[Section Introduction]: Proud to be an Oxymoron!

Schizophrenia is a clinical term that describes types of psychosis characterized by the development of symptoms that signal “the intrusion of primary process material” from the unconscious into everyday behavior. The images evoke an array of disciplinary parameters, from the external force of the meandering river to the internal self-reflexion of the boundary-straddler; from the resident alien and boundary-crosser to the inhabitant of naturecultures. These pithy oxymorons provide empowering prisms to use in decoding the experience that my first discipline would have labeled as maladjusted at best and schizophrenic at worst. The images evoke an array of disciplinary parameters, from the external force of the meandering river to the internal self-reflexion of the boundary-straddler; from the resident alien and boundary-crosser to the inhabitant of naturecultures. Consistent with extant research, most of the women had a relative who was a scientist or a teacher of mathematics or science at the precollege level, or had attended a single-sex educational institution.