[quote]Professor X wrote:
[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
[quote]Chushin wrote:
[quote]digitalairair wrote:
Mental illness is all about context.
Put a “schizo” in a more ancient society people will rever him as “shaman”, in an artist setting, a “genius”, perhaps.
[/quote]
True to some extent, but some folks are downright unable to function well enough to care for themselves.
That hardly is “contextual” illness.[/quote]
I’m with you Chushin. My sister is bi-polar with gnostic delusions and it doesn’t matter what context you look at it in, when she is out of her mind there is nothing artistic, creative, or anything that could be interpreted as genius.
Coincidentally, she has a genius level IQ, and on her way to a manic peak can be explosively productive. Then it gets ugly. Work and family relationships become strained. Jobs get lost, ties are broken, and its time to start calling emergency rooms or waiting for a call from the police.
It’s easy to mistake coincidence and cause from a distance, but when you are up close and personal with someone who is mentally ill and see the ugly and unglorified effect is has on the lives of the people who suffer from it and the people around them, the philosophical and romantic notions about a crazy genius become null and void.
Granted, there are the John Nash’s and Pablo Picasso’s of the world, but for every one of them there are millions currently, through out history and social context who are just plain sick, suffering and dead.
[/quote]
…But along with that, you have many people who simply do not operate on the same “wavelength” as other people and this doesn’t necessarily destroy lives or anything like that. Public perception of minor disorders would go a long way to possibly even reducing the need for medication in all cases.
I agree, mental illness can be very dark and emotionally violent…but context is everything.[/quote]
Yeah, I can relate to and understand the wavelength thing to some extent, and do believe that having some mainstream knowledge of some disorders would go a long way in reducing the need some people see for medication too, especially in vocational training and human resources departments.
It’s been said many times that I operate on a different wavelength, must be crazy, from another planet, etc., and more often than not I will tend to agree. When most people saw a global economic catastrophe- I saw a good time to buy a house, start a little stock portfolio, and shore up my education. When some people see a guy with a cleaning/organizing ocd, I see a guy who would be great for 5S implementation and compliance.
When skillfully utilized some of the things that are considered disorders can be very powerful assets, but for a number of severe mental illnesses you will be hard pressed to convince me that there is any time in history or place in society where those affects can be useful.
