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Operatori e Cose: Confessioni di una schizofrenica
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This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
233 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1958
About the author
Barbara O'Brien
1 bookBarbara O'Brien is a pseudonym for a woman who experienced a six-month psychotic break during the 1950s and wrote about it in Operators and Things.
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June 11, 2023
Earlier this week I was reading about the cannibal murderer from a couple of years ago. The inquest was in the news. It was a terrible crime that happened near my home village in Wales. He was a paranoid schizophrenic who had been medicated in prison for a year and a half. He'd come out without any medication or support and told his mother he was hearing voices. No one did anything. He stabbed this poor girl and gnawed on her face.
Before reading this book I would have thought that it was just an excuse. If he could function day to day in prison with his schizophrenia he must have known what was going on, even if he gave into impulses, when he killed the poor girl. I don't look at it that way any longer.
The author had a whole world constructed of invisible to everyone else (possible) humans who were Operators and in charge of other humans who were just called Things. She gave up her high-level job and for six months traversed the country on buses and planes. She lived being controlled by, running from, enjoying being with (all of the many Operators had different personalities) being bought and sold by and played with in a game. Once in a while the Operator left in charge of her would give her the night off and she'd go and see a movie and more peaceful without so many voices running her life.
The first third of the book is about office politics. Those who operate by gossip and manipulation, in her madness they are the precusors to the vastly more physical Hook Operators, and perhaps those who scalloped out the lattices of her brain, her confidence in herself.
The main part of the story is her deeply-involved in the world of Operators and Things, deep in her madness. And the last part is when an Operator rescues her and she is no longer mad (she writes) and begins to get help from therapists. At this stage she discovers she has a Something that has kept her safe through her madness, a part of her mind that often works in subconscious ways. It has enabled her to live in the world, to rent apartments, travel, buy food and pay bills. But not work. She isn't in this world enough for that. When she discovers this she realises she is well enough to work and gets a job.
To the reader, she really is still in the grip of another reality, even though it is almost a thin, gauzy curtain draped over the real world. By the end, writing this book, having analysed herself, she is more normal and we begin to understand something so far beyond normality (the frame of reference almost all of us agree on).
So it seems to me the cannibal is truly not responsible for his actions because his Operators directed him in his madness even unto murder, but whilst in prison either medication or his Something gave him enough semblance of normality. And when he came out he had neither and he killed and ate the face of the poor victim because he had no choice but to do as he was told.
I've never understood what it is like to suffer from schizophrenia. I have to amend that, I've never understood what it is to be a schizophrenic. It really is a split. It's as if the world has cleaved into two. One is the outer life, ours, and the other theirs, just as complex and real but beyond imagining. It's far more than hallucinatory disordered-thinking.
The book reads like science fiction except for one big difference, although there are plenty of characters, there is no plot. It's not dry, it's full of emotion. Anyone in the grip of schizophrenia truly cannot be responsible for their actions because the 'normal' they are not in charge of what they do. Ten stars because it changed my way of thinking.
Before reading this book I would have thought that it was just an excuse. If he could function day to day in prison with his schizophrenia he must have known what was going on, even if he gave into impulses, when he killed the poor girl. I don't look at it that way any longer.
The author had a whole world constructed of invisible to everyone else (possible) humans who were Operators and in charge of other humans who were just called Things. She gave up her high-level job and for six months traversed the country on buses and planes. She lived being controlled by, running from, enjoying being with (all of the many Operators had different personalities) being bought and sold by and played with in a game. Once in a while the Operator left in charge of her would give her the night off and she'd go and see a movie and more peaceful without so many voices running her life.
The first third of the book is about office politics. Those who operate by gossip and manipulation, in her madness they are the precusors to the vastly more physical Hook Operators, and perhaps those who scalloped out the lattices of her brain, her confidence in herself.
The main part of the story is her deeply-involved in the world of Operators and Things, deep in her madness. And the last part is when an Operator rescues her and she is no longer mad (she writes) and begins to get help from therapists. At this stage she discovers she has a Something that has kept her safe through her madness, a part of her mind that often works in subconscious ways. It has enabled her to live in the world, to rent apartments, travel, buy food and pay bills. But not work. She isn't in this world enough for that. When she discovers this she realises she is well enough to work and gets a job.
To the reader, she really is still in the grip of another reality, even though it is almost a thin, gauzy curtain draped over the real world. By the end, writing this book, having analysed herself, she is more normal and we begin to understand something so far beyond normality (the frame of reference almost all of us agree on).
So it seems to me the cannibal is truly not responsible for his actions because his Operators directed him in his madness even unto murder, but whilst in prison either medication or his Something gave him enough semblance of normality. And when he came out he had neither and he killed and ate the face of the poor victim because he had no choice but to do as he was told.
I've never understood what it is like to suffer from schizophrenia. I have to amend that, I've never understood what it is to be a schizophrenic. It really is a split. It's as if the world has cleaved into two. One is the outer life, ours, and the other theirs, just as complex and real but beyond imagining. It's far more than hallucinatory disordered-thinking.
The book reads like science fiction except for one big difference, although there are plenty of characters, there is no plot. It's not dry, it's full of emotion. Anyone in the grip of schizophrenia truly cannot be responsible for their actions because the 'normal' they are not in charge of what they do. Ten stars because it changed my way of thinking.
January 3, 2022
Corporate Nightmares
I’m sure that psychiatry has moved on since the 1950’s. But corporate life has not. O’Brien’s insights about ‘Operators’, those psychopathic manipulators who make organisational life a misery, are as valid, and as chilling, as ever. As is common with many psychological aberrations, her symptoms might have been dysfunctional. Her schizophrenia, however, was entirely rational. The corporate jungle is an inherently insane place to which she adapted rather creatively.
O’Brien watched as the quality of work-life - and long-standing careers - deteriorated around her. Her understanding of the Machiavellian tactics of some of her colleagues was precise. She knew exactly what they were doing to move up the corporate hierarchy. They worked without leaving finger prints and with complete effectiveness. No one else noticed. Eventually she became afraid that what was being done to others would be done to her. In such a situation madness seems a reasonable solution. Schizophrenia was her “court of last resort.” A place to obtain justice.
She says, after seven years with the firm had built a successful career, “Had I gone, to another firm I would have had a change of scene and an opportunity to escape from the terror that wrapped itself around me every morning that I walked into Knox. But I had a great deal at Knox and I wanted to hold onto it.” She knew, correctly, that the problem wasn’t Knox but corporate sociology. There is no escape. She says she found herself inhabiting a society of Orwell’s 1984.
Indeed there is little existential difference between IBM (or any large corporate organisation) and the old Soviet Union. Both are totalitarian structures of strict lines of authority with no accountability to inferiors. Both require strict adherence to the party line and the ability to work the system. Appearance is reality. The dissonance was simply over-powering for O’Brien: “By the time you have twisted the facts to agree with the picture you wish to see, your subconscious mind has helpfully plodded through the past and distorted a lifetime of facts to make them agree with your present self-deception program.”
The ‘error’, to the extent she made one, was to take personal responsibility for the consequences when the “hook” was put into her. This ethical stance was lethal. Although her only alternative would have been to play the games of the Operators, she still felt guilt about her vulnerability and incapacity to prevent what seemed inevitable. In response, she develops a repertory company of internal psychic advisers with whom she could confer about the external Operators. Her advisers give her the truth of the situation: She has become a Thing. “A Thing does what some Operator wants it to do, only it remains under the impression that its thoughts originate in its own mind.”
This of course is a profound revelation but must be kept entirely secret. “Information which no Thing should ever have was being divulged to a Thing; the Thing might give the information to other Things, thereby creating a hazardous situation.” But because of the relationship between Operators and Things, one dare not trust the secret to anyone else: “So far as surface appearance is concerned, Operators are identical with Things. No Thing would be able to distinguish one from the other...” Everyone is a potential enemy. The logic is airtight and based on sound empirical data.
