Though politically incorrect, M. Kemal Irmak says the hallucinatory effects of schizophrenia directly parallel the effects of demon possession, pointing to the need for non-pharmaceutical interventions.
Since demonic possession can manifest with a range of bizarre behaviors, including delusions and hallucinations, Irmak speculates that perhaps these illusions and their corresponding false interpretations are "a real sensory image formed by demons."
"A local faith healer in our region helps the patients with schizophrenia," Irmak notes about how the problem is often dealt with in his country. "His method of treatment seems to be successful because his patients become symptom free after 3 months."
In Irmak's view, the medical profession would do well to work more closely with faith healers to come up with better treatment pathways for schizophrenia than the ones currently employed, particularly throughout the West where drugs and vaccines are the typical go-to.
"... [t]here exist similarities between the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia and demonic possession," Irmak explains. "Common symptoms in schizophrenia and demonic possession such as hallucinations and delusions may be a result of the fact that demons in the vicinity of the brain may form the symptoms of schizophrenia."
"Delusions of schizophrenia such as 'My feelings and movements are controlled by others in a certain way' and 'They put thoughts in my head that are not mine' may be thoughts that stem from the effects of demons on the brain."
Female lecturer says speculating that demon possession might be linked to schizophrenia is "bizarre"
Irmak's premise and the proposed solution are so out of the box that these triggered a female lecturer at the Royal Holloway, University of London.
Rebecca Roache published her own paper calling Irmak's argument both "dumbfounding" and "shocking," especially considering it was published "in a post-medieval peer-reviewed journal," she scoffed.
Roache is apparently of the persuasion that Irmak's position is beneath her and unworthy of appearing in a credible science journal. To her, Irmak's hypothesis is no different than crediting financial compensation for a child's tooth loss with the existence of the tooth fairy.
Further calling Irmak's premise "bizarre," Roache questions how an editorial board and peer reviewers ever could have come to the conclusion that Irmak's work deserved to be published in a scholarly publication.
"Those who have espoused similarly fanciful hypotheses about other sorts of misfortunes have, in recent years, been lambasted," she writes, pointing to another study that links past sins to current disability.
"Such views are dehumanizing and disrespectful to ... disabled ... people, and they shift focus away from serious efforts to improve these people's lives," Roache contends.
The only explanation Roache was able to come up with for how Irmak's work ended up in a credible scientific journal is that the board must have committed a "gross editorial oversight."
Another possibility, she says, is that "there is still a long way to go before those with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia are universally recognized as suffering from the worst sort of afflication [sic] that can befall a person."
In other words, even suggesting that schizophrenia might be caused by demon possession is an admission, according to Roache, that the person who made the suggestion has simply not evolved enough to hold that advanced knowledge that Roache believes she has about this deadly condition.
Irmak, on the other hand, would seem to be more in tune with the true nature of schizophrenia that modern Western medicine has rejected. Just because it sounds "medieval" to Roache does not mean that the premise is false.
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