Just came from class (spirituality and mental health) where we read selected chapters from Foucault’s Mental Illness and Psychology. I found the discussion to be very meaningful for my own personal growth and reflection, listening to various thoughtful perspectives. At the end of the conversation we reflected on a quote by Foucault “Psychology can never tell the truth about madness because it is madness that holds the truth of psychology.” Such a profound statement that I’m not quite sure what to make of it (if you have insights on this, please share your thought). In the following chapter he states, “The contemporary world makes schizophrenia possible, not because its events render it inhuman and abstract, but because our culture reads the world in such a way that man himself cannot recognize himself him in it.” I came away thinking that perhaps we live in a society that decides to draw a line in order to separate the normal from the abnormal (based on a certain given criteria at the time within the sociological and historical context). For us who have been exposed to many cultural beliefs and practices, we know that the line can be drawn in so many different ways and that each time a line is drawn, people are excluded. A line can inflict great pain. A line is a very powerful tool. My reading of Foucault is that we decide to draw this line and then we invest our energy and analytic skill at studying this very line that we drew. We drew the line and we study the line that we drew. Perhaps this is why “psychology does not hold the truth about madness.” Just a thought.
I’m not sure I can add anything about psychology here, but I do know that my father had a notebook for something – a journel for a marriage encounter workshop her was attending – it was a standard lined paper type of notebook, but my father wrote in it – across the paper -
“When they give you lined paper – WRITE SIDEWAYS!”
(Yes, he was a rebel in most ways)
What a profound statement…I love it. “When they give you lined paper–writesideways.” I will make sure to quote this!! I think this is what it is all about…draw our own line.
I concur that writing sideways may be just what is needed at times…something you might find interesting as far as a personal response to crazy and psychology…when your having problems drawing the lines your speaking of, go talk or simply watch someone with schizophrenia, the way they think is fascinating…it seems that in their world everything is connected and sometimes when your drawing a line you forget to see what that line connects.
Ryan, you are so right about schizophrenia. I have met a couple and everyone of them try to make sense of their ‘paranormal’ experiences in a way that we may not understand. But it is meaningful to them. To take this even a step further, we are all controlled by our neurochemical configuration. The world we see and experience is, to an extend, chemical. Is it the real world we are actually interacting with? I’m not quite sure. It seems as if our basic chemical component shares similarity…and not an accurate representation of the reality itself.