Operators will always outwit Things. They are capable of looking into the minds of Things. But Things prefer to believe they are independent. This is willing self-delusion and gives Operators free rein. Things are therefore helpless. This realisation is the moment of public breakdown, when the men in white coats arrive and a quite different phase of the condition is initiated.
Now everything is filtered through the internal advisers, who are, of course, themselves Operators, but Operators of which the Thing is at least aware, so to some extent trustworthy. They are in charge internally of their Thong. They answer all questions posed from external sources. They direct the next move. They explain the context of every situation. They are, after all, the only ones competent to deal with reality. Who could argue? Certainly not the hapless Thing who formerly was Barbara O’Brien.
There are various types of internal Operators, each with a specialised function and a scope or range over which they can exercise influence. They act together like a city council. Arguments among them are facilitated by an Adjudicator, who also can sentence Operators to various punishments for exceeding the limits of Operator-authority - like for example instructing a Thing to kill another Thing. This sort of event does happen, unfortunately, but the Operator is told in strictest terms to knock it off. The fates of the Things involved are of no real concern to the Operators.
Things are motivated by money which is an absolute, objective standard. Operators are motivated by points, which are entirely subjective and relative to position among other Operators. Things earn; Operators score. Things are attracted to corporate life because of long-term prospects. Operators seek out and find the immediate opportunity. The corporate hierarchy is where this dynamic duo comes into its own. The Operator/Thing split could well be a successful psychological adaptation to corporate life. It’s a win/win situation as long as Operators and Things are pulling in the same direction. Unfortunately the occasional Thing has second thoughts - probably because of childhood ethical education taken too seriously - and starts balking at instruction of the Operators. This is not a successful career tactic.
The Operators proliferate as needed to cope with new situations. Lumberjacks, and Mormons, and Indians are on hand to deal with tricky situations outside the corporate realm. Actually, however, nothing is outside that realm. The entire society is corporate and its nefarious Operators are everywhere. The entire corporate culture depends upon them. Having one’s own private army of Operators is therefore essential for survival.
One day the Operators may decide that their work is done. If so, they leave. No one knows why, but suddenly they’re gone. Perhaps the Thing has been reconciled to corporate reality. Alternatively, the Thing has twigged to this reality and maintains a psychic distance from it. This departure of the Operators may be a relief but only until one realises they may be back at any time with similar unannounced suddenness. Meanwhile one still has to make a living, which means re-entering the toxic environment of corporate life.
The clinical definition and prevalence of schizophrenia has changed considerably since the 1950’s and O’Brien’s experience may be an extreme one. Nevertheless, the correlation between corporate society and the condition seems real. Something certainly to think about when advising one’s children and grandchildren. Or does that smack too much of being an Operator?
Perhaps, in any case, schizophrenia is just a part of maturation - a sort of just desserts for whatever we’ve become. It seems to strike most viciously in young adulthood, just at the point when it becomes clear that the world doesn’t share the same ethical standards. As O’Brien says, “There is a terrible kind of ironic justice in schizophrenia. Whatever it is you are, you are, possibly for the first time in your life, at the absolute mercy of.”
I’m sure that psychiatry has moved on since the 1950’s. But corporate life has not. O’Brien’s insights about ‘Operators’, those psychopathic manipulators who make organisational life a misery, are as valid, and as chilling, as ever. As is common with many psychological aberrations, her symptoms might have been dysfunctional. Her schizophrenia, however, was entirely rational. The corporate jungle is an inherently insane place to which she adapted rather creatively.
O’Brien watched as the quality of work-life - and long-standing careers - deteriorated around her. Her understanding of the Machiavellian tactics of some of her colleagues was precise. She knew exactly what they were doing to move up the corporate hierarchy. They worked without leaving finger prints and with complete effectiveness. No one else noticed. Eventually she became afraid that what was being done to others would be done to her. In such a situation madness seems a reasonable solution. Schizophrenia was her “court of last resort.” A place to obtain justice.
She says, after seven years with the firm had built a successful career, “Had I gone, to another firm I would have had a change of scene and an opportunity to escape from the terror that wrapped itself around me every morning that I walked into Knox. But I had a great deal at Knox and I wanted to hold onto it.” She knew, correctly, that the problem wasn’t Knox but corporate sociology. There is no escape. She says she found herself inhabiting a society of Orwell’s 1984.
Indeed there is little existential difference between IBM (or any large corporate organisation) and the old Soviet Union. Both are totalitarian structures of strict lines of authority with no accountability to inferiors. Both require strict adherence to the party line and the ability to work the system. Appearance is reality. The dissonance was simply over-powering for O’Brien: “By the time you have twisted the facts to agree with the picture you wish to see, your subconscious mind has helpfully plodded through the past and distorted a lifetime of facts to make them agree with your present self-deception program.”
The ‘error’, to the extent she made one, was to take personal responsibility for the consequences when the “hook” was put into her. This ethical stance was lethal. Although her only alternative would have been to play the games of the Operators, she still felt guilt about her vulnerability and incapacity to prevent what seemed inevitable. In response, she develops a repertory company of internal psychic advisers with whom she could confer about the external Operators. Her advisers give her the truth of the situation: She has become a Thing. “A Thing does what some Operator wants it to do, only it remains under the impression that its thoughts originate in its own mind.”
This of course is a profound revelation but must be kept entirely secret. “Information which no Thing should ever have was being divulged to a Thing; the Thing might give the information to other Things, thereby creating a hazardous situation.” But because of the relationship between Operators and Things, one dare not trust the secret to anyone else: “So far as surface appearance is concerned, Operators are identical with Things. No Thing would be able to distinguish one from the other...” Everyone is a potential enemy. The logic is airtight and based on sound empirical data.
Operators will always outwit Things. They are capable of looking into the minds of Things. But Things prefer to believe they are independent. This is willing self-delusion and gives Operators free rein. Things are therefore helpless. This realisation is the moment of public breakdown, when the men in white coats arrive and a quite different phase of the condition is initiated.
Now everything is filtered through the internal advisers, who are, of course, themselves Operators, but Operators of which the Thing is at least aware, so to some extent trustworthy. They are in charge internally of their Thong. They answer all questions posed from external sources. They direct the next move. They explain the context of every situation. They are, after all, the only ones competent to deal with reality. Who could argue? Certainly not the hapless Thing who formerly was Barbara O’Brien.
There are various types of internal Operators, each with a specialised function and a scope or range over which they can exercise influence. They act together like a city council. Arguments among them are facilitated by an Adjudicator, who also can sentence Operators to various punishments for exceeding the limits of Operator-authority - like for example instructing a Thing to kill another Thing. This sort of event does happen, unfortunately, but the Operator is told in strictest terms to knock it off. The fates of the Things involved are of no real concern to the Operators.
Things are motivated by money which is an absolute, objective standard. Operators are motivated by points, which are entirely subjective and relative to position among other Operators. Things earn; Operators score. Things are attracted to corporate life because of long-term prospects. Operators seek out and find the immediate opportunity. The corporate hierarchy is where this dynamic duo comes into its own. The Operator/Thing split could well be a successful psychological adaptation to corporate life. It’s a win/win situation as long as Operators and Things are pulling in the same direction. Unfortunately the occasional Thing has second thoughts - probably because of childhood ethical education taken too seriously - and starts balking at instruction of the Operators. This is not a successful career tactic.
The Operators proliferate as needed to cope with new situations. Lumberjacks, and Mormons, and Indians are on hand to deal with tricky situations outside the corporate realm. Actually, however, nothing is outside that realm. The entire society is corporate and its nefarious Operators are everywhere. The entire corporate culture depends upon them. Having one’s own private army of Operators is therefore essential for survival.
