Stop Chasing Berger's Schizophrenic Unicorn

How misquotes, bad science, and biblical counseling blind spots are failing families like mine.

I keep hoping it’ll fade away. But the ripples from Dr. Daniel Berger’s The Schizophrenic Unicorn keep washing ashore—and unfortunately, they’re making waves in biblical counseling circles.

I recently tried (and failed) to finish listening to a podcast in which biblical counselors built upon the shaky premise of Berger’s book. I couldn’t control my anger enough to hear it through, but silence is no longer an option.

Let me be clear: I deeply respect biblical counseling. I’ve completed the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) course twice and am working through the tests. My son, who lives with schizophrenia, received gracious and faithful counsel from our pastor, who is an ACBC-certified counselor, for over a decade. The concerns I’m raising here are not new—I’ve already shared them directly with Dale Johnson, ACBC’s Executive Director, in a two-hour meeting alongside my pastor and friend Liz Beck, founder of Hope for Addiction.

I even attempted to meet with Daniel Berger himself, through a mutual contact, but he declined.

The source of my concern began with the two-part podcast interview between Dale Johnson and Berger, based on Berger’s book The Schizophrenic Unicorn, in May of 2024. I’ll be upfront: I haven’t read all 800+ pages of the book—I don’t have the time or stomach for it. But I do know this: Dr. Berger is not a medical doctor. As stated on his website: “Daniel earned his B.S. in counseling, an M.S. in counseling/psychology, an M.A. in pastoral studies, and a doctorate in pastoral theology.”

In contrast, I’m a wife, mom, and grandma from Arizona with a high school education, but I’ve lived in the trenches for more than 20 years with my son’s schizophrenia. I’ve watched this brutal illness unravel families, including mine. You can read our story in the 2014 World Magazine article, “Saving Seth.”

Just after our story was published, my husband and I launched a nonprofit to support families living with serious mental illness (SMI). Our Christ-centered support group offers advocacy, resources, and gospel hope and now reaches families across the U.S. and even Canada.

What do we hear over and over again from caregivers?

“We haven’t found anything like this, especially from the church.”

That shouldn’t be the case. There are over 14 million people in the U.S. living with serious mental illness. And I can name maybe four biblical counselors I trust to serve them well.

Beyond our family’s personal journey, I’ve advocated at every level—federal, state, and local. I’ve helped pass legislation, served on Congressional and mayoral task forces, and was invited to a symposium on schizophrenia at Johns Hopkins. I’ve spoken, written, and testified until I’ve been blue in the face. At times, it feels hopeless. But Scripture compels me to speak—for my son and for those who are afflicted and destitute, abandoned by the very institutions that should care for them.

Now, let’s return to that podcast. Berger quotes well-known psychiatrist Dr. E. Fuller Torrey in both episodes. I’ve read Dr. Torrey’s Surviving Schizophrenia and American Psychosis and met him personally at the Treatment Advocacy Center’s 25th anniversary in Washington, D.C. Dr. Torrey is the founder of Treatment Advocacy Center and an outstanding voice for the severely mentally ill. His late sister Rhoda suffered with schizophrenia from the age of 18.

*In photo from left to right: My husband Matthew, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, and myself.

In the podcast, Berger claims:

“I will mention E. Fuller Torrey, who is a very, very prominent psychiatrist, just recently came out and said the entire genetic theory is false, and we know it. We would have found it in doing the genome study.”

This piqued my interest as I am very familiar with Dr. Torrey’s work and was surprised by this alleged statement. Then Dr. Berger brings up another statement supposedly made by Torrey in the second podcast:

“E. Fuller Torrey actually said that us chasing after schizophrenia is like chasing for the yeti, it doesn’t exist, but we keep insisting we’re going to find it, and that’s actually what led me to title my book The Schizophrenic Unicorn,”

I couldn’t find either quote in any of Torrey’s writings. What I did find was an article on a notoriously anti-psychiatry site, Mad in America, where the author—not Torrey—used the phrase “searching for the psychiatric Yeti” in the title-no direct quote from Dr. Torrey anywhere.

