Schizophrenia

[teacup]

Hey everyone.
In my WIP the villain becomes sort of "possessed" by the evil half of someone's soul. This dark half then steers him to do what he wants, but also talks to him now and then. The villain doesn't know, so when he hears the voices he is confused and even scared.

The way it's "voices in his head" reminds me of schizophrenia if I'm not mistaken. I have ideas of how to write this, but I'm just curious, how would one go about writing this in a schizophrenic kind of way?


EDIT: I'm asking how anyone here would write about the voices in his head, preferably in a schizophrenic way (I believe that's a possible symptom of schizophrenia?)
I'm not asking about schizophrenia itself.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Schizophrenia is a complex condition with far more than just 'voices in people's heads'. Many people suffering from the condition do not even hear voices at all. Probably the most common characteristic of the condition is what's often called altered thinking. Where sufferers think things that to themselves make perfect sense, but which to others seem bizarre. However there are many other symptoms.

I'd suggest doing some googling on what sufferers actually experience.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[teacup]

I know, psychotick, I mean just the voices part of schizophrenia (as far as I'm aware some sufferers hear voices.)
I've had a quick look before, when I get to writing that part properly I'll look at it in more depth.
What I meant was how would other people write the voices in someone's head?
I have my own ideas, I'm just curious as to know how others would do this. (Could even steal some ideas too )

Thanks anyway.

 

[advait98]

In schizophrenia, if I'm not mistaken, there are mass delusions and hallucinations and disorganisation of thought processes.

So writing the villain in a schizophrenic manner keeping in mind the voices in his head... well the first thought that comes into my head is that just make him act as crazy and mad and insane as you can, murmuring , muttering to himself, stuff like that.

Though progressing down a more refined and detailed road... the evil half of the guy's soul steering the villain to do irreproachable evils, well that could lead to the villain losing control of himself and believing that something was going wrong with him, thus leading to delusions and hallucinations. Just to be clear, the villain doesn't want to be doing all this stuff, right? Because I think this would only be applicable in that situation. It could lead to an actual artificial schizophrenia (I know I'm being blunt here with plenty of guesswork, but hey it's a story and it's fantasy).

The voices in his head would only add to his tremors.

I think when you write his 'schizophrenic' scenes, you could add his personal ponderings and snippets of thought as he wonders what has happened to him when the voices talk to him, but of course in a deranged way (if schizophrenic people have a breakdown of speech and thought processes). Add, I don't know, a touch of colour and emotion to him, something your villain normally wouldn't express.

Describe the voice, what does it sound like, is it cruel, is it soft and pleasant? It should have a massive impact on the villain as an individual and he should have sprays of character within him that were previously nonexistent.

Well, this is all I can offer, and I apologize if this isn't what you're looking for, but hey, it's got ideas running around in my head too now (don't worry, not yours).

 

[teacup]

Thanks a lot advait.
This is the type of thing I wanted actually. I had ideas similar to this of how to write this, and your guesses were on the right track

The villain at first isn't exactly evil, though he does bad things, but as this "possession" gets stronger he sinks deeper into madness and evil.

I have a pretty good idea on how to write this now, using my ideas and some of yours, so yes, thank you very much

 

[Filk]

Hey teacup,

My initial thought was Lews Therin and Rand from The Wheel of Time series. I think that Jordan did an excellent job of having that split personality communicate and sometimes dominate the main character. If you have read the series, go back and check out some of the passages.

I think what you will want to do is create two distinct characters for one mind. Make sure the "voice in his head" can clearly be distinguished from the character himself. I use italics without quotation marks for internal dialogue. You should distinguish this internal dialogue as well, but make sure the voice of the character is different as well.

Also, the "voice" would manifest itself outside of the internal dialogue as well; people who know the main character would be able to see the change I think.

 

[teacup]

I already took all of that in to account in my write up of the first "schizo" scene, but it's good to know I'm going the right way, so thank you Filk.

I've seen that Wheel of Time series around, but don't even know the faintest thing about it at the moment. When I sort out the first half of the story which needs changing I'll have a look at that to help with this.
Thanks again.

 

[Filk]

If you are going to read that series, set aside some serious time. Like a couple of months hehe. It's an arduous journey at times, but well worth it. If you post some of your schizophrenic dialogue in the showcase forum, I'd be happy to critique it.

 

[teacup]

Haha, I still have LOTR and Hunger games to get through, and ASOIAF when they decide to come out.
I'll probably look into the schizophrenic parts for the purpose of my writing, but I'll get to reading them eventually.

I don't think it's even ready for critiquing yet - I think I explained too much of what the darkness was in the short scene - I'm undecided as to whether I'll leave some mystery there or not right now. When I get back to it I'll post it, but that may be a while off yet.
(I'm sorting out the beginnings of the story - and my god my writing began terribly.)

 

[wordwalker]

Watch those definitions. "Multiple Personality" is one disorder (and a rare one), schitzophrenia is actually a different thing, a whole range of breakdowns of thought. Hearing voices could be a symptom of the latter.

 

[teacup]

Yes Wordwalker, I don't mean exactly schizophrenia - only the voices in the head, which could be a little bit schizo - I'm asking how people would go about writing it in a "schizo" manner.