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The Truth 
Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: April 19 2009
Location: Kansas
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Points: 21795
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 Topic: Aren't we all insane?
Posted: March 05 2011 at 20:13 |
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Is insanity really insanity or is it a misunderstood form of human behavior? What truly makes one insane? I write about this in my poetry, there are times when it seems to me that we're all insane. Now what is your take on insanity?
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JJLehto
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 05 2006
Location: Tallahassee, FL
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Points: 34550
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Posted: March 05 2011 at 20:58 |
You can't even know for sure that anyone outside you even exist...so yeah 
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Islandstone
Forum Groupie
Joined: October 09 2010
Location: Norway
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Points: 76
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Posted: March 05 2011 at 21:26 |
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According to Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". In that term, I guess we're all insane from time to time. It could be that we hope a certain approach will work, and therefore we keep trying. Or, we do some things the same way over and over again because it has become a habit.
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Man With Hat
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Jazz-Rock/Fusion/Canterbury Team
Joined: March 12 2005
Location: Neurotica
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Points: 166183
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Posted: March 05 2011 at 22:27 |
Which begs the question what is normal?
If there is this normal/sane level, I would have to believe most people deviate from it, in some way, even if slight.
Or: Yeah...the human race is one clusterf**k of awful and is screwed up beyond belief.
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Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive
Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect.
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The Dark Elf
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Joined: February 01 2011
Location: Michigan
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Points: 13183
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Posted: March 05 2011 at 22:42 |
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You are insane. I am merely eccentric.
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...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined
to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology...
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Triceratopsoil
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 03 2010
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 18016
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Posted: March 05 2011 at 23:26 |
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LOL K Tan-tan
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AtomicCrimsonRush
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Joined: July 02 2008
Location: Australia
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 06:58 |
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Insanity is trying to post on here and finding out the whole dang site is down for hours.... who is responsible! crazy....
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Tuzvihar
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: May 18 2005
Location: C. Schinesghe
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Points: 13536
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 07:11 |
 AtomicCrimsonRush wrote:
Insanity is trying to post on here and finding out the whole dang site is down for hours.... who is responsible! crazy.... |
People call insane those who they can't understand.
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"Music is much like f**king, but some composers can't climax and others climax too often, leaving themselves and the listener jaded and spent."
Charles Bukowski
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zravkapt
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Joined: October 12 2010
Location: Canada
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Points: 6446
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 07:16 |
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That '500 - Internal error' thing made me go insane.
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AtomicCrimsonRush
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Joined: July 02 2008
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Points: 14258
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 07:19 |
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Yeah me too - i gave up after 20 times..... thought the Nazis had taken it down... lol
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topographicbroadways
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 20 2010
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 5575
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 07:26 |
AtomicCrimsonRush wrote:
Yeah me too - i gave up after 20 times..... thought the Nazis had taken it down... lol |
 lets not start that topic again
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ExittheLemming
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 19 2007
Location: Penal Colony
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Points: 11420
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 07:29 |
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I think insanity has now been broadly monopolised by the legal profession i.e. it no longer denotes a particular mental state or mode of behaviour, but just a form of defence via diminished responsibility etc
Behaviour that is outside societal norms is no help to us here at all alas i.e. what is acceptable conduct in some cultures is viewed as 'completely deranged' in others (e.g. the English actually like cricket, go figure)
I've long been fascinated by those artists who seem to exist on the 'precipice of wholeness' while producing their greatest work but very often 'step off the edge' into the abyss of incoherence never to return e.g. Syd Barrett, Nietzsche, Jim Morrison, Artaud etc
As to what constitutes mental health or mental illness erm...perhaps behaviour that endangers oneself or potentially endangers others might be in the ball park?
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Negoba
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Joined: July 24 2008
Location: Big Muddy
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Points: 5210
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 08:40 |
I do mental health as a large part of my profession, so I'm going to sound pretty textbook-y.
Someone who has difficulty knowing the inner world from reality (and by reality I mean the world that the majority of people sense and perceive in a similar way...like boiling water is hot, the sky is blue, etc).
All you have to do is watch Charlie Sheen to see someone who has lost the line between his own imagination and the "real world." Cocaine does that to people, it's actually a very common pattern. Who know if he has underlying mental illness. But if you watch the interview, that's the definition of delusional.