One day the Operators may decide that their work is done. If so, they leave. No one knows why, but suddenly they’re gone. Perhaps the Thing has been reconciled to corporate reality. Alternatively, the Thing has twigged to this reality and maintains a psychic distance from it. This departure of the Operators may be a relief but only until one realises they may be back at any time with similar unannounced suddenness. Meanwhile one still has to make a living, which means re-entering the toxic environment of corporate life.
The clinical definition and prevalence of schizophrenia has changed considerably since the 1950’s and O’Brien’s experience may be an extreme one. Nevertheless, the correlation between corporate society and the condition seems real. Something certainly to think about when advising one’s children and grandchildren. Or does that smack too much of being an Operator?
Perhaps, in any case, schizophrenia is just a part of maturation - a sort of just desserts for whatever we’ve become. It seems to strike most viciously in young adulthood, just at the point when it becomes clear that the world doesn’t share the same ethical standards. As O’Brien says, “There is a terrible kind of ironic justice in schizophrenia. Whatever it is you are, you are, possibly for the first time in your life, at the absolute mercy of.”
July 14, 2021
Thanks to Petra X for pointing me in the direction of this. An in depth recount of the author’s six month psychotic episode that saw her traveling up and down the states on Greyhound buses totally controlled by ‘operators’ telling her what to do and where to go. Fascinating! It is rare we get such a detailed account as psychotics are usually hospitalized and quickly subjected to memory destroying Electro-Convulsive Therapy and heavy anti psychotic tranquilizers. It is with luck that her attempts to get into the psychiatric hospital were unsuccessful due to not having enough money to cover the likely long stay they predicted. Suddenly the episode finished as suddenly as it had begun, and she was able to write down her story. (This is not a spoiler as it is pointed out at the beginning). My favorite parts were the opening descriptions of the competitive backstabbing in her office; the French psychoanalyst who saw the problem as rooted in her need for frequent sexual encounters, but not ones with American men, who were such hopeless lovers; and, of course, her wish regarding schizophrenics:
I go so angry thinking about the schizophrenics in the institutions that I wished someone would put a checkbook and a Greyhound bus ticket in each of their laps and let them go far, far away from the enemy’.
As relevant now as it was when it was first published in 1958.
I go so angry thinking about the schizophrenics in the institutions that I wished someone would put a checkbook and a Greyhound bus ticket in each of their laps and let them go far, far away from the enemy’.
As relevant now as it was when it was first published in 1958.
December 8, 2021
Chi era, chi è, Barbara O’Brien?
È una donna che per sei mesi ha sofferto di schizofrenia paranoide e poi è riuscita ad autoguarirsi.
Non si sa se il nome vero di Barbara O’Brien sia questo. Di lei si sa che la sua mente era intera e poi da un momento all’altro è andata in frantumi. Questa frantumazione della sua psiche è stato come cambio di comando: il suo inconscio ha spodestato dalla “guida” il conscio e l’ha fatta fuggire dalla vita che le apparteneva per farla andare altrove.
Treccani dà questa definizione:
schiżofrenìa s. f. [dal ted. Schizophrenie, comp. di schizo- «schizo-» e -phrenie «-frenia»]. – In psichiatria, psicosi dissociativa caratterizzata da un processo di disgregazione (dissociazione) della personalità psichica; si manifesta con gravi disturbi dell’attività affettiva e del comportamento.
Barbara racconta quei suoi sei mesi di follia, la sua auto guarigione e conclude il racconto, mettendo per iscritto anche i suoi studi sulla schizofrenia. In America le probabilità di ammalarsi di schizofrenia sono via via aumentate con il passare dei decenni. Non solo, ma ancora non si sa quali siano le cause scatenanti della malattia.
E se la probabilità di ammalarsi di schizofrenia sono andate sempre più aumentando, quelle di guarigione e di auto guarigione sono tendenti a zero.
L’inconscio di Barbara l’ha guidata verso l’auto guarigione. Bella la voce guida di sua nonna: l’ha fatta andare giù a pezzi, per liberarla da quella situazione lavorativa che l’aveva messa molto sotto pressione, ma poi le ha dato gli strumenti per guarire. E lei si è fidata.
Ho trovato questo romanzo/saggio potente. Peccato che verso la fine perda un po’ di potenza (è il motivo per cui ho dato 4 stelle e non 5).
Ho sottolineato tantissimo.
Molto bella anche la postfazione dello psichiatra MICHAEL MACCOBY.
“Nel mondo di Barbara le persone creative sono arpionate dall’uncino e quelle che si fidano sono tolte di mezzo. Per la gran parte di noi, questi problemi legati alla creatività e ai rapporti interpersonali rappresentano il discrimine tra una vita ricca di senso e di soddisfazioni e una di silenziosa disperazione. Per Barbara sono una questione di sopravvivenza, e questo è forse uno dei modi possibili per esplicitare il diverso peso che un dato problema può avere per una persona normale e per uno schizofrenico. Come Barbara stessa onestamente riconosce, i suoi problemi non sono risolti: non può affermare di essere completamente guarita. Le allucinazioni sono scomparse e la sua mente conscia le permette di conservarsi un lavoro; ma gli Operatori dell’Uncino sono ancora insopportabili e niente sembra indicare che lei riesca a fidarsi tanto da godere dei rapporti umani.”
Tra 4 e 5 stelle
È una donna che per sei mesi ha sofferto di schizofrenia paranoide e poi è riuscita ad autoguarirsi.
Non si sa se il nome vero di Barbara O’Brien sia questo. Di lei si sa che la sua mente era intera e poi da un momento all’altro è andata in frantumi. Questa frantumazione della sua psiche è stato come cambio di comando: il suo inconscio ha spodestato dalla “guida” il conscio e l’ha fatta fuggire dalla vita che le apparteneva per farla andare altrove.
Treccani dà questa definizione:
schiżofrenìa s. f. [dal ted. Schizophrenie, comp. di schizo- «schizo-» e -phrenie «-frenia»]. – In psichiatria, psicosi dissociativa caratterizzata da un processo di disgregazione (dissociazione) della personalità psichica; si manifesta con gravi disturbi dell’attività affettiva e del comportamento.
Barbara racconta quei suoi sei mesi di follia, la sua auto guarigione e conclude il racconto, mettendo per iscritto anche i suoi studi sulla schizofrenia. In America le probabilità di ammalarsi di schizofrenia sono via via aumentate con il passare dei decenni. Non solo, ma ancora non si sa quali siano le cause scatenanti della malattia.
E se la probabilità di ammalarsi di schizofrenia sono andate sempre più aumentando, quelle di guarigione e di auto guarigione sono tendenti a zero.
L’inconscio di Barbara l’ha guidata verso l’auto guarigione. Bella la voce guida di sua nonna: l’ha fatta andare giù a pezzi, per liberarla da quella situazione lavorativa che l’aveva messa molto sotto pressione, ma poi le ha dato gli strumenti per guarire. E lei si è fidata.
Ho trovato questo romanzo/saggio potente. Peccato che verso la fine perda un po’ di potenza (è il motivo per cui ho dato 4 stelle e non 5).
Ho sottolineato tantissimo.
Molto bella anche la postfazione dello psichiatra MICHAEL MACCOBY.
