responsibility in the death of her daughter.
- Sympathy: EDS-7.4.5. While everyone was consoling her, she really needed rebuke for being a bad mother and wife.
- Alibi for impending failure as an adult or failure at school, work or home: EDS-7.4.7. She knew that sooner or later her husband would learn the truth he was second choice and that she killed his daughter through neglect.
- Invalidate God's law: Desire for divorce without adultery: EDS-7.4.9. She could not just leave her husband, so she manufactured psychotic behaviours in order to leave her husband and live apart from him in the asylum.
- Smokescreen for secret sin that is soon to be discovered: EDS-7.4.10. She caused the death of her daughter.
- Avoid deserved rebuke, criticism, shame: EDS-7.4.11. When in the asylum, everyone would be positive and encouraging her rather than labeling her as an adulteress and a murderer.
- Self-punishment for personal failures or to ease a guilty conscience: EDS-7.4.12. Part of her ascetic choice of personal denial was motivated out of self-punishment.
Diagnostic laws that are seen illustrated in the case of "Sponge":
- She calculated that being labeled as a schizophrenic was a price worth paying, if she could escape her home life and responsibility for the death of her child. This illustrates the Law of Derivative Personal Benefit (DPB) EDS-7.7.2.DPB
- She had two problems and look at how her solution causes huge problems for her husband when she was "disabled" and unable to be a housewife. She had cost thousands of dollars in medical expenses and hundreds of hours of observation and medical charting. This illustrates the Law of Domino Problem Transference (DPT) EDS-7.7.4.DPT
- She knew she was neither sick or insane, but she desperately needed to be labeled as schizophrenic in order to leave her husband and excuse her for killing her daughter. The doctors and asylum on the other hand, got funding by treating her. This illustrates the Law of Symbiotic Treasury Parasitosis (STP) EDS-7.7.6.STP
- She knew she was not insane and that the drugs are not going to fix her insanity. In spite of this she took the drugs, rejecting the diagnosis of the doctors. She "played" the doctors the way she "played" all men. This illustrates the Law of Diagnostic Anosognosia Relativism (DAR) EDS-7.7.7.DAR
- Consider her alternative to being labeled insane: She tells her husband: "I am in love with someone else, you were my second choice and by the way, I killed your daughter. I am pouting because I am stuck with you and I am suicidal because I killed our daughter." This illustrates the Law of Habitual Smokescreen Decoy (HSD) EDS-7.7.10.HSD
- The psychiatrists had all concluded she was a chronic schizophrenic who needed drugs. Complex theories were discussed to explain her behaviour, when she was basically throwing a temper tantrum for not getting what she wanted. A child would say she really needed a good spanking. This illustrates the Law of Pediatric Multifarious Obfuscation (PMO) EDS-7.7.12.PMO
7. She knew she was responsible for the death of her daughter and manufactured psychotic behaviours in advance of the rebuke, scorn and discipline she expected. This illustrates the Law of Anticipatory Warthog Psychosis (AWP) EDS-7.7.13.AWP
8. Jung, like Freud, believed in Repressed Memories: "I obtained information directly from the unconscious, and this information revealed a dark and tragic story." Jung prides himself at discovering the fact she was throwing a psychotic hissy fit because she missed out on the man of her dreams and the fact she killed her daughter. There is a zero percent chance she would have ever forgotten these two facts. She played Jung like a fiddle. How humiliating it would have been for Jung to comprehend she conned him into thinking he cured her. This illustrates the Law of Total Nefarious Recall (TNR) EDS-7.7.14.TNR
By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.
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