QUOTE : Historically, among early tribes and aboriginal peoples, when an individual had a breakdown, it was seen as a blessing or omen, a breakthrough. That person often became a healer, shaman, or prophet. He or she would leave the tribe and go into the forest or desert on an initiatory journey. They were believed to have left the ordinary world behind to connect with the non-ordinary realm to bring new information back to the tribe. We have no such initiations in Western mainstream society so people sometimes experience psychotic breaks and then we medicate that. Some people need to go crazy to find themselves; their belief system has to shatter before they can discover who they really are.