'schizophrenia'

[morganelafee]

ok folks, read well.
Odetta have a multiple personalities disorder.
Detta( one of her personality) is schizophrenic ( whatever spelling i'm french)
Susannah is the good one, she is a personnality of Odetta too, but she's the one who survive the two others.
Detta and Susannah put together are Odetta full personnality.
in the french version of the book, that statement is very clear.
Thanks!

[Kacee]

This is an older thread and no one's posted on it in a while, but I thought I'd throw in my two bits.

Schizoprenia is a Greek word meaning "Split-mind". Hence why most people refer to Multiple Personality Disorder as being Schizophrenic.

In DT2, when Odetta was awake and friendly, Detta Walker was in the back of her mind, always. And if you remember at one point, it described how Detta actually saw Roland and Eddie teasing her with food, calling her a (pardon) "Nigger bitch", hog-tying her and anything else she associated with "Honky mafahs". When in reality they were feeding Odetta, and talking to her in neutral tones if anything. This was a display of Detta's delusions and/or hallucinations.

The references to Odetta being a schizoprenic, may be an error in diagnosis, but like Michal said, it's the other characters who are calling her such.

[brandon]

Thymeoperator is correct, though its not so much an issue of science as much as nomenclature. Schizophrenia, the thought disorder, was described and named by Kraeplin long ago but somehow the word has always meant multiple personality in the popular mind, despite all efforts to correct it.

Perhaps Mr. King is using the word in the vernacular.

a very valid point

[OhhDiscordia]

I think the big thing here is...

1. Nobody actually diagnoses her with schizophrenia. They simply refer to what is wrong with her as it. Think of the when's they come from, not knowing my psyche history very well, this is a suggestion but, maybe back then there was no knowledge of anything other than Schizo. Possible that, all the things such as DID, MPB, were lumped into a coined term Schizophrenic. Not until later researching and tests are done is it proven that there are branches of mental disorders that have to be labeled appropriately, that we can't just call everybody a schizophrenic.

2. I think it is correct that Odetta does have multiple personality disorder, and that Detta is indeed a HUGE schizophrenic. Points were made to justify that assumption as well, her being threatened by the white folk, her outlook on those around her, that feeling of being threatened when, none is the case. We even see her fight it within herself, when she logically tries to conclude that, well, he's feeding everybody else the SAME stuff, but my portion's still poisoned somehow.

Again, at no point does sai King reference that an actual doctor has diagnosed her with the disorder, it was simply Eddie's attempt to explain to Roland what her problem could be. Because Roland had no knowledge of such things and would've thought it something to do with maybe a demon in her. It's the characters trying to all get on the same page. I suggested it earlier to you in a different thread, read this one over, paying attention more to the drawing of the three and try not to fret over this so much. You may appreciate this book a bit more.

[thymeoperator]

i've said this many times now but i'll repeat it yet again - eddie's not the only one who says her multiple personalities are schizophrenia. the first time it's mentioned is in narration - and if you do a google online you'll find lots of other people who were bugged by this as well. it is very misleading - i'm sorry if it holds no importance to other people, but it does to me, the end.

[smerdyakov]

I've been rereading the DT series and have had the same problem as the OP.

Although someone pointed out the etymology of the term 'schizophrenia', I believe they are mistake that the 'split' refers to personality. Kraepelin's dementia praecox was retermed by Bleuler to emphasize the split of cognitive processes (phren --> mind, not personality), which resulted in the term schizophrenia.

I don't think detta is a paranoid schizophrenic, either. Maybe paranoid personality disorder, or something like that. But detta/odetta is often spoken as a whole, so to speak of her counterpart's illness (who is the result of a dissociative disorder) as the illness of the whole makes little sense to me. I mean, he was obviously talking about split personality, so why misname it?

Though it did irk me, in the end it didn't exactly detract from the DT experience

[thymeoperator]

thank you, smerdyakov! and on top of all that ... is your name from 'crime and punishment' by any chance??

[thymeoperator]

um...i meant 'brothers karamazov' btw, i'm mixing up characters here!

[aptpupil]

I was once absolutely convinced that I suffered from schizophrenia.

But now I'm in two minds.

[thymeoperator]

hahahahahahaha, thank you drew