Mrs. Parry's Schizophrenia

"Will realized...that those enemies of his mother's were not in the world out there, but in her mind" (307). From the symptoms mentioned in His Dark Materials, it would appear that Will's mother is suffering from an undiagnosed case of schizophrenia. According to the DSM IV TR (the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), the checklist for schizophrenia includes the following:
1. At least two of the following symptoms, each present for a significant portion of time during a one-month period:
a) Delusions
b) Hallucinations
c) Disorganized Speech
d) Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior
e) negative symptoms
2. Functioning markedly below the level achieved prior to onset
3. Continuous signs of the distrubance for at least six months, at least one month of which includes symptoms in full and active form (as opposed to attenuated form)

First, Will's mom suffers from delusions. The most common form of delusions are that of persecution, where the person often believes that they are being followed, stalked, spied on, slandered, threatened, attacked, deliberately victimized, or plotted against. She suffers from delusions of persecution, in that she always believes she is being followed or watched or victimized. Later on, Will realizes that she really was being followed to some extent, but not to the extent that warrants her behavior, at the grocery store, for example. "Will had first realized his mother was different from other people...when they were at the supermarket...they had to put an item in the cart only when no one was looking....When his mother couldn't find her purse...she said the enemies must have stolen it...Mummy was really frightened...the enemies were tracking them down by means of her credit card numbers" (306). Perhaps she started out with actual fears of persecution, but she was so overly full of fear, she started to lose her grip on reality and became more fearful than she needed to be, or when there was nothing to fear, again like at the grocery store.

Mrs. Parry also experienced the negative symptom of social withdrawal. People who withdraw from their social environment and attend only to their own ideas and fantasies, like Will's mom, lead to a breakdown in social skills, including the ability to recognize other people's needs accurately. You can tell that this is occurring when Mrs. Parry wanders out of the house in one of her fugue states, which is when Will found the other children wanting to hurt her; and also by the fact that Will takes care of her, instead of the other way around. If she could recognize other people's needs accurately, like her own son's, she would be taking care of him. This is the second symptom of schizophrenia that Mrs. Parry displays.

The third symptom that Mrs. Parry overtly displays is that of disorganized thinking and behavior. "And every so often she'd start thinking things that weren't true. And having to do things that didn't make sense-- not to me anyway. I mean she had to do them or else she'd get upset and afraid, and so I used to hlep her. Like touching all the railings in the park, or counting the leaves on a bush" (489). Mrs. Parry clearly has a few of her wires crossed, or maybe neurons or neurotransmitters. In any case, there is often not a lot of logic behind her actions. While she falls under three of the five main symptoms of schizophrenia, the information provided about her in His Dark Materials is extremely limited. No one could make a diagnosis from such a small amount of information, without knowing the duration of the symptoms, but from the glimpses we have, she does appear to be suffering from schizophrenia.

To learn more about the types, symptoms, treatments for, and theories about schizophrenia, or any other mental illness, check the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV-TR. You can find it online at http://www.dsmivtr.org/.