Schizophrenia or Fragmentation: When Political Thought Fractures

We often hear that a political position or a contradictory line of reasoning is "schizophrenic." However, this clumsy simplification masks a more disturbing reality: it's not schizophrenia, but mental fragmentation. Schizophrenia, as a psychiatric illness, is a severe disorder of reality perception, which has nothing to do with holding opposing ideas or justifying moral contradictions. In contrast, the fragmentation of a thought or identity is a socio-psychological process that allows individuals to reconcile unsustainable inconsistencies—often at the cost of their humanity.

Heartbreaking Examples of Fragmentation

Consider the case of Arab-Muslim populations who rightly denounce terrorist attacks striking their own community, but sometimes struggle to condemn with the same firmness violence targeting Israeli or Western civilians. This dissociation, fueled by decades of suffering, injustice, and humiliation, illustrates how collective traumas can generate dangerous rationalizations, where the pain of "the other" becomes invisible.

On the Israeli side, a similar dissonance is observed: fervently defending democratic values while justifying apartheid against Palestinians, denying their fundamental rights, and perpetrating war crimes. This fragmentation allows a society to see itself as virtuous, despite acts that contradict this perception.

Russia, the self-proclaimed champion of the global South's oppressed, sends the children of the poorest republics to be slaughtered in Ukraine, while protecting the elites of major cities. China, which advocates social harmony, oppresses and dehumanizes Uyghurs in re-education camps. These fractures are not anomalies: they are cultivated, maintained, and amplified.

The Political Manufacture of Fragmentation

This fragmentation is not spontaneous. It is encouraged by cynical strategists who profit from the confusion of the masses. Steve Bannon, the architect of Trump's rise, put it bluntly: "The way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit." By saturating the public space with contradictory narratives, individuals lose their inner coherence and become vulnerable to manipulation.

Mental Fragmentation versus Schizophrenia

Psychologically, schizophrenia is a severe pathology characterized by delusions, hallucinations, and a profound alteration of the perception of self and the world. It results from a rupture in the structure of the ego. In contrast, mental fragmentation in the political sphere is a survival mechanism that allows individuals to compartmentalize their values to avoid cognitive dissonance.

This fragmentation is dangerous: it allows the justification of the unjustifiable, the dehumanization of the other, and the fueling of cycles of violence. Fragmented individuals are not insane, but they become insensitive to their own capacity to harm, or to condone the suffering of others.

Regaining Inner Coherence

The remedy to this fragmentation is moral lucidity: recognizing one's contradictions, accepting complexity, and cultivating an empathy that does not depend on ethnic, religious, or national affiliations. As long as we tolerate this fragmentation, divisive politics will thrive, and conflicts will remain unsolvable.

Recognizing that contradiction is human, but that rationalizing injustice is a choice, is perhaps the first step towards collective healing.