“Nel mondo di Barbara le persone creative sono arpionate dall’uncino e quelle che si fidano sono tolte di mezzo. Per la gran parte di noi, questi problemi legati alla creatività e ai rapporti interpersonali rappresentano il discrimine tra una vita ricca di senso e di soddisfazioni e una di silenziosa disperazione. Per Barbara sono una questione di sopravvivenza, e questo è forse uno dei modi possibili per esplicitare il diverso peso che un dato problema può avere per una persona normale e per uno schizofrenico. Come Barbara stessa onestamente riconosce, i suoi problemi non sono risolti: non può affermare di essere completamente guarita. Le allucinazioni sono scomparse e la sua mente conscia le permette di conservarsi un lavoro; ma gli Operatori dell’Uncino sono ancora insopportabili e niente sembra indicare che lei riesca a fidarsi tanto da godere dei rapporti umani.”
Tra 4 e 5 stelle
June 12, 2015
The most baffling thing about this book is that it isn't more widely known than it is. I've no real idea why - perhaps because it was written and published in the '50s, rather than the more receptive '60s? Or, more likely, because of its subject, madness? Or that a lot of readers just aren't sure how to take it: as fiction or as fact? If it's fiction, then I guess you could very loosely class it as science fiction, although I've read a lot of that and I don't know of anything else quite like this, not even from Philip K Dick say - or Franz Kafka for that matter. But if it's fact, on the other hand,if all this really did happen as described, then it gives us an unusually clear view below the waterline of the mind, deep into what lies beneath everyday consciousness.
Operators and Things is a first-person account of a six-month period of schizophrenia; rarely, some people do re-emerge from this condition spontaneously and without outside help, and here we not only have an account of this from the inside, but a rational one, told with absolute clarity by someone who not only recovered and understood precisely what had been happening to her, but is a superb author as well (the content is so unusual, it's easy to overlook just how brilliant the writing itself is). It begins like this: waking one morning, O'Brien finds three figures standing at the foot of her bed - the first wave of 'Operators' who will control her life (as a 'Thing') for the next six months. Only she can see them; they are friendly, expert, almost business-like, and tell her that her life is in great danger; a few days later she calls in sick at work, destroys all her ID and boards a Greyhound bus to a random destination. This is how she then spends much of those next six months, criss-crossing the USA and Canada, immersed in the world of Operators and Things. Then, just as abruptly, this phase ends - and what follows during the next three months is, if anything, even stranger as her mind, one unhurried step at a time, heals itself.
The book is in four parts, the first three a description of the above, the fourth a thorough analysis and what's striking about all of it is how rational it is; there's nothing mad about O'Brien's 'insanity', in retrospect it makes perfect sense and backs up what a lot of people have long claimed: that schizophrenia isn't the problem, schizophrenia is a mind attempting to deal with the problem. More, 'the unconscious' itself has typically been seen as the mind's villain or as its garbage dump; O'Brien by contrast, through her own experiences, develops an increasingly healthy respect for this multi-talented, imaginative, shrewd and, yes, logical entity which she describes as 'an awesome instrument.' The unconscious mind as the unsung hero of human history, that's what O'Brien is giving us:
"Things can think only to a very limited degree."
"How limited?"
"I'll tell you," Rink said with finality. "If it weren't for Operators, Things would still be wandering in and out of caves."
What Operators and Things reminds me of in a superficial way is Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception - first the description of an eye-opening (and mind-opening) experience, then an acute examination of it - but O and T goes much deeper. In fact, in every respect this is, simply, one of the best books of any kind I've ever read.
Operators and Things is a first-person account of a six-month period of schizophrenia; rarely, some people do re-emerge from this condition spontaneously and without outside help, and here we not only have an account of this from the inside, but a rational one, told with absolute clarity by someone who not only recovered and understood precisely what had been happening to her, but is a superb author as well (the content is so unusual, it's easy to overlook just how brilliant the writing itself is). It begins like this: waking one morning, O'Brien finds three figures standing at the foot of her bed - the first wave of 'Operators' who will control her life (as a 'Thing') for the next six months. Only she can see them; they are friendly, expert, almost business-like, and tell her that her life is in great danger; a few days later she calls in sick at work, destroys all her ID and boards a Greyhound bus to a random destination. This is how she then spends much of those next six months, criss-crossing the USA and Canada, immersed in the world of Operators and Things. Then, just as abruptly, this phase ends - and what follows during the next three months is, if anything, even stranger as her mind, one unhurried step at a time, heals itself.
The book is in four parts, the first three a description of the above, the fourth a thorough analysis and what's striking about all of it is how rational it is; there's nothing mad about O'Brien's 'insanity', in retrospect it makes perfect sense and backs up what a lot of people have long claimed: that schizophrenia isn't the problem, schizophrenia is a mind attempting to deal with the problem. More, 'the unconscious' itself has typically been seen as the mind's villain or as its garbage dump; O'Brien by contrast, through her own experiences, develops an increasingly healthy respect for this multi-talented, imaginative, shrewd and, yes, logical entity which she describes as 'an awesome instrument.' The unconscious mind as the unsung hero of human history, that's what O'Brien is giving us:
"Things can think only to a very limited degree."
"How limited?"
"I'll tell you," Rink said with finality. "If it weren't for Operators, Things would still be wandering in and out of caves."
What Operators and Things reminds me of in a superficial way is Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception - first the description of an eye-opening (and mind-opening) experience, then an acute examination of it - but O and T goes much deeper. In fact, in every respect this is, simply, one of the best books of any kind I've ever read.
December 3, 2011
I picked up a paperback 40 years ago that has sat on my mind like a restless beast. It's had an effect on me like nothing else I've read, nothing I've since experienced.
How did I come on Operators and Things, and why could I not relate it to anything else in the world? My hazy answer (not recollection) is that I must have picked it up because of the bizarre title and opened it at random. I had no idea what I was reading. I just knew that it scared the living shit out of me.
Over time, I've read I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and several similar tales of mental illness. Let's just say there is nothing else remotely like Operators and Things. You aren't reading about a schizophrenic, you're inside her mind as surely as a in-dwelling homunculus. On top of (or under) that claustrophobic crush is the feeling that you've intruded, that you can't escape, but that if you stay the Operators will find you.
Barbara O'Brien wakes one morning to be confronted by three figures who tell her they are Operators—an order of human being which, through a specific construction of the brain, can control the rest of humanity, the Things who have no such ability. All Things are directed by Operators or would not be able to function. She has been chosen for a unique experiment in which she, a Thing, can see and talk with the otherwise-hidden Operators so they can judge her responses.
From that point, she escapes on a six-month trip, mostly by Greyhound bus, in part attempting to evade the Operators, in greater part to avoid betraying her exceptional condition to anyone she knows.
Along the way she encounters a stunning variety of other Operators who use her as a pawn in their Game, which involves scoring points in a competition to force a Thing's course of action. They toss out often contradictory suggestions and comments that make no collective sense, and yet... the form of their lack of sense somehow makes perfect sense. Through it all, Barbara feels little direct fear, following directions, chatting almost amiably with her controllers.
At the end of her trip, in California, her personal Operator, Hinton, directs her to a psychoanalyst who accepts her statement that she will be cured in two weeks. Days later, the Operators leave. Drained of will, emotion and direction, she is soothed by the internal "dry beach" where nothing happens until "waves" arrive to suggest actions. Then Something takes over, filling her with hunches that invariably pan out.
One morning she awakes essentially whole again, one of the few to recover spontaneously from schizophrenia. In Part Four, O'Brien analyzes her experience and its meaning.
The writing is as clear as the view from a mountaintop, as immediate as an alarm clock, as balanced as a chemist's scale. The book has no waste, no fanciness, no added ego, only a wealth of personality so vital that you want to embrace this woman's magnificent mind.
Though she discusses the state of psychology of the '50s, her insight is decades ahead of the era's pinched outlook on mental illness. O'Brien is timeless, one of those rare authors whose insights will ring true in a hundred years. With the exception of Einstein, she's the most intelligent, incisive person I've ever read.
