Dysfunctionings

In psychology class, we have been studying dysfunctional psychology. We talk a lot about disorders like schizophrenia that involve severe hallucinations. I was thinking about this when I realized that schizophrenics experience reality in a completely different way from the way we do. What constitutes of their reality? What we think is reality is what happens to us in everyday life, and what we experience firsthand, out thoughts, emotions etc. but is this truly realty in its essence? An old Chinese saying (Chuang Tzu) goes as follows:

“I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?”

This just re-instates how reality is only probable, and can’t really be proved. As humans, who need a basis, we believe what we want to believe, and create our own realities so that we have some sort of security. For all we know, this would well be a dream that we could wake up from any moment. I wonder if people suffering from schizophrenia are able to experience life in a fuller manner, as they create their own reality differently, and obviously have more realities than us. This could possibly allow them to live in two or more worlds that could even be completely detached from one another. The use of drugs too, is self-induction of a reality, which is not actually the truth but can be eye-openers to life. I have heard about how people have produced some of their best works under the influence of drugs. Medically, this is not a reality, however it leads to a production of what could become a part of one’s reality. How do you distinguish?

I find it impossible to be able to judge what is truly real or not, because at some level, everything can be considered as constituents of reality and at another level, one can quite easily say that nothing is real.