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0 pointsPaulHoule1y ago0 comments

Whether schizotypy is dimensional (you have more or less of it) or taxonic (you have it or you don't) is a primary controversy. One fact is that the 'schizogene' postulated by Meehl which would make it taxonic certainly does not exist or efforts to find it would have born fruit in the genomic age.

The dimensional view is personified by Gordon Claridge who edited a few conference proceedings which may be closer to the truth but fail to tell a compelling story. You might read these and walk away thinking "nothing more to see here folks"

This monograph

https://www.amazon.com/Schizotypy-Schizophrenia-View-Experim...

by Mark Lenzenweger tells a compelling story that might be less true. My life made 100% more sense the day it fell into my hands after decades of looking for answers.

I don't really like the DSM definition of STPD; today I could mark up my first psych eval with a highlighter and add a few symptoms I've experience sense and satisfy it, but as a person who reads about psychodiagnosis for fun I read it and missed it numerous times. (Also despite my condition causing me a lot of trouble, I don't feel like I'm really that ill.) If Lenzenweger is right, it could be diagnosed by an eye tracking test.

As for school uniforms I think they have some good points and some bad points. As a kid they might have done me some good but I probably would have been resistant, as I was to many things. And for bullying I'll share

https://www.amazon.com/Bullying-Social-Destruction-Laura-Mar...

and also

https://www.amazon.com/Sense-Honor-Bluejacket-Books/dp/15575...

written by USMC officer, journalist, novelist and US Senator Jim Webb which is a compelling but even-handed account of the role of hazing in promoting group cohesion that was recommended to me by one of his classmates from the Naval Academy one day when I was giving blood.

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sitkack1y ago

Reading it now, I am reminded of the importance of sleep. The only time I have experience "visual aberrations" is when I have been very sleep deprived. Items in my periphery would rotate, like my mind was attempting to dream. And then there is this description of one of the cases

> single male who works for the U.S. Postal Service, typically during the midnight shift.

People should be very very cautious about working swing shifts or night shifts.

https://time.com/3657434/night-work-early-death/

I am not that far in, but it looks to me like STPD is a precursor to full Schizophrenia, and that if caught early could avoid it entirely. This might be what the book says.

Oh the DSM, it seems chock full of ... spicey illinformed kinda right by accident correlation isn't causation kind things. After reading enough of it, I don't even see it anymore. I am sure there is still some phrenology in there.

Hazing as a bonding exercise is barbaric. I have seen scrapbooks of USN sailors that have crossed the Tropic of Cancer and Equator. Yeah, no.

PaulHouleOP1y ago

Meehl's hypothesis is that some fraction of schizotypes, maybe 5-10% develop schizophrenia in early adulthood. I'm too old for that now.

It could be that I've compensated because my verbal intelligence is too high to measure. I got 800 verbal/760 math on the SAT and probably gave up 40 points to the line noise in my brain. I struggled to get more than 90% on math quizzes in high school because of that line noise but as my education progressed (physics PhD) I got better at not making mistakes on math. I've maxxed every verbal test and subscale I've taken.

I am worried that I won't be able to compensate so well when I am older; psychotic dementia would be a terrible burden on the people around me. I've seen people who aged well because they had good emotional habits, I can only hope I've got enough time to improve mine.

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