Are We Schizophrenic?

A daughter at home, a boss at work, an employee to the organization, a good Samaritan to the society… these different facets of the same personality makes me think if we are all schizophrenic?
We wear different attitudes, emotions, and feelings depending on the scenario we are in. Are we the same person to two vastly different people? We would be extremely polite, lovable, caring to a kid but would we be the same to a boss who is domineering and vastly ambitious? Doesn’t our personality take a 360 degree turn immediately? So what is reality? This is the same question that Aparna Sen raises in the movie “15 Park Avenue”. She raises this question through Shabana Azmi who asks the doctor as to whose reality is true?

Schizophrenics do have a reality of their own which we are unable to envision or feel. Does that make their visions unreal?
Extrapolating the same logic to this topic of discussion, we see reality as we perceive. The same person who appears to be domineering, impatient and ambitious might cast a totally different picture to someone else. To that someone else, this person might appear to be a good listener, encouraging and a good motivator. So, what is real?
Wikipedia defines Schizophrenia as follows: “Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality and by significant social or occupational dysfunction.”Notice the phrase “impairments in the perception or expression of reality”. When we face attitudinal changes with respect to the same person would that qualify as “impairment in perception”?A good example to elucidate here would be that of the roles that a movie star portrays. He may become a super hit by playing a good samaritan who rescues women in despair, who rebels against the constitutional system to create laws of his own which he determines to be of social good. And here, we create an image of this movie star in our minds.The next release of this same person could be a movie where he plays a comedian unmindful of the petty nuisances he creates to people around only with the intent of creating ripples of laughter.
Our earlier image is replaced with this.So what is reality? Is this an impairment in perception? What about social and occupational dysfunction exhibited here? Social dysfunction could be the roles that are portrayed that are socially different – one of a good samaritan and the other being that of a careless joker because of the change in the expectations of the film goers.

I end this with irony lingering in your minds.What is your alter ego at work place saying today?