O'Brien views the Operators as her unconscious crafting a cure for her mental split, for her "insanity." I'd go a bit further and say that she was never insane, that her unconscious's reaction to the peculiar stress from her work and community was eminently sane, that it discovered her one possible escape route.
I'd recommend this book without hesitation to anyone, anywhere. And I'd suggest going straight to Part One, skipping all the introductions, including the author's, which basically paraphrases Part Four. As for the two scholarly intros: I still haven't read them. I don't what to hear their academic interpretations, and I apologize for my own reflections on a work that should be read, unsullied.
If a grand fire were to threaten the last library in the world and I could save only, say, a half dozen volumes, this would be one.
How did I come on Operators and Things, and why could I not relate it to anything else in the world? My hazy answer (not recollection) is that I must have picked it up because of the bizarre title and opened it at random. I had no idea what I was reading. I just knew that it scared the living shit out of me.
Over time, I've read I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and several similar tales of mental illness. Let's just say there is nothing else remotely like Operators and Things. You aren't reading about a schizophrenic, you're inside her mind as surely as a in-dwelling homunculus. On top of (or under) that claustrophobic crush is the feeling that you've intruded, that you can't escape, but that if you stay the Operators will find you.
Barbara O'Brien wakes one morning to be confronted by three figures who tell her they are Operators—an order of human being which, through a specific construction of the brain, can control the rest of humanity, the Things who have no such ability. All Things are directed by Operators or would not be able to function. She has been chosen for a unique experiment in which she, a Thing, can see and talk with the otherwise-hidden Operators so they can judge her responses.
From that point, she escapes on a six-month trip, mostly by Greyhound bus, in part attempting to evade the Operators, in greater part to avoid betraying her exceptional condition to anyone she knows.
Along the way she encounters a stunning variety of other Operators who use her as a pawn in their Game, which involves scoring points in a competition to force a Thing's course of action. They toss out often contradictory suggestions and comments that make no collective sense, and yet... the form of their lack of sense somehow makes perfect sense. Through it all, Barbara feels little direct fear, following directions, chatting almost amiably with her controllers.
At the end of her trip, in California, her personal Operator, Hinton, directs her to a psychoanalyst who accepts her statement that she will be cured in two weeks. Days later, the Operators leave. Drained of will, emotion and direction, she is soothed by the internal "dry beach" where nothing happens until "waves" arrive to suggest actions. Then Something takes over, filling her with hunches that invariably pan out.
One morning she awakes essentially whole again, one of the few to recover spontaneously from schizophrenia. In Part Four, O'Brien analyzes her experience and its meaning.
The writing is as clear as the view from a mountaintop, as immediate as an alarm clock, as balanced as a chemist's scale. The book has no waste, no fanciness, no added ego, only a wealth of personality so vital that you want to embrace this woman's magnificent mind.
Though she discusses the state of psychology of the '50s, her insight is decades ahead of the era's pinched outlook on mental illness. O'Brien is timeless, one of those rare authors whose insights will ring true in a hundred years. With the exception of Einstein, she's the most intelligent, incisive person I've ever read.
O'Brien views the Operators as her unconscious crafting a cure for her mental split, for her "insanity." I'd go a bit further and say that she was never insane, that her unconscious's reaction to the peculiar stress from her work and community was eminently sane, that it discovered her one possible escape route.
I'd recommend this book without hesitation to anyone, anywhere. And I'd suggest going straight to Part One, skipping all the introductions, including the author's, which basically paraphrases Part Four. As for the two scholarly intros: I still haven't read them. I don't what to hear their academic interpretations, and I apologize for my own reflections on a work that should be read, unsullied.
If a grand fire were to threaten the last library in the world and I could save only, say, a half dozen volumes, this would be one.
March 5, 2023
Negli anni Cinquanta una giovane donna americana, intelligente, attiva, perspicace, si trova improvvisamente a interagire con una serie di personaggi che dicono di chiamarsi Operatori e che cominciano a suggerirle con forza tutto quello che lei deve fare.
Ad esempio licenziarsi dall’azienda presso cui lavora, cominciare una lunga e rapida fuga su aerei e autobus che la porteranno dall’altra parte degli States, rispondere coerentemente a medici, psicologi e impiegati di banca senza esserne razionalmente consapevole e, insomma, via via a partecipare di un mondo parallelo in cui Operatori occulti agiscono sulle Cose (gli esseri umani) manipolando i loro pensieri, condizionando i loro desideri, impadronendosi infine della loro vita quotidiana per manovrarla a loro insaputa.
Solo lei può vederli e ascoltare i loro incessanti discorsi. Da impazzire, no? E infatti.
Questa inaudita esperienza diventa una sorta di una proiezione del potere assoluto dell’inconscio: prende la forma di una rappresentazione teatrale che si agita dentro il cervello.
Il teatro però è la realtà ed è sulla realtà che gli Operatori inducono la loro “Cosa” ad agire. Il rischio è di essere presi in ostaggio dall’istituzione psichiatrica che per “curare” la schizofrenia, al tempo degli eventi, non ha altri mezzi che l’elettroshock.
Lucidamente riassume Barbara O’Brien: “la vostra mente è scissa e la sua parte subconscia, non più sottoposta al vostro controllo consapevole, mette in scena uno spettacolo privato solo per voi. […] La sola cosa che vi può aiutare a quel punto è il demone al comando: la vostra stessa mente inconscia.”
Ed è proprio seguendo le direttive della mente inconscia, i cui frammenti si personalizzano diventando Operatori, che Barbara riuscirà a guarire dalla schizofrenia: quando i personaggi finalmente si dissolveranno e la sua mente diventerà una spiaggia vuota dove un remoto sciabordio di onde si tradurrà in linguaggio intuitivo mostrandole via via i modi per uscire dalla gabbia della sua mente.
Negli anni Settanta l’autrice, usando uno pseudonimo, scrive questo resoconto, raccontando non solo la sua esperienza di allucinante scissione schizofrenica ma anche azzardando delle ipotesi sul suo significato : come se il lavoro dell’inconscio fosse quello di riparare i guasti mentali prodotti dalla pressione di un ambiente lavorativo dominato da feroce competizione e bieco arrivismo, nel tentativo di giungere alla salvezza dell’integrità individuale in senso lato.
E poiché le cause della schizofrenia e i processi per giungere alla sua guarigione sono ancora oggi soltanto delle ipotesi, il dettagliato racconto della malattia e lo studio intrapreso dalla O’Brien sul suo stesso caso è un’esperienza di lettura quanto mai insolita e affascinante.
Ad esempio licenziarsi dall’azienda presso cui lavora, cominciare una lunga e rapida fuga su aerei e autobus che la porteranno dall’altra parte degli States, rispondere coerentemente a medici, psicologi e impiegati di banca senza esserne razionalmente consapevole e, insomma, via via a partecipare di un mondo parallelo in cui Operatori occulti agiscono sulle Cose (gli esseri umani) manipolando i loro pensieri, condizionando i loro desideri, impadronendosi infine della loro vita quotidiana per manovrarla a loro insaputa.
Solo lei può vederli e ascoltare i loro incessanti discorsi. Da impazzire, no? E infatti.
Questa inaudita esperienza diventa una sorta di una proiezione del potere assoluto dell’inconscio: prende la forma di una rappresentazione teatrale che si agita dentro il cervello.
Il teatro però è la realtà ed è sulla realtà che gli Operatori inducono la loro “Cosa” ad agire. Il rischio è di essere presi in ostaggio dall’istituzione psichiatrica che per “curare” la schizofrenia, al tempo degli eventi, non ha altri mezzi che l’elettroshock.
