Joanne Greenberg’s story is well known thanks to the magnificent autobiographical book she published in 1964 and which was also brought to the cinema: “I never promised you a rose garden. “In addition to the powerful drama he exhibited, his testimony provided a specific and verifiable example of a cure for schizophrenia.
For psychiatry, schizophrenia is an incurable mental disorder. This is called “cancer of the mind. ” In fact, there is not even a completely effective treatment to eliminate the symptoms, in addition, biological psychiatry offers drugs whose effectiveness, in all cases, is limited.
- ? (?) experience reality.
- Was experiencing boredom as infinite as the disease itself?Was the boredom of madness such a great desert.
- So great that anyone’s violence or agony seemed like an oasis?-Joanne Greenberg-.
Therefore, Joanne Greenberg’s story is a sign of hope. Your case is fully documented. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia as practically a child, her case could be considered serious: it included visual, auditory hallucinations and a complex network of breakdowns with reality, thanks to speech treatment it was completely cured.
Joanne Greenberg’s story begins in 1932 in the United States, suffering a series of physical problems that took her from one hospital to another, undergoing severe and painful treatments, as a result, the girl began to create her own world and live there.
Joanne speaks of a “fourth level”, corresponding to the kingdom of Yr. This realm has its own time, its own logic, and even its own language. There is a black god and a series of sinister characters who talk to Joan and warn her of evil in the world. They are also sometimes treacherous, harassing you with threats and warnings of danger.
Joanne Greenberg was diagnosed with schizophrenia for her inability to distinguish between what she thought and the real world. At the age of 16, her father took her to a psychiatric hospital where she met the life-changing person Frieda Fromm-Reichmann. She had been a disciple of Freud. She had a strong conviction: no patient, however disturbed, was inaccessible to psychotherapy.
Psychotherapist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann had married Erich Fromm, who had been his patient, then divorced, but closely followed his humanist postulates. She was convinced that schizophrenia could also be cured by speech in a therapeutic space.
What the psychoanalyst did was engage in a full dialogue with Joanne, who questions and asks about her life, so that the girl can verbalize the painful events that occurred in her life, mainly seeking to bring out the repressed memories behind her. “forgotten. “
Joanne Greenberg’s entire history and therapeutic process with Frieda Fromm-Reichmann is what is described in the book Never Promised You a Rose Garden. That expression is literal. The psychoanalyst used it when Joanne began replacing his mental world with the real world, discovers that there are injustices in this world and rejects him for leaving the realm of his imagination, so Frida’s response is the title of the book.
These two women, Joanne and Frieda, defied the truths of psychiatry. Joanne was completely cured. From a psychoanalytic point of view, no one can say “normal” in the strict sense. However, Joanne has achieved what is commonly called normality: taking care of herself. Study, fall in love, get married. Sometimes I’m happy and sometimes I don’t.
One of the most beautiful passages in the book reads: “Being well doesn’t mean that after your life it will be a rose garden, (you must) enjoy your rose garden when it’s in bloom and take easy care of yourself at other times. “Frieda died before completing psychoanalysis sessions completely, but Joanne was already out of the psychiatric hospital, studying in college and trying to have an independent life.
Frieda never allowed Joanne to be treated with medication, it was a real challenge for psychiatry, in which it worked very well, Joanne, according to her testimony, is a reflection that schizophrenia can be reduced, but this fact has been very controversial. Those most attached to the concept that makes mental illness equivalent to brain disease have consistently refused to give credit to this process.
In any case, Joanne Greenberg’s story is a beautiful testimony of hope, a reference that should therefore not be ignored by those who care about the human spirit and understand that it has no limits imaginable.