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Nature v. Nurture
Jan. 22nd, 2025 09:46 amAnd-d-d-d-d-d it is currently a balmy -2° Fahrenheit (-19° Centigrade) in my little corner of Trumplandia.
I did not go to the gym yesterday because I kept thinking about black ice and flat tires, both of which might have involved climbing out of the car and freezing to death in the scrub forest bordering NY 302, essentially a two-lane farm road far from civilization.
I will not be going to the gym today either.
But tomorrow is bikini weather, 20° F. Woo woo! Bring on those triceps presses!
###
I Remunerated steadily throughout the day in between talking politics with the kiskas and trudging out to the coop to check on the chickens.
In the evening, I watched something called Six Schizophrenic Brothers, a luridly produced documentary based on a book called Hidden Valley Road that I’ve been wanting to read forever.
Both documentary & book chronicle the history of the Galvin family in Colorado Springs during the 60s, 70s, & 80s. Mr. & Mrs. Galvin had 12 children—six of whom had psychotic collapses in their teens & 20s.
Geneticists salivate over families like the Galvins!
My own dear friend Mark belonged to such a family: Four of the seven Conly kids were diagnosed with MS, and they were extensively studied by the NIH although the NIH didn’t raise one finger to help Mark as he lay dying in a squalid room in Portland a decade or so ago.
###
Anyway, the geneticists did find a mutant gene in the schizophrenic Galvins, something called the SHANK2 mutation on chromosome 11. The gene is also linked to autism, and apparently, choline exerts enough of a protective effect so that the American Medical Association now recommends choline supplements for all pregnant mothers.
The gene was also detected in Mrs. Galvin’s DNA, so X-linked recessive.
The documentary failed to note whether the gene was found in any of the four brothers who did not develop schizophrenia, leading me to believe that it must have been, else the documentary would have emphasized the SHANK2 causality more forcibly.
So, we are back to that old question once again: Is it Nature or Nurture?
###
From my perspective, even without the schizophrenia, the Galvins were a fuckin’ train wreck, a 1950s ideal of the Perfect Family Richard Yates might have written one of his intensely bleak novels about.
Absentee father. Domineering mother. Or rather—mother who controlled every aspect of the domestic routine but remained entirely oblivious to emotional subcurrents. The 10 brothers, crowded into two bedrooms, seemed to loathe one another. They were always beating the shit out of one another. I suppose this could have been a sign of incipient organic mental illness, but honestly? Even without organic brain illness, it was a major red flag signaling deep psychological dysfunction.
I’m the mother of two sons. I can tell the difference between normal fraternal rivalry & roughhousing, and psychological dysfunction.
I get that the theory of the “schizophrenogenic mother” has now been entirely debunked, but man, Mother Galvin really fit that shoe.
###
The only schizophrenic person I know well is poor Cassie, who is very sweet and absolutely compliant with her medication regimen.
There is almost certainly a genetic component to her illness because her mother had the same symptoms. Though her sister does not.
Cassie used to tell me that her medication cocktail did very little to mute the voices. But it did make it easier to ignore them.
It is a very sad situation. Cassie was pretty & bright & a talented artist, and then one day, WHAM—“The Source” started talking to her.
A very, very, very difficult karma indeed.
I did not go to the gym yesterday because I kept thinking about black ice and flat tires, both of which might have involved climbing out of the car and freezing to death in the scrub forest bordering NY 302, essentially a two-lane farm road far from civilization.
I will not be going to the gym today either.
But tomorrow is bikini weather, 20° F. Woo woo! Bring on those triceps presses!
###
I Remunerated steadily throughout the day in between talking politics with the kiskas and trudging out to the coop to check on the chickens.
In the evening, I watched something called Six Schizophrenic Brothers, a luridly produced documentary based on a book called Hidden Valley Road that I’ve been wanting to read forever.
Both documentary & book chronicle the history of the Galvin family in Colorado Springs during the 60s, 70s, & 80s. Mr. & Mrs. Galvin had 12 children—six of whom had psychotic collapses in their teens & 20s.
Geneticists salivate over families like the Galvins!
My own dear friend Mark belonged to such a family: Four of the seven Conly kids were diagnosed with MS, and they were extensively studied by the NIH although the NIH didn’t raise one finger to help Mark as he lay dying in a squalid room in Portland a decade or so ago.
###
Anyway, the geneticists did find a mutant gene in the schizophrenic Galvins, something called the SHANK2 mutation on chromosome 11. The gene is also linked to autism, and apparently, choline exerts enough of a protective effect so that the American Medical Association now recommends choline supplements for all pregnant mothers.
The gene was also detected in Mrs. Galvin’s DNA, so X-linked recessive.
The documentary failed to note whether the gene was found in any of the four brothers who did not develop schizophrenia, leading me to believe that it must have been, else the documentary would have emphasized the SHANK2 causality more forcibly.
So, we are back to that old question once again: Is it Nature or Nurture?
###
From my perspective, even without the schizophrenia, the Galvins were a fuckin’ train wreck, a 1950s ideal of the Perfect Family Richard Yates might have written one of his intensely bleak novels about.
Absentee father. Domineering mother. Or rather—mother who controlled every aspect of the domestic routine but remained entirely oblivious to emotional subcurrents. The 10 brothers, crowded into two bedrooms, seemed to loathe one another. They were always beating the shit out of one another. I suppose this could have been a sign of incipient organic mental illness, but honestly? Even without organic brain illness, it was a major red flag signaling deep psychological dysfunction.
I’m the mother of two sons. I can tell the difference between normal fraternal rivalry & roughhousing, and psychological dysfunction.
I get that the theory of the “schizophrenogenic mother” has now been entirely debunked, but man, Mother Galvin really fit that shoe.
###
The only schizophrenic person I know well is poor Cassie, who is very sweet and absolutely compliant with her medication regimen.
There is almost certainly a genetic component to her illness because her mother had the same symptoms. Though her sister does not.
Cassie used to tell me that her medication cocktail did very little to mute the voices. But it did make it easier to ignore them.
It is a very sad situation. Cassie was pretty & bright & a talented artist, and then one day, WHAM—“The Source” started talking to her.
A very, very, very difficult karma indeed.
