Professor Swaran Singh of Warwick University in the UK, said on BBC’s Horizon documentary ‘Why Did I Go Mad?’ that psychosis is about being a Stranger In A Stranger Land, to quote Robert Heinlein. The suburbs are a battleground (Terra incognita), where discrimination and bullying reign because of isolation (the new attacked by the old). It is no different from the body and its reaction to external invaders. It is also seen in domestic abuse, where children are not wanted and abused. Integration of society or the individual is the only cure.
Like him I believe it has nothing to do with race, culture, sex or sexual persuasion. The bullying is about trying to find a weakness in someone's character (what you fear being disclosed about yourself, which you are ashamed of in your personal history). It is trying to dislodge an opponent from their physical or mental stance (belief about themselves or the world they come from / belonged to) as in wrestling or debating. Whether you are in a new country, new neighbourhood or world – it is about trying to move you out again (‘Go back where you come from / belong’). It is about obeying the rules or taking your own limitations back to where they come from (if you want to stay, you must dump your beliefs about how the world works or should work and accept our way, our version of it).
Problems with personal sanity or society’s way of life? This is it in a nutshell. This is the paradigm wars you face every day and the conversion or rejection that goes on, the universe over (‘Are you one of us or one of them?’ ‘Are you with us or against us?’ ‘Do we love (want you) or hate you (not want you here)?’).
See also Marius Romme and The Maastricht Approach (Hearing Voices Network) for healing rifts in the psyche