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Painting and Story by Lehan Winifred Ramsay
I am thinking that it is very bold of me to venture into the domain of myth as we have amongst us Atomou, a true scholar. But the public debate – one with two sides with no ears – last week moved back in to mental health and this is a place I have some curiousity about. I wish I had kept a copy of one comment I posted that was knocked back, as it was I thought quite good but I will try to return to that moment here.
The “mad” were once considered seers. Not all of them, I’m sure, but some were. They appeared to be able to see into the future. Cassandra was given the gift of being able to see into the future, perhaps by Apollo. But then in an act of total spite he cursed her with small print – that nobody would ever believe her.
It appears to me that mental illness can carry with it something that resembles Cassandra’s gift. It is a sensitivity to pattern. Is mental illness a “bad fit” – that the individual somehow comes into conflict with their environment or community and for whatever reason is unable to conform to their thinking and action? For a multitude of possible reasons – that they are simply incompatible, that the individual has some unacceptable behaviours, that the environment or community has some unacceptable behaviours.
Perhaps sometimes merely through belief that they are correct and do not accept correction. There is either a great necessity to evade correction to remain safe or a smaller necessity to evade correction to remain convinced of that correctness. For whatever reason they become aware “of the air”, as they say in Japan. They develop higher skills in pattern recognition. Those patterns being patterns of behaviours or actions that are unfolding. They learn to recognize how things happen, which patterns lead to good results, which lead to unfavourable ones. And they learn how to head them off.
It’s quite a skill, when you think about it. It’s also a skill everyone has and uses. But for a person who has developed a conflict with their environment, this skill is highly sensitized and particularly acute. It’s acute because it is detecting developments that could be dangerous to the individual ego or actual physical safety. It’s acute because it is aimed at preventing things from happening. Because this individual’s sensor is far more sensitive than those around them, they are seeing things developing much earlier.
Firstly this means that their reaction to those emerging patterns is going to seem abnormal and far too strong for what is actually happening. But secondly, they could be wrong. The patterns that they are seeing may not develop in the way they are expecting. And their reaction to those patterns may in fact be part of the pattern itself. And importantly, it might be that the more unsettled the person is, the greater the selection of data from which those patterns are forming. This means that they might be recognizing a pattern from something else, so the level of distress is an important factor in determining the accuracy of those patterns.
I’ve experienced the recognition of this in myself. First I began to feel stressed by some interactions, even though on the face of it they appeared not to be particularly serious. Next I found myself in a couple of situations in which my reaction surprised the people around me and also myself. I felt a little ashamed, but also curious. This has happened before, what is this, I thought to myself, and spent a lot of time going over everything that was going on around me.
What had happened was this. There was an initial interaction. It was quite innocuous. But some time before that the same persons had initiated a very similar interaction, once or on multiple occasions, and each of those interactions had led in the same way to an unfavourable outcome. My response was to the pattern, but the strength of my response was to all of those previous outcomes. I was also signalling that I would not allow this strategy to happen. The strategy appeared to be a kind of manipulative use of socially acceptable interaction but it appeared in hindsight that they were actually using that socially acceptable interaction as a form of manipulation to achieve an outcome that was not really acceptable to me at all.
I suppose I had signalled to the other person that I would not allow the strategy. But to the onlookers I had signalled something else. I had signalled that I was over-reacting. If they were surprised by this it is likely that they were not aware of the interaction at all. It was not a group strategy, it was an individual strategy. And it was helpful to know that but that too came at a cost: they were now likely to distrust my future reactions. This is, I suppose, the curse of the “mad” – that even a response is tricky. The response is to the ongoing interaction, not to the actual dialogue or action. That ongoing interaction cannot be seen by those around it if it has taken place over time. So we are talking about a time-based problem.
Can the “mad” see into the future? In a way, perhaps they can. Perhaps though the real curse is that they cannot predict that that particular possible future is the one that will happen with any real certainty. We cannot know how their knowledge might contribute to an unfavourable result. But that anyone knows anything at all about what is unfolding is perhaps an advantage to us. I believe that it may be to our advantage to return to a point of listening to madness, rather than trying to cure it.
This does not mean: to give up our interventions. It means: to pay attention. It may be trying to tell us something. Patterns of individual communication are strongly affected by our environment – and I am particularly thinking about our media and our public dialogues.
Lehan Ramsay said:
Pathological liar. One whose logic escapes them.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
Sociopath. Psychopath. Narcissist. All of which I suppose mean “kooky”.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
Paranoia. A mental condition whose name contains “annoy”. Unfortunate that the person who named it thus missed that. A condition in which a person likely to be under observation for “not normal behaviour” is judged to have a mental condition on the grounds that they feel themselves to be under observation. A mental condition which is itself a condition for diagnosis of a more serious mental condition.
