The story of 6 year old Jani Schofield’s fight with schizophrenia is profoundly troubling:

A new imaginary friend named 400-the-Cat moved in. He told her to kick and hit other people. “We realized she didn’t control her imaginary friends. They controlled her,” Michael says. Many phantoms populated her mind now: two little girls named 100 Degrees and 24 Hours; 200-the-Rat; Magical 61-the-Cat; and 400.

Her father’s blog is also difficult to read.

Metafilter poster Drastic’s description of the situation as a fractal heartache is indeed apt:

The entire story’s a kind of godawful fractal heartbreak–no matter how you zoom into it, every piece contains just as much heartbreak as a wider view.