The peculiar case of Jani, a girl with severe early-onset Schizophrenia

[HowToBe]

Firstly I want to say I haven't drawn a conclusion from this video. To give context, Jani, the girl in the video, was diagnosed schizophrenic from a very young age, after she began to attack her family members, saying that these characters seen only by her were telling her to do it.

Monotonic suggested I post this video because we both think it has a sort of odd vibe. It may be nothing, but given what I've read about child abuse, I couldn't help but wonder. The father's behavior in the video just seems strange in a peculiar way I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe he's just being the "annoying dad" for a moment, though?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrXWvrz1-js

Here's an article quote I found that raises the scenario of possession (even if not outright making that claim):

“It didn’t feel like it was her,” Michael, an English lecturer at California State University, Northridge, recalls of the hellish episodes that started around his son’s birth in December 2007. “It felt like something was taking control of her. I remember describing it to people as being like The Exorcist because of the suddenness of it and the severity. Jani would be kicking me, hurting me, and I remember thinking, 'This has to be hurting her because it’s her bare feet, it’s her toes’, and she was not reacting.”

Jani had always been different. Precociously intelligent, she knew the alphabet by 13 months and, at a year and a half, spoke in grammatically correct sentences. By three, she was quizzing her parents on the Periodic Table. At four, tests revealed an IQ of 146 and an estimated mental age of between 10 and 11. She required constant stimulation and had few friends, preferring the company of a cast of imaginary rats, cats, dogs and little girls. She also hated to be called by her real name, insisting on nicknames such as Blue-Eyed Tree Frog or Rainbow.

The thing about her name particularly stands out to me, although if her experiences include a form of synesthesia, it could be the word is just unpleasant to her, and there could be other causes I'm sure. Here's a quote from a blog that raises the abuse question:

Now I just read the following, which I haven't been aware of, at Stephany's blog:

"It saddens me to say the least to read on the Jani's father's blog that the father talks about beating (hitting) , and starving Jani, taking away her toys, and ultimately drugging her spirit. (to break her) before she was placed on psychiatric medications this child suffered child abuse."

The following article gives a lot of information, if it is accurate, detailing the complexities of the family's life:
http://nypost.com/2012/08/12/her-world-is-illusion-voices-tell-her-to-kill-she-is-schizophrenic-her-family-is-terrified-she-is-9-years-old/

Her case is well known as it is perhaps the worst case known at her age. Here is her appearance on the Dr. Phil show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrXWvrz1-js

A peculiar case all around, not sure what to think. She supposedly has a cast of over 400 characters that appear to her, with names like "Wednesday" (a dog as I recall), "400" (a "mean" cat), "24 Hours" and "80" (both girls older than her). If we had a generic High Strangeness section, I might post this there, but none of thos sections quite fit, I'd say.

[Edit: I started typing this post here, but was going to move it to the main psychology section because the tone of my post changed. But apparently I posted the wrong copy. It could be moved or stay here (in the "psychopaths at home" section).]

 

[Christine]

J’ai remarqué que les trois personnes sur la vidéo se frottent les mains.
Souvent certains gestes dévoilent ce que les personnes ont dans l’esprit.
Ce que j’ai trouvé :

Se frotter les mains
Geste des manipulateurs et des calculateurs. On se frotte habituellement
les mains lorsqu'on se félicite de l'élaboration d'un (mauvais) coup particulièrement raffiné, et qu'on se réjouit d'avance
de ses conséquences.
Se frotter les mains traduit aussi la hâte de quelqu'un de voir quelque chose se produire, sans pour
autant que cela soit malveillant.


I noticed that the three people on the video rub their hands.
Often some gestures reveal what people have in mind.
What I found:

Rub one's hands
Gesture of manipulators and calculators. We usually rubs your hands when you congratulates the elaboration of a particularly refined (bad) coup, and that we rejoice in advance of its consequences.
Rubbing your hands also translates the haste of someone to see something happen, without
as much as it is malicious.

 

[theos]

That is a peculiar case. I watched the Dr. Phil link you put up, HTB. (Both links are the same video, by the way) I also watched about half of this one: _https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlwW6bzUzD4.

I'm still not sure what to think. Either this family has some really messed up genetics to have two severely mentally ill kids or something else is going on. I'm not so sure about abuse but what did come to mind was Munchausen's by proxy. Here's an article on Sott about one case: Munchausen by Proxy and the strange story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard.

I found it a strange that the parents, especially the mom, seemed so enthusiastic and upbeat when talking about the really difficult symptoms that both of her kids are displaying. Maybe they're just rolling with the punches but there didn't seem to be an appropriate level of distress or sadness when talking about it. They had all of these care workers coming in and started a foundation, both of which gives the parents attention. It was also weird to me that Jani's symptoms started to improve as her brother Bodhi started spiraling out of control. Maybe once the parents' focus was on him it gave her space to normalize.

Maybe the kids had some intellectual deficits or issues they were born with but it's hard to tell how much could be caused by all the high powered psych meds that they're taking.

Anyway, that's just my 2 cents.

 

[beetlemaniac]

Isn't it common knowledge that kids have imaginary friends? Granted, 400 of them is a bit much. It's interesting to note how having these imaginary friends can be a case of predator's mind on overdrive, seeing the bad intent that they seem to engender. I also have a bad feeling that the parents may be a big reason why both the children are disordered. Odyssey mentioned them starting a foundation - that could indicate that they have some vested interest in keeping the problematic dynamic alive, even if unconsciously.

My two cents.

