Madness and Civilization

 

Why do we fear and shun the “mentally ill”?

Michel Foucault suggests mental illness is historically a replacement for leprosy as a social scapegoat. We need someone to despise, some untouchable caste. 

But still, why the mentally ill? Why not the bicycle riders?

The question came up in relation to a book I am reading with my students, A Separate Peace. A friend of the narrator becomes psychotic in the army, and deserts. He tries to confide in the narrator. The narrator tells him to shut up about his experiences and literally flees. 

This feels typical.

My students initially suggested it was because we fear violence from the “mentally ill.” This is of course a common idea; it is in all the papers. Whenever a violent crime is committed, the perpetrator is said to be mentally ill.

Yet, statistically, this is not true. Statistically, those classed as mentally ill are slightly less likely to be violent than the general population. Far less likely, if you exclude the narcissists and psychopaths. They are, on the other hand, far more likely to be the victims of violence. 

Someone who is genuinely depressed, after all, would not have the strength of purpose to do anyone harm. Someone who is truly psychotic would probably not be able to coordinate his actions well enough to be dangerous. Not sure what is real, he could not coordinate acquiring a lethal weapon, or formulating or executing an effective attack. The most he might do is swing wildly. If you count narcissism and psychopathy as mental illnesses, yes, they are violent, skewing the statistics—but these are the very people who will not appear to any casual observer to be mentally ill. 

Moreover, in the novel we were reading, there was no question of the friend suddenly becoming violent; rather, our narrator assaults him.

So the idea that the “mentally ill” are violent looks like an alibi, not an explanation.

When this explanation seemed not to make sense, and informed by the circumstances in the book, I think my students hit upon the real reason. It is because we fear that a crazy person might tell the truth. Not in full command of themselves, they have slipped the social constraints that generally prevent the rest of us from so doing. Being anywhere around them is therefore frightening to anyone invested in lies.

This works two ways. Anyone honest enough to always tell the truth will be soon declared mentally ill, as an excuse, if a delusional excuse, for refusing to listen to them or accept their claims. And anyone driven by conscience to tell the truth may accept the label, even believe it, as a survival strategy. It is easier to accept that they are insane and just imagining things than that everyone around them are, or that they are all lying.

A thought that often makes me hazy:

Is it them, or am I crazy? 

    -- Albert Einstein 

This seems a sufficient explanation for all mental illness, as much as for the general fear of it. It is the same reason that they crucified Christ. Those who dwell in darkness fear the light.

Solzhenitsyn maintained that, if at any moment one person had determined one morning to speak only the truth, the old Soviet Union would have collapsed in a day. He was unreasonably optimistic. Some of course tried.  They simply were declared insane.

This is the case in any community, from the global culture down to the level of the family or couple; to the extent that they are based on lies, anyone who speaks truth is declared mentally ill. True mental illness is never an individual phenomenon.

And this explains the growth in the incidence of mental illness in recent years. The madder the culture, the more must be martyred to the psychiatric prisons.