These Angels Don’t Descend from Heaven

Two disparate events inspire this week’s post: First, the news that the sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela’s state funeral was discovered to be a “phony.”

The New York Times reports that Mr. Jantjie, who stood beside President Obama and other global dignitaries and gesticulated in gibberish, “told interviewers that he was a violence-prone schizophrenic and had seen angels descending in the stadium where the event was held.”

What purpose could this man’s actions serve? His behavior resulted in confusion and embarrassment with little benefit to him. He probably is, as he said, schizophrenic and hallucinated the “angels.” 

The second event was a recent personal experience while riding the subway. A man wondered through the car, dressed scantily--given the frigid weather--in a grungy t-shirt and low-slung jeans that exposed a triangle of bare skin on his lower back.

“I’m hungry. Give me money to get something to eat,” he said in a monotonous tone over and over again as he perambulated down the aisle. In spite of his words, his efforts seemed undirected; he stared into the air, avoiding eye contact with us passengers. As a result, no one reached into their pocket for money. Furthermore, he didn’t seem to care. I realized that he was constrained by the invisible chains of schizophrenia.

(Of course our society attempts to care for these persons. Presumably, they don’t have to pursue us subway riders. Perhaps this man’s behavior was an attempt to make contact.)

In psychiatric terms, schizophrenia is designated as a thought disorder; thinking in terms of cause and effect doesn’t come naturally. Instead, thoughts are derailed and don’t achieve a goal or reach a conclusion. These sufferers may or may not “hear voices” within their heads  (perceived as emanating from the environment). But they may not be able to join our world and, as a result, suffer isolation because of the differences in their brain and neurotransmitters, the chemicals that transport messages between brain cells.

At rare times, we need to protect ourselves from their violent behavior, but generally they are harmless.  Most violent crimes are not committed by schizophrenics, and our fear of them is typically unfounded.  In the event a schizophrenic does become violent (because of hallucinations), the harmful behavior is usually directed toward a family member.

Conclusion: An individual who suffers from schizophrenia is best regarded with understanding and empathy. We can be grateful for the ability to think and direct our (purposeful) action to serve society.

Dear Reader, I welcome your comments. jsimon145@gmail.com