 

[Laura]

In a case such as this one, I would suggest - though reluctantly - that the children should be taken and put into a safe, LOVING environment with full monitoring to insure that any parental maneuvers are not behind the phenomena. That would be the first order of business. If you exclude the parents as causative in any way, then start looking for next level of possible inputs.

 

[HowToBe]

Whoops! I'm not handling my links that well in my recent posts! Here's what I meant to post first, which monotonic and I found weird (you may want to read my comments around the first link in my original post for context to this):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMtbxy-uGtU

I noticed that the three people on the video rub their hands.
Often some gestures reveal what people have in mind.

I don't know if you were able to understand the audio in the video (because you posted in French), but the two men were talking about Jani's hand-rubbing habit, so they were imitating it when they talked about it. But look at her face when Dr. Phill says to her, "Tell me why you like to rub your hands together like this. Do you know why you like to do that?" At the very least it's obvious that her expression falls, and then she seems to look at her father (the younger man on the right). That stood out to me.

Isn't hand rubbing sometimes symbolic of cleaning the hands, like "my hands are dirty"? I recall reading that hand-washing obsessions can be a sign of past or present sexual abuse.

Here's some Wikipedia about it:

Hand rubbing involves rubbing the palms of one's hands together. As a gesture of expectation, the rate at which one rubs the palms together is significant. A fast pace indicates expectation of something good for onesself. But a slow pace indicates expectation of something bad for someone else. Context also affects the meaning of the gesture. In context, the meaning can vary from an indicator of internal (anticipatory) tension to meaning "Oh good!".[4][5]

The length of the gesture is also important. Rubbing one's hands together and then saying to another person (for example) that one expects to make money conveys to that person that they should be excited as well. Whereas rubbing one's hands together while saying the same thing conveys racism, and possibly the intention to deceive.[6][7]

In drama, rubbing hands can signify various things, such as a miser rubbing his palms together over money, Lady Macbeth washing the blood off her hands, a villain having just done a wicked deed, or a person simply anticipating a journey, a good meal, or meeting with a boyfriend/girlfriend.[8]

Maybe the kids had some intellectual deficits or issues they were born with but it's hard to tell how much could be caused by all the high powered psych meds that they're taking.

And yet the girl's IQ is supposed to be over 140! That's one of the peculiar aspects here - the idea that a girl can be hallucinating to some degree 95% of the time and yet be able to focus enough to do that well on an IQ test is rather astounding, if true. But it could be part of the narrative her parents are crafting to some degree. That said, it is also a public matter so I wonder if they could get away with lying about that (or course they could theoretically, but how likely?).

Here's an interesting excerpt:

She seemed like any other girl playing on the playground, but within a few minutes, I could see signs of the schizophrenia. Jani started telling me about her rat, Wednesday; her cat, 400; and the world of Calilini, where all her hallucinations lived. I was surprised to see the amount Jani knew and could explain about her illness. She knows she has schizophrenia. She told me she could see things other people couldn't see. Anything I asked Jani about her illness she was able to explain to me in her own words. She explained that she lived somewhere between "our world" and "her world." Through experience, I also learned some of Jani's triggers... things that set her off. The first day I was there, I called her by her first name, January. This is something that apparently she doesn't like. As sweet as she was to me, that was the first time she screamed: "No, Don't call me that. I am Jani!" In an instant she was a different child.

I also wonder about her issue with her name... it's doubtful that she just randomly came to hate her name, I would guess. Again, it gives me an uncomfortable feeling that something could have happened.

Isn't it common knowledge that kids have imaginary friends? Granted, 400 of them is a bit much. It's interesting to note how having these imaginary friends can be a case of predator's mind on overdrive, seeing the bad intent that they seem to engender. I also have a bad feeling that the parents may be a big reason why both the children are disordered. Odyssey mentioned them starting a foundation - that could indicate that they have some vested interest in keeping the problematic dynamic alive, even if unconsciously.

Actually, as the parent's story goes, they assumed that all was well, since her IQ was so high, but then she became violent. The father says he was resistant even then, but finally Jani's mother took her to the hospital. While I agree that society is too quick to see mental illness in some cases, in this case it appears warranted. The question is; what is the cause? Here's more from the Telegraph article above:

January Schofield twisted her head and sank her teeth into her father’s chin. This was her only means of attack – he was holding her arms and legs down. January had tried hitting her newborn brother, Bodhi, again.

“I have to hurt him,” she said matter-of-factly as her father, Michael, struggled to restrain her. “I’m going to hurt him.”

His five-year-old daughter looked “like a wild animal attached to my chin”. He released his grip and she dug her fingernails into his face. Seconds later, the volcanic rage had passed, ending as abruptly as it had begun. Jani, as she likes to be called, announced she was hungry and wanted macaroni cheese.

I haven't yet found out whether any of these episodes were public, but from what I read the parents are now divorced (or nearly got divorced) due to an affair if his (or a "near affair")? Supposedly, the father nearly committed suicide by pills at one point while it was his turn to take care of Jani. The parent's had apparently been living in two apartments: one for Jani, which was set up like a psych ward (no sharp objects), and one for Bodhi, their son, and the parents would take turns for nights with the children.

Laura's idea makes sense. Actually, I seen to recall that early on there was suspicion about the parents and abuse. On Dr. Drew they made a mention to some trouble with their first hospital in the first two months after the diagnosis. So I guess that's something to look into. Were they cleared, or did they dodge proper inquiry?

 

[monotonic]

It's interesting that her name is January, and two of her friends are Wednesday and 24 Hours. They are all references to dates or time.