Lucidamente riassume Barbara O’Brien: “la vostra mente è scissa e la sua parte subconscia, non più sottoposta al vostro controllo consapevole, mette in scena uno spettacolo privato solo per voi. […] La sola cosa che vi può aiutare a quel punto è il demone al comando: la vostra stessa mente inconscia.”
Ed è proprio seguendo le direttive della mente inconscia, i cui frammenti si personalizzano diventando Operatori, che Barbara riuscirà a guarire dalla schizofrenia: quando i personaggi finalmente si dissolveranno e la sua mente diventerà una spiaggia vuota dove un remoto sciabordio di onde si tradurrà in linguaggio intuitivo mostrandole via via i modi per uscire dalla gabbia della sua mente.
Negli anni Settanta l’autrice, usando uno pseudonimo, scrive questo resoconto, raccontando non solo la sua esperienza di allucinante scissione schizofrenica ma anche azzardando delle ipotesi sul suo significato : come se il lavoro dell’inconscio fosse quello di riparare i guasti mentali prodotti dalla pressione di un ambiente lavorativo dominato da feroce competizione e bieco arrivismo, nel tentativo di giungere alla salvezza dell’integrità individuale in senso lato.
E poiché le cause della schizofrenia e i processi per giungere alla sua guarigione sono ancora oggi soltanto delle ipotesi, il dettagliato racconto della malattia e lo studio intrapreso dalla O’Brien sul suo stesso caso è un’esperienza di lettura quanto mai insolita e affascinante.
January 15, 2012
I've never actually seen or owned a copy of this book - when last I checked, it was £30 for a battered paperback copy on Amazon, and I'm neither that rich or that reckless - but there's at least one PDF copy floating around the Internet that I recommend wholeheartedly. (A reprint, passing publisher-types, would be nice.)
[ETA: Passing publisher-types, thank you very much.]
[ETA: Passing publisher-types, thank you very much.]
January 23, 2022
il libro mi ha lasciato addosso la sensazione che solo se fossi stata schizofrenica avrei potuto cogliere a pieno il suo potenziale
July 30, 2015
Possibly the best book I've ever read about schizophrenia, and I've read a few.
It even has a plausible-sounding explanation for why schizophrenia strikes, and those are rare.
I'm so glad this woman had this experience and so glad she survived and so glad she wrote this. I wish I could find out what happened to her for the rest of her life. She had a rare mind.
It even has a plausible-sounding explanation for why schizophrenia strikes, and those are rare.
I'm so glad this woman had this experience and so glad she survived and so glad she wrote this. I wish I could find out what happened to her for the rest of her life. She had a rare mind.
February 5, 2024
Didascalico, peggio dei bugiardini delle medicine. Datato, sa di poco autentico.
February 21, 2016
True story of a woman's descent into schizophrenia and her journey back to sanity. Great book about the beauty and the weirdness of mind (both conscious and unconscious).
August 2, 2015
In the 1950s an office-worker in a medium-sized business in America was observing the manipulations and deceptions performed by the cold-eyed careerists in her immediate environment. Then one day she woke up under the dominating psychic influence of various "Operators" who were going to take her in hand and reveal the true metaphysics behind social appearances: deadheaded ordinary folks are "Things" available for control by the competing gangs of overlords who have their own laws and ethics. They send her on an odyssey around the country, encountering psychiatrists and analysts and body-doctors at different times, but never getting permanently institutionalised.
This book was quite a phenomenon in its day and has had several revivals of interest. It influenced R.D.Laing apparently, and comparisons have been drawn with Philip K.Dick's contemporaneous early fiction (Burroughs would be another obvious comparison point). The theorising about a hormonal basis for schizophrenia was also mentioned at the start of Aldous Huxley's "Doors Of Perception" (1955), so this was very of-the-moment; the source text for the "Philadelphia Experiment" mythology was also in this zone. Setting aside some of the dated theorising that the author recycled, this is still a fascinating image of a semi-paranoid society, on the edge about the threat of annihilation both by the Bomb and by cultural upheaval. There is a passing reference to "the White race", which will have a different resonance to us later readers; the narrator's anxieties are not all ours. So there is another example of someone looking in to her mind and seeing it differently to her awareness. I have the latest reprint edition, and I notice that it must have been digitally scanned and thus there are a few obvious slips and textual errors.
This book was quite a phenomenon in its day and has had several revivals of interest. It influenced R.D.Laing apparently, and comparisons have been drawn with Philip K.Dick's contemporaneous early fiction (Burroughs would be another obvious comparison point). The theorising about a hormonal basis for schizophrenia was also mentioned at the start of Aldous Huxley's "Doors Of Perception" (1955), so this was very of-the-moment; the source text for the "Philadelphia Experiment" mythology was also in this zone. Setting aside some of the dated theorising that the author recycled, this is still a fascinating image of a semi-paranoid society, on the edge about the threat of annihilation both by the Bomb and by cultural upheaval. There is a passing reference to "the White race", which will have a different resonance to us later readers; the narrator's anxieties are not all ours. So there is another example of someone looking in to her mind and seeing it differently to her awareness. I have the latest reprint edition, and I notice that it must have been digitally scanned and thus there are a few obvious slips and textual errors.
December 22, 2020
Bloody hell, this is by far probably one of the scariest things I've read in a while. And do you know why it's scary? Because it could happen to any one of us at any time, and we would be just as helpless as she was.
Barbara O'Brien (which we learn is a pseudonym to protect her identity), wrote this after experiencing a torturous six months travelling around America, convinced she was being persecuted by people called "Operators", who can control human thought, emotion and action.
It's easy to read it and think, meh, she must be making it up because of the level of detail she puts into it, almost like a fictional story; but I think that the fact she was able to get it all down on paper and produce such a stunning piece of work, despite being psychologically hounded, is testament to what an amazing individual she is. To be able to recall, in some detachment, what happened to you in the worst time of your life, and retell it to others so as to help them and help the health care individuals who treat them, is highly commendable.
An amazing, glorious, yet truly frightening book.
Barbara O'Brien (which we learn is a pseudonym to protect her identity), wrote this after experiencing a torturous six months travelling around America, convinced she was being persecuted by people called "Operators", who can control human thought, emotion and action.
It's easy to read it and think, meh, she must be making it up because of the level of detail she puts into it, almost like a fictional story; but I think that the fact she was able to get it all down on paper and produce such a stunning piece of work, despite being psychologically hounded, is testament to what an amazing individual she is. To be able to recall, in some detachment, what happened to you in the worst time of your life, and retell it to others so as to help them and help the health care individuals who treat them, is highly commendable.
An amazing, glorious, yet truly frightening book.
April 10, 2019
OPERATORS AND THINGS: THE INNER LIFE OF A SCHIZOPHRENIC by Barbara O’Brien (not her real name) is an insider’s view of madness. There have been others who have tried to capture their mental break in words, but most are paranoid, disjointed and, well, crazy. O’Brien is different. She’s a good writer and writes from the unique perspective of having had a psychic episode for six months and then coming out of it on her own, without treatment, and a vivid picture of those nomadic times when she traveled the country. Her only companion was herself, but she has splintered into a series of what she calls operators, who are people with the capacity to control others. Things are the rest of us. Her illness reads like an explanation of reality that is no different than the causes and effects of life we collectively believe, except, of course, no one but her believed it. That makes you wonder if we’re all accepting a definition of the world that has been concocted by some nut. The book isn’t about hammering home the fluidity of meaning and the unreality of reality. O’Brien is sincerely trying to understand her breakdown and spends one half of the book detailing it and then the other half contemplating its makeup and source. It reads like a Philip K. Dick novel, which brings me back to my philosophic parsing and away from O’Brien’s medical one. A lot of lauded psychiatric professions champion this book. It might be because schizophrenia remains as mysterious today as it was when the book was written over half a century ago. O’Brien has created a travelogue into a world few have visited with such lucidity. (less)
January 3, 2013
"Burt explained. I could see why he had been chosen spokesman. What he had to say, he said clearly and in a few words. I had been selected for participation in an experiment. He hoped I would be cooperative; lack of cooperation on my part would make matters difficult for them and for myself. They were Operators, the three of them. There were Operators everywhere in the world although they rarely were seen or heard. My seeing and hearing them was, unfortunately, a necessary part of the experiment.
