The Remarkable Fred Frese

Fred Frese has a doctorate from Ohio University (USA), he won the American Psychological Association’s award for public service psychology, and for 15 years was the director of psychology at Ohio’s largest state hospital. He is married and has four children. Back in 1968, Fred was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Psychiatrists told him he would probably spend the rest of his life locked up, and that his brain disease was degenerative. Seems they were wrong.

The truth being - those of us with this disorder - we’re wired differently. For whatever reason. And notice I use the term differently. Not necessarily defectively. But living in society, now that we know we are different because of this disorder, it is a challenge and an adventure for us ourselves, and society, to learn. Okay, we function differently. How are we different? How are we different from others, and how, in spite of our differences, can we take roles by which we begin to contribute to society?
- From a speech to the National Press Club**, Canberra (broadcast by ABC TV on 17 Sep 2003; re-broadcast 03 Nov 2004)

The SANE Australia website offers information about a range of mental illnesses and shows 'Why stigma hurts' everybody involved.

---

** The PDF version of this transcript has now disappeared, but trusty Google is holding an HTML version.