Schizophrenia Shamanism and Family | Dick Russell | Madness Radio

First Aired: 08-22-2025 -- Add comment

Is “schizophrenia” a broken brain — or shamanic journeying to ancestral dimensions? Is being “out of touch with reality” actually visions of deeper truth and racial healing? Dick Russell – author of 17 books including on the JFK assassination and a biography of Jungian James Hillman – followed doctors’ advice when his son Franklin was diagnosed psychotic. But Franklin, who is of mixed race, only got worse — until Russell and Franklin’s mother Etta Russell-Scott joined West African traditional healer Malidoma Somé on a spiritual quest. Franklin’s creative flourishing helped repair the relationship between father and son, and with Franklin’s support, Russell wrote My Mysterious Son: A Life-Changing Passage between Schizophrenia and Shamanism to bring crucial lessons for all of us.
https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781629144870/my-mysterious-son/
https://dickrussell.substack.com/
https://dickrussell.org/
www.madinamerica.com/2014/12/mysterious-son/
malidoma.com/about/
https://dickrussell.substack.com/