Extraordinary perceptions and schizotypical speech patterns in the cycle of social cause and effect

Abstract

Schizotypy is a psychopathological concept that is inherently connected with spiritual issues, since it includes symptoms that could well be classified as elements of spiritual experiences. While some theoreticians argue that schizotypy therefore could be the common ground of both pathology and such experience, a condensed case study shows that non-spiritual symptoms of schizotypy can develop out of misunderstood and maltreated spiritual experiences in a person’s earlier biography. Western society’s attitude towards persons reporting unusual experience has therefore to be questioned as being potentially pathogenic.