Letter on Madness

Dear Sita,

     I hope you enjoyed Lila.  I am sending you these citations and articles on culture and mental illness which I hope you find useful for the Bridges course.  I believe that the research done in the sixties and before on culture in mental illness is still valid although not the politically accepted philosophy of today.
     One of the main points Pirsig makes about mental illness is that when we talk about our concepts of mental illness using modern science what we are ultimately talking about is our own values.  Psychiatrists are ultimately really social, cultural and political workers rather than medical.  Although we assume books such as the DSM IV are objective empirical criteria for diagnosing mental illness they are ultimately tied in with cultural value patterns that are particular to our culture.  What we are saying is that these cognitive processes and their resulting behavior patterns are undesirable.  This is a value judgment not all cultures make.  
     When we say “Schizophrenia exists across all cultures,” what we are really saying is that our modern scientific version of reality is more valid or true that say pre-scientific shamanistic cultures.  This is in many ways an ethnocentric assumption.  In fact in many shamanistic pre-scientific cultures, or the few that exist today, Schizophrenic people are not treated as pathological or sick, but rather as having, “divine madness” or such.  Therefore they are not stigmatized or rejected from the mainstream culture. Through their mythology the experiences the schizophrenic person goes through are not rejected as being pure sickness and pathology of no value, but rather are seen as spiritual journeys leading to further growth of the individual.  Therefore in many ways at least from the schizophrenic person’s point of the view the outcome of treatment in a Shamanistic culture leads to a happier more well adjusted life for the schizophrenic person.  
     Of course we can’t abandon our modern scientific version of reality.  However, we can come to see that mental illness and creativity are connected.  We could reexamine our assumptions that mental illness is entirely a negative experience that must be corrected.  We could come to see that like many life changing experiences mental illness can lead to greater insight into oneself.  
     What really needs to be changed is the condescending role many mental health workers take with their patient.  The, “I am the normal person ‘helping’ the poor deluded person to realize what is real and the ‘right’ way to live.”  There was a study once done in which some ‘normal’ psychology students faked their way into a mental hospital.  The doctors were fooled but the patients realized they were faking it.  This goes to show that the standard, ‘normal’ reality or way of viewing and perceiving the world, is not in all cases and at all times superior to that of the mental patient.
     As Pirsig said, “Although insanity may have its origins in biology, the only way of determining who is sane or insane in a court of law or anywhere else is by conformity to a cultural status quo.”
As Pirsig pointed out many psychiatrists take the role of priests from a hostile religious sect trying to get the heretics to recant.  If you question this it is a sign of your paranoiac misunderstanding of their good intentions and how serious your affliction really is.  
    These are radical and revolutionary ideas but then the history of mankind has been full of radical and revolutionary ideas which changed the course of humanity: Copernicus, Rights of Man, Descartes etc.  We are at a Turning Point in history at which the old Cartesian dualism needs to be expanded.  Rationality needs to be expanded to include experiences such as Schizophrenic people go through.  
      The next thousand years of humanity should be interesting indeed.  We are at a crossroads at which we can choose to plant the seeds for a better tomorrow or lapse into a dark age of old prejudices and close mindedness.  I hope you enjoy the articles!

Love, light, peace  
John Hindle