Hi, gang!

I'm happy to announce an intersting new article in the PsyArt journal, a Jungian
study of schizophrenia by Leslie Trueman at Rutgers University.  The title is:
The Mandala Experience : Visions of the Center in Schizophrenic and Fictional
Accounts of Disintegration.  And here is its abstract:

              Schizophrenia
              is commonly viewed as a paradigm of disintegration, but C.G. Jung
              and J. Weir Perry were among those who noticed that schizophrenics
              often have visions of the mandala, a symbol of the center. These
              visions, or "mandala experiences" are in Jung's words,
              "an attempt at self-healing" through "the
construction
              of a central point to which everything is related." Two
schizophrenic
              experiences of mandalas are given to illustrate. One experience
              is Jung's who arguably had a breakdown of schizophrenic
proportions.
              The other can be found in the life of John Nash, a schizophrenic
              made famous by the recent film biography, "A Beautiful
Mind."
              The presence of such hitherto undetected moments of
constructiveness
              during psychic distintegration prompts a reevaluation of writers
              such as Kafka, who are commonly viewed as poets of disintegration.
              His "Description of a Struggle" is a search for, and
temporary
              attainment of the healing center amidst such psychic
disintegration.


                        --Best, Norm
Norm Holland
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