Float For Me

Isn’t it remarkable how self-recrimination, or the lack of it, can make such a difference in our ability to cope and succeed in life? Think of Disney’s Dumbo buying into the recrimination of his peers who saw his ears as freakish. And think again of his soaring accomplishments once he discarded those views and perceived himself as capriciously capable.

What if, rather than having huge ears Dumbo was subject to hearing voices? Would he have had any hope of freeing himself from the recriminations that convinced him that he was crazy? Could there be any magic feather that he could grasp onto that would allow him accept the voices and even use them for his advantage?

Years ago, a friend of mine, who was highly intelligent and a vice president in a global corporation, confessed to me that she was under constant pressure to ignore the never-ending chatter in her head making it hard for her to hear the voices of flesh-and-blood people around her. I came upon her once in a walkway between the train station and the office. She was facing a window, going through her brief case. I stopped to say ‘hi’ and got a very vague response that left me thinking as I walked away that she really hadn’t recognized me.

I was convinced that she was so distracted as to not be able to switch from her voices to our present situation. I believe she was able to succeed in life because she came to accept the voices as something that “were there” and she moved on. Had she had less strength of character, I am sure she would have dissolved in helplessness, convinced that she was crazy. I am sure, too, that had she sought professional help she would have been diagnosed as schizophrenic and herculean, but futile, attempts would have been made to rid her of her voices, driving her even further into helplessness.

Recent studies have begun to show that there may be a significant number of persons who hear voices who are not “crazy” and that there are a significant number of schizophrenics that could benefit by being taught to live with their voices while treating other of their more debilitating symptoms. Perhaps if we gave such feathers to these voice-hearers we would find that they are muses and poets and oracles with a place in our society.

In her book Visits From The Seventh, the poet Sarah Arvio says of in a dialogue with her voices ’We’ve got you to stand for us.’ And I have you, I said, to float for me.