I thought: I have come upon knowledge which other people do not have and the knowledge is obviously dangerous to have; others would be in equal danger if I revealed it to them.
'Yes,' said Burt, and he looked pleased.
But I hadn't spoken. I considered this for a moment. First things first. 'What is the nature of this experiment?'
Hinton smiled wryly. 'Didn't I tell you,' he said to Burt, 'that it would say that first?'
It?"
I thought: I have come upon knowledge which other people do not have and the knowledge is obviously dangerous to have; others would be in equal danger if I revealed it to them.
'Yes,' said Burt, and he looked pleased.
But I hadn't spoken. I considered this for a moment. First things first. 'What is the nature of this experiment?'
Hinton smiled wryly. 'Didn't I tell you,' he said to Burt, 'that it would say that first?'
It?"
January 27, 2020
I first read this book when I was about 12 years old. If my mother had known I was reading this book, she might not have allowed it.
Some people have questioned the authenticity of this book . I am absolutely convinced that it is legitimate.
An incredibly interesting book. I am absolutely amazed that more people are not aware of this book.
It is also interesting that this book is much less well known than the somewhat similar book I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.
If you are interested in the account of someone who had schizophrenia and recovered, this is definitely the book for you.
Some people have questioned the authenticity of this book . I am absolutely convinced that it is legitimate.
An incredibly interesting book. I am absolutely amazed that more people are not aware of this book.
It is also interesting that this book is much less well known than the somewhat similar book I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.
If you are interested in the account of someone who had schizophrenia and recovered, this is definitely the book for you.
February 8, 2008
Schizophrenia is attosecond communication..
Normal or average Human beings are not set up for this quality of comm.
1 in 17,000 have enhanced minds..
1 in a billion complete two way flow of information.
1 incarnate being has total access/7^72^999 applications
per attosecond..
The one incarnate being would naturally be considered
a SCHIZOPHRENIC!
The aboriginal 1st people knew that the 'crazies'
were children close to the Great Spirit..
The Great Spirit is altogether different from the gods
of the world religions..
Normal or average Human beings are not set up for this quality of comm.
1 in 17,000 have enhanced minds..
1 in a billion complete two way flow of information.
1 incarnate being has total access/7^72^999 applications
per attosecond..
The one incarnate being would naturally be considered
a SCHIZOPHRENIC!
The aboriginal 1st people knew that the 'crazies'
were children close to the Great Spirit..
The Great Spirit is altogether different from the gods
of the world religions..
September 19, 2008
This is adventure - the writer is tipped into it against her (conscious) will. Her courage and humour are evident. It is about alientation in modern society, healing, integration and mental health. I would love to know what happened to her next...
I read this book in 1977 and loaned it out, never to have it returned. Got it again on Amazon and it is just as interesting second time around 30 years later. I noticed different things this time though.
I read this book in 1977 and loaned it out, never to have it returned. Got it again on Amazon and it is just as interesting second time around 30 years later. I noticed different things this time though.
July 13, 2009
Terrifying little memoir of a woman failing to do it for herself, because of the misogyny of the early 1950s and her misunderstood, stigmatized mind and how the two things coalesced and bred a horrible little life for her.
July 20, 2017
In 2015, we know by now that the writer was not truly schizophrenic, as these patients never completely recover as Ms. O'Brien did. However, her experience is a startling example of just how deeply an individual can descend into a world of hallucinations. Today, we understand better how extreme stress and depression can induce paranoia and delusions. This book remains a great document of how mental illness can strike anyone, how unimaginably "crazy" we can become.
January 27, 2022
Despite what you might have heard, not all that gripping as spec-fic. With sufficient suspension of disbelief to accept it as an internal narrative of schizophrenia, however, it's entirely fascinating. The somewhat dated closing commentary is interesting in its own way, though it drags by comparison.
May 19, 2020
“Expand. To activate the mind of the thing so that it can function at top peak.” (200)
Again, I love educating myself with psychology and mental illness/health. This book has been intriguingly rational and thought-provoking, as well as informational. I’m curious to know where “Barbara” is at now— and I wish her the best. Thanks for sharing this inside look with us.
#MentalHealthAwarenessMonth
Again, I love educating myself with psychology and mental illness/health. This book has been intriguingly rational and thought-provoking, as well as informational. I’m curious to know where “Barbara” is at now— and I wish her the best. Thanks for sharing this inside look with us.
#MentalHealthAwarenessMonth
May 1, 2011
Fascinating....a true account of schizophrenia from a personal perspective, written in the fifties by a woman who apparently succumbed to the disease, describes her experience, and apparently became free from it on her own.
August 14, 2011
Definitely an interesting read... especially the section on office politics and "Hook Operators".
January 2, 2013
accidentally read at work in PDF form; thanks, metafilter!
October 4, 2016
This is the book to read if you like to look at the sanity that is behind all insanity.
September 12, 2017
И снова книга из Книжного Клуба. За нее я не голосовала и вряд ли когда-либо села бы за прочтение, если бы не обязанность и моральный долг . Конечно, тема привлекательная, интересная, в ней можно вдоволь покопаться в свое удовольствие, если есть личный интерес и большое желание, но как-то не лежит у меня душа к такого рода произведениям. К "такому роду" эту книгу я отнесла исключительно из аннотации, после прочтения сделав вывод довольно печальный : даже на аннотации нельзя полагаться. Впечатление может сложиться не лучшее и до стОящей вещи так никогда руки и не дойдут. Посему я искренне рада, что книга оказалась сильнее, чем ее описание.
Книга, книга...Что за книга? Речь идет о произведении, которые бы я назвала "вырезкой из автобиографии". Итак, Барбара О'Брайен и ее "Необыкновенное путешествие в безумие и обратно".
Признаюсь честно: до прочтения к людям с психическими проблемами я относилась не очень положительно. Не то чтобы я сталкиваюсь с ними каждый день и вынуждена проводить с ними долгие часы, но просто бессознательно у всех, мне кажется, возникает неприятное ощущение сначала страха, а потом даже отвращения, когда на улице сталкиваешься с человеком с каким-то заболеванием психического рода. Сразу думаешь: фрик, ненормальный, другой, чужой, заразный и категорически опасный. В каких-то случаях это так. И тогда специалисты узкой направленности стараются помочь таким людям. Однако их помощь ограничивается помещением в соответствующие учреждения. И всё. На человеке (согласитесь ведь, это все еще Человек) ставят крест, ему не дают второго шанса и, чтобы у общественности не возникло ненужных вопросов, создают таким людям имидж "врага народа". (Может быть, так оно на самом деле не бывает, но у меня как у обычного гражданина сложилось такое вот обычное мнение и восприятие) Однако что мы знаем о болезнях психики, в частности о шизофрении, о которой идет речь в "Необыкновенном путешествии"? Я, например, не знала ничего. И, если честно, даже представить не могла, что творится в головах у людей во время заболевания и насколько всё происходящее там внутри неординарно и интересно. Рассказать обществу о шизофрении, ее причинах и тяготах болезни - вот что нужно делать. Именно эти госпожа Барбара и занялась.
