Virtual schizophrenia

September 12, 2004 10:07 AM

A LEVER TO MOVE THE MIND The project is fascinating, even though it is still in the rudimentary graphics stage. As someone who works with people with mental illness this interested me, how about the rest of you? What am I talking about? A way to model what schizophrenia is like.
posted by edgeways (9 comments total)

Would YOU try it if it was avaiable?
posted by edgeways at 10:07 AM on September 12, 2004

This reminds me of an audio program that was created for mental health clients and family members of people with schizophrenia. You were issued a walkman with tapes of the types of voices many people with schizophernia hear.

I never did it - I was a mental health counselor, but I have my own psychiatric issues - but my co-workers who did said that it was one of the most disturbing things they ever experienced. I think that this game is something that people should try. Anything that would make people understand the internal hell of the disheveled homeless man screaming at voices only he can hear would be a good thing. Maybe then we could get people to understand how important public funding for mental health outreach and treatment is.
posted by echolalia67 at 10:35 AM on September 12, 2004

Amazing, edgeways - and yes, I think I would.
posted by ed\26h at 11:30 AM on September 12, 2004

SHUTUP!SHUTUP!SHUTUP!SHUTUP!SHUTUP!
SHUTUP!SHUTUP!SHUTUP!SHUTUP!SHUTUP!
SHUTUP!SHUTUP!SHUTUP!SHUTUP!SHUTUP!
SHUTUP!SHUTUP!SHUTUP!SHUTUP!SHUTUP!
posted by quonsar at 11:52 AM on September 12, 2004

Millions of people have modelled schizophrenia by taking LSD. It's nasty.
posted by Faze at 2:40 PM on September 12, 2004

That's disingenuous, Faze.
posted by kjh at 5:18 PM on September 12, 2004

Sounds interesting. If you don't want to wait for the sensurround experience, you can recreate the effect by reading Philip K. Dick's Martian Time-Slip, at least if you're as susceptible to the power of words alone as I am; this book put me deeply enough in the mind of a schizophrenic to scare the hell out of me 25 years ago, and I haven't dared read it since.
posted by languagehat at 5:28 PM on September 12, 2004

I currently have a character in Second Life, Alan Palmerstone, and I was fascinated when I heard about this project. Then I read the article and saw I had the chance to actually run through it. Now I am scared to, as it seems like it could FMUFL. I will probably try it this week, but I am not looking forward to it.

Second Life gives you the ability to make whatever the hell you want and it gives creative people an extremely welcome outlet for their talents. It also gives asshats an outlet to build 50 meter high milk cartons and cover your house in simulated dung.

If you want to take a look at the project, all of SL is availble for a free 7-day trial at secondlife.com and it is only a $10 lifetime fee after that. If you want to own land and build something permanent, it costs anywhere between $6 and $195 a month depending on the amount of land you want. Also, today is the last day of the Burning Life festival, where you can see some extraordinary 3d builds. If you do join, please look me up (Alan Palmerstone), maybe we can start a mefi group there.

Languagehat, I am currently listening to the audible.com version of Martian Time Slip and it is great (and really cheap). It will probably mess you up again, but it is worth listening to.
posted by sciatica at 6:36 PM on September 12, 2004

:( faze
posted by Satapher at 12:58 AM on September 13, 2004