So I reached out to Lisa Dailey at the Treatment Advocacy Center. Here’s what she said, and I share with her permission:

Hi Deborah,

I will reach out to Dr. Torrey to confirm, but I can certainly say that he would never argue that schizophrenia doesn’t exist, so any quote twisted to sound that way would have to be a misquote. 

Regarding the genetic component of schizophrenia, this is almost certainly also a misquote. Dr. Torrey has criticized the NIMH for focusing nearly exclusively on genetic research that has failed to yield clinical treatments, but that is quite different from denying that genetic predisposition is real. 

I’ll consult with him and get back to you.

-Lisa

Dr. E. Fuller Torrey did send a response to me through Lisa. I’m also sharing with his permission:

Thanks for forwarding this from Mrs. Geesling.

The data in question is a misinterpretation of my article published in Psychiatry Research in March, “Did the human genome project affect research on schizophrenia?” In that article, I argued that NIMH should not spend so much money on research looking for genes that they think cause schizophrenia. All they have found so far are risk genes which don’t cause disease but may make it worse once you get it. All diseases have dozens or even hundreds of risk genes but very few diseases such as Huntington’s disease have causal genes. My paper argues that 25 years of research by NIMH has found no causal genes and therefore NIMH should spend more of their resources looking for non-genetics causes, such as infectious agents and immune disorders.

Mad in America did an extensive review of my paper on their website on the reports section. Although they criticize me, as usual, for advocating for Assisted Outpatient Treatment, they got my arguments about causal and risk genes correct, also noting that I was advocating for research on infectious agents as a cause. Therefore, the mistaken writeup of my paper was not by the Mad in America folks but rather by Daniel Berger or his researcher. And they really got it wrong: I of course never said that schizophrenia does not exist but rather than genes causing schizophrenia probably do not exist. Somebody needs to set him straight.

Feel free to share my email with Ms. Geesling or anyone else. Let me know if you need more information.

Best wishes,

Fuller

That’s not a minor clarification—it’s a complete reversal of the claim on which Berger built his book title and premise.

Yet, at the time of this writing, the podcast remains public. No one involved has contacted the Treatment Advocacy Center or Dr. Torrey for clarification. There has been no retraction, no update.

Then there’s this: In the podcast, Berger also leans on sleep research by Matthew Walker, a secular professor of neuroscience and psychology at UC Berkeley, to argue that schizophrenia is actually psychosis caused by sleep deprivation. I don’t know if this theory originates with Berger or Walker (though Berger strangely extrapolates from scripture that this is also where deceit happens). Still, it begs the question: Why are we accepting secular neuroscience and psychology theories in one breath and dismissing a medical doctor and ACBC counselor like Dr. Charles Hodges in the next?

In another recent podcast by the Nehemiah Project, Hodges’ book, The Christian Counselor’s Medical Desk Reference, was essentially blacklisted. So Berger’s non-medical theories are fine, but a certified biblical counselor and practicing physician’s work is not?

This is the double standard that’s doing damage.

And here’s the tragic result: families are left in the ditch—without help, without God, and too often without the local church.

Why does schizophrenia remain in this “other” category in the minds of so many biblical counselors? Because it’s in the DSM? Because science hasn’t nailed down its cause? If so, why don’t we throw out every disease without a known cause? There are thousands of them!

I’m done staying quiet. This book and its surrounding support are built on misrepresentation, and I believe continuing to promote it without clarification or accountability is harmful to families like mine.

Please—stop chasing Daniel Berger’s unicorn.

Want to learn more about schizophrenia? Check out our Primer: When It’s More than Mental Health: Defining Serious Mental Illness

For those who want to learn more about how to compassionately and biblically care for people affected by schizophrenia and their families: Trey Richardson, God’s Word and Schizophrenia