История очень интересная по многим аспектам. Начать хотя бы с того, что всё описанное на самом деле происходило с автором. Повествование смахивает на некую выдумку, а концовка вообще объясняется только вмешательством черной магии и колдовства (наверное), но не надо забывать, что вы читаете книгу о той области, о которой вам до сегодняшнего дня практически ничего не было известно. Читателю открываются двери в удивительный мир, которого он, к счастью для многих, никогда не узнает. Он оказывается в эпицентре того сумасшествия, которое происходит в мозгу у шизофреника. Как уже говорилось выше, это безумно интересно, особенно если учесть то, что каждый шизофреник безумен по-своему и каждый создает собственную Вселенную, населенную, может быть, еще более странными созданиями. Факт того, что все люди такие разные, очевиден, но он никак не уложится в моей голове.
Очень хочется выделить интересное наблюдение,сделанное автором и любезно преподнесенное нам для ознакомления и принятия к сведению( и, может быть, использованию в собственных целях). Барбара разделила ��юдей на лошадей и мустангов (подробнее и с теми, и с другими ознакомитесь в книге). Прочитала я это разделение и поняла, что на самом деле так и есть! И это очень удивительно. Сложнее всего было понять, к какому из "кланов" отнести себя. Здесь нужно проявить максимум трезвости мышления и адекватности самооценки, иначе интроспекция будет провалена. Результат может опечалить, может порадовать, но главное - не обмануть себя, а, узнав страшную правду о себе, понять, как можно этим воспользоваться.
Ну и самая интересная часть (опять-таки, только личное мнение) - это крючколовство. О существовании сего явления знают все, ибо его мы наблюдаем ежедневно в любом месте, где бы ни находились. Просто мы не оперируем понятиями,которые ввела О'Брайен. Ну да, ну прочитал я про это крючколовство, ну что такого в нем, так люди живут везде и подобные действия уже не грех, а форма жизнедеятельности, можете сказать вы. Я так тоже сперва сказала. Но перечитав эту часть, я ужаснулась осознанному. Сколько людей страдает от такой негласной системы. Кто-то отделывается простым недовольством или личной неприязнью, но ведь люди портят собственное здоровье! Некоторые работяги жизнь готовы отдать за свою работу, а когда в их дело еще и крючколовы вступают, бедолагам просто не выжить. Конечно, каждый действует в своих интересах. Хочешь жить - умей вертеться, каждому нужно семью кормить и всё такое. Но это же ТАК ЖЕСТОКО, так несправедливо. Человек отличается от остальных живых существ на Земле не только наличием sapiensa после homo, но и человечностью, пониманием, сочувствием. А мы, вместо того чтобы помогать ближнему своему, превращаем их в шизофреников.
Именно в этом и состоит часть идеи книги, вот он, антропологический кризис - шизофреники не рождаются такими, они не сами себя доводят. Такими их делает общество. И нам пора задуматься о том, как остановить этот процесс, пока наша планета не сошла с ума окончательно и бесповоротно. Поэтому читайте, задумывайтесь и меняйте(сь).
Книга, книга...Что за книга? Речь идет о произведении, которые бы я назвала "вырезкой из автобиографии". Итак, Барбара О'Брайен и ее "Необыкновенное путешествие в безумие и обратно".
Признаюсь честно: до прочтения к людям с психическими проблемами я относилась не очень положительно. Не то чтобы я сталкиваюсь с ними каждый день и вынуждена проводить с ними долгие часы, но просто бессознательно у всех, мне кажется, возникает неприятное ощущение сначала страха, а потом даже отвращения, когда на улице сталкиваешься с человеком с каким-то заболеванием психического рода. Сразу думаешь: фрик, ненормальный, другой, чужой, заразный и категорически опасный. В каких-то случаях это так. И тогда специалисты узкой направленности стараются помочь таким людям. Однако их помощь ограничивается помещением в соответствующие учреждения. И всё. На человеке (согласитесь ведь, это все еще Человек) ставят крест, ему не дают второго шанса и, чтобы у общественности не возникло ненужных вопросов, создают таким людям имидж "врага народа". (Может быть, так оно на самом деле не бывает, но у меня как у обычного гражданина сложилось такое вот обычное мнение и восприятие) Однако что мы знаем о болезнях психики, в частности о шизофрении, о которой идет речь в "Необыкновенном путешествии"? Я, например, не знала ничего. И, если честно, даже представить не могла, что творится в головах у людей во время заболевания и насколько всё происходящее там внутри неординарно и интересно. Рассказать обществу о шизофрении, ее причинах и тяготах болезни - вот что нужно делать. Именно эти госпожа Барбара и занялась.
История очень интересная по многим аспектам. Начать хотя бы с того, что всё описанное на самом деле происходило с автором. Повествование смахивает на некую выдумку, а концовка вообще объясняется только вмешательством черной магии и колдовства (наверное), но не надо забывать, что вы читаете книгу о той области, о которой вам до сегодняшнего дня практически ничего не было известно. Читателю открываются двери в удивительный мир, которого он, к счастью для многих, никогда не узнает. Он оказывается в эпицентре того сумасшествия, которое происходит в мозгу у шизофреника. Как уже говорилось выше, это безумно интересно, особенно если учесть то, что каждый шизофреник безумен по-своему и каждый создает собственную Вселенную, населенную, может быть, еще более странными созданиями. Факт того, что все люди такие разные, очевиден, но он никак не уложится в моей голове.
Очень хочется выделить интересное наблюдение,сделанное автором и любезно преподнесенное нам для ознакомления и принятия к сведению( и, может быть, использованию в собственных целях). Барбара разделила ��юдей на лошадей и мустангов (подробнее и с теми, и с другими ознакомитесь в книге). Прочитала я это разделение и поняла, что на самом деле так и есть! И это очень удивительно. Сложнее всего было понять, к какому из "кланов" отнести себя. Здесь нужно проявить максимум трезвости мышления и адекватности самооценки, иначе интроспекция будет провалена. Результат может опечалить, может порадовать, но главное - не обмануть себя, а, узнав страшную правду о себе, понять, как можно этим воспользоваться.
Ну и самая интересная часть (опять-таки, только личное мнение) - это крючколовство. О существовании сего явления знают все, ибо его мы наблюдаем ежедневно в любом месте, где бы ни находились. Просто мы не оперируем понятиями,которые ввела О'Брайен. Ну да, ну прочитал я про это крючколовство, ну что такого в нем, так люди живут везде и подобные действия уже не грех, а форма жизнедеятельности, можете сказать вы. Я так тоже сперва сказала. Но перечитав эту часть, я ужаснулась осознанному. Сколько людей страдает от такой негласной системы. Кто-то отделывается простым недовольством или личной неприязнью, но ведь люди портят собственное здоровье! Некоторые работяги жизнь готовы отдать за свою работу, а когда в их дело еще и крючколовы вступают, бедолагам просто не выжить. Конечно, каждый действует в своих интересах. Хочешь жить - умей вертеться, каждому нужно семью кормить и всё такое. Но это же ТАК ЖЕСТОКО, так несправедливо. Человек отличается от остальных живых существ на Земле не только наличием sapiensa после homo, но и человечностью, пониманием, сочувствием. А мы, вместо того чтобы помогать ближнему своему, превращаем их в шизофреников.
Именно в этом и состоит часть идеи книги, вот он, антропологический кризис - шизофреники не рождаются такими, они не сами себя доводят. Такими их делает общество. И нам пора задуматься о том, как остановить этот процесс, пока наша планета не сошла с ума окончательно и бесповоротно. Поэтому читайте, задумывайтесь и меняйте(сь).
February 15, 2021
This memoir reads like the kind of mind-bending fiction penned by Philip K. Dick. At times I thought: am I just being trolled by an author? Beautifully written, baffling, frightening, confusing - this quick read is a fascinating insight into a person with either schizophrenia or paraphrenia. (FYI it's free to download from Smashwords.)
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