Re:No person who was born blind has ever been diagnosed with...
by thecrash on Thursday February 13, 2020 @10:30AM
(#22318435)
It's a compelling narrative - especially for social conservatives - but ironically it's without much basis in reality.
Schizophrenia rates have declined significantly over the past century, and have been stable over the past 20 years. If anything, the data better supports the opposite story - that as societies develop more sophisticated ways of altering conscious experience, people are less likely to be schizophrenic.
But more soberly, I'd say there's probably no link at all, and that both narratives just reflect a misunderstanding of the pathology of schizophrenia.
https://www.mentalhealth.com/mag1/scz/sb-time.html https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Time-trends-in-GP-record...
Mental breaks from reality are increasingly common as society increasingly condones and encourages escaping reality in many ways, including recreational drug use, television and video game addictions, and even physical mutilation.
Yet this isn't happening with those who were born with one less way to perceive reality. Perhaps it's because those born blind have a greater and stronger need to hold fast to reality, themselves not being able to benefit from it nearly as much as everyone around them and as much as nature would have it.