Schizophrenia
Definition
Schizophrenia is a term used to describe a mental imbalance in human beings. Baudrillard's view of the schizophrenic mindset is useful for understanding how the modern human subject might feel when faced with a reality of information and instant access. "…The schizophrenic is not, as generally claimed, characterized by his loss of touch with reality," states Baudrillard, "but by the absolute proximity to and total instantaneousness with things, this overexposure to the transparency of the world'.[1]
Baudrilliard concluded that the current era was defined by a new form of schizophrenia, due to the "emergence of ʻan immanent promiscuity and the perpetual interconnection of all information and communication networksʼ leads to ʻa state of terror which is characteristic of the schizophrenicʼ, that of ʻan over-proximity of all thingsʼ[2]. Under this definition, the human mindset is similar to that of schizophrenic. An endless array of interfaces produces skitzovision, the desire to look in multiple places at the same time.