The are people who are just a "leetle bit crazy" who simply perceive things at a slightly different angle, but are still interacting with reality enough that it has meaning for the rest of us. Alot of artists tap on that space. I think the original question is about the borderline place, where I think all of us can go sometimes. That's a very different place from when you're actively hallucinating.
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You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all.
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Equality 7-2521
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Joined: August 11 2005
Location: Philly
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Points: 15784
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 08:55 |
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I think we tend to perceive things in a very discrete way. As a result, we have these categories like normal, crazy, and really crazy. In reality I'd imagine it's more of a continuum upon which we all rest somewhere. So in that sense, yes we are all crazy to some degree. Clearly though some are much further along that line than others.
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"One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. "
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Negoba
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 24 2008
Location: Big Muddy
Status: Offline
Points: 5210
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 09:03 |
Absolutely.
In the space between wake and sleep, I think all of us can simultaneously live in the inner reality and the outer one to a degree.
And few of us truly grasp how much our personal experiences filter even our basic sense perceptions of shared experience.
Even in establishment psychiatry, there is a very deliberate effort to be clear that it is a continuum between traits and more serious disorders. We all know people (ourselves) with some obsessive habits. How is that different from OCD? Really the only difference is degree, and how much the habits interfere with the ability to have a reasonable life. Pretty subjective.
Some conditions are so severe that even once you cross the magic threshold of "no longer to fulfill major role obligations or complete daily life activties" things can still get much worse. Actual schizophrenia, etc.
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You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all.
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 09:31 |
Negoba wrote:
Even in establishment psychiatry, there is a very deliberate effort to be clear that it is a continuum between traits and more serious disorders. We all know people (ourselves) with some obsessive habits. How is that different from OCD? Really the only difference is degree, and how much the habits interfere with the ability to have a reasonable life. Pretty subjective.
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I think the degree of "obssesion", while not being absolute, can be categorised if only by the word "compulsive". Someone with OCD suffers (in my opinion/observation) more from the compulsion to correct disorder than they are obsession to put disorder into order.
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What?
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Negoba
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 24 2008
Location: Big Muddy
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Points: 5210
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 10:26 |
The stock definition of obsession is a persistent intrusive thought. The song that you can't get out of your head is an obsession though a mind and for most of us not life-altering kind.
A compulsion is a behavior that a person must do to dissipate the obsession (again the stock definition). Usually anxiety will build and build until the compulsive act is performed.
Cleanliness and orderliness are common theme in OCD but they aren't the only ones.
Now, in my observation, both obsessive traits / tendencies and full OCD are generally centered around a person's feeling of control vs. helplessness in their environment.
I'm interested in exactly what you mean by "disorder in order" in comparison to "correct disorder" i.e. what distinctions you make.
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You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all.
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 10:59 |
Negoba wrote:
I'm interested in exactly what you mean by "disorder in order" in comparison to "correct disorder" i.e. what distinctions you make. |
Dunno - I was reaching for phrases that essentially said the same thing, but were different. As you said, someone with OCD goal is to relieve the anxiety created by the disorder - they need to correct the disorder they see and regain their control, whereas someone who is just obsessive is not driven by that compulsion, they will put disorder into some form of order and call it an obsession (eg "obsessive" picture straighteners). The distinctiion I think I'm trying to make is that for someone with OCD the act is not the obsession, the need to impose it is.
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What?
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The T
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
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Points: 17493
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 12:45 |
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What Shields say. Psychologists these days are starting to avoid the "has it-doesn't have it" dichotomy with mental disorders and use a more degree-based approach. I have felt myself how I have some tendencies and behaviors that, taken to a larger degree, would constitute a disorder or cause me stress (an important factor). On the other hand, much of what's considered abnormal for me are just social constructs based on social behavior and daptability to what most people do, which is sad since it gives excuse to put lots of people, teenagers too, in mental hospitals and in treatment. In a way, the whole mental-illness thing is a functional tool to try to make everybody fit a standard, a control tool and nothing else. And can be abused and a lot.
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Vompatti
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Joined: October 22 2005
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Posted: March 06 2011 at 13:41 |
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Some people never go insane . . .
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Aren't we all insane?