A condition that in this age of observation has surely become obsolete.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
All bets are off. It’s Rupert World.
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Voice said:
He he. Yes, point taken absolutely. But not really such a conundrum as all that. In the first place that’s only a small subset of paranoia. In the second place, believing someone is watching you isn’t paranoia unless you perceive it as hostile. Medical observation isn’t hostile and so doesn’t justify the paranoia.
One problem with diagnosis and differentiation between normal and abnormal is that there is a continuum of behaviour/thought processes, and any particular thought at any particular time might not be obviously abnormal. In that case it comes down to an abnormal pattern of thoughts. Then there is the extreme when the person is obviously delusional.
I know abnormal is not a fashionable word. But compare it to weight. There is quite a wide range of normal weight for age, but there is also a definite abnormal. Identifying abnormal should be a positive thing – it should lead to some alleviation of the problem or of the consequences of it.
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Big M said:
Why be normal??
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Voice said:
Because Big, not to be a wet blanket (or maybe being a wet blanket), as you well know as a nurse, normal doesn’t mean average. It means within a range where it’s not causing a huge problem.
Anyway, as you wrote earlier, sometimes people choose to be abnormal or not to treat it. I have to admit, if I were ever to chose to be abnormal, it would be to retain mania if I was manic-depressive, or to take speed (but I’m too sensible). The energy! Manic-depression in a manic phase is amazing.
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Voice said:
P.S. I really like that painting. I don’t know why. The colours. The compartments. The dog and cat. Anyway, I do.
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Voice said:
It looks as if everything is wilting in the red zone.
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sandshoe said:
I’m across that comment, Voice. Thank you for pointing that out re the wilting. Thought provoking. I recognise a lot of enjoyment to be found there in the colour too. (Ho ho ho the dog and the cat 😉 )
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Voice said:
As for pattern recognition by the mentally ill. “The mentally ill” is too broad and fuzzy to talk about. But certainly some people effectively have a pattern that they impose upon others regardless of fit. An extreme case being the “I am under attack” pattern for the paranoid for example.
When I was a child I met a paranoid man. He arrived in Australia from the US for a conference with a broken leg, and related a story of having had to jump out of the hotel window in Malaysia to escape thugs. When he returned to the US a few weeks later the airline wouldn’t let him on the plane without a nurse/guard. Having been a child I don’t know the details of when he was diagnosed or why he was able to travel here unaccompanied in the first place.
Sometimes it’s less a case of pattern recognition than pattern imposition.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
Yes. This story is not about mental illness.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
The Abbott certainly seems to see it.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
And like the internet, you are giving your approval by saying nothing.
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
Strangely quiet day at the pub today, Lehan. I suspect it’s been an early night for most of the patrons. I’m off to dreamland right now, myself.
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vivienne29 said:
Hi Lehan. I’m never on the net in the evening (unless there is some extraordinary situation happening – like election results !) but I did comment early on in the piece. I loved your conversation with Lehan. I’m pretty much with you.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
The first group hits the second group to gain the approval of the third group. Who will vote PUP. Which is not a populist party. But will be a popular one. Probably this strategy simply prevents the independents or any other possible party from having the influence it did. Or should. I suppose it was used on the Democrats, back when, but I know nothing about that.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
The government says: you’ve had an election: that’s your democracy. But what used to regulate government, really. The unions. Workers. The Commonwealth Bank. The airlines. The post office. The Public Service. People facing up to angry citizens at the front desk. The schools – publicly funded schools. All those things they’re doing away with. There really is very little accountability now. And what made us different from America? I think it was that accountability.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
The British used to have it too.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
North Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the new Russia? Probably more about Thatcherism than anything, don’t you think? We tend to get bogged down in old-fashioned debates a bit sometimes.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
Rudd seems to have changed something in his months of power that the Libearls are exploiting; that’s what you get for not thinking something through. But anyway the politics isn’t local, it moves in waves from one country to the next, conservatism and whatever or some new idea. Likely it’s always happened that Australia and England influenced each other and then England influenced America because it’s flows of information between connected people. Australia’s outcomes are more influential now because of Murdoch. Anyway Murdoch’s big trick has always been to get his memes into other people’s media; that’s what he’s always done, and that’s done not by people approving of something. Often disapproving is a much stronger way to get people talking. And once people start talking the job’s mostly done. The thing is; the media is now a kind of cassandra; it’s trying to interpret information and predict outcomes and act on those outcomes. Don’t assume that just because the information’s there that the outcome is certain. There is so much trickery these days I’m surprised they can even see their own faces in The Mirror. The japanese word for future, by the way, is mirai. And the japanese word for volcano is kazan. Just in case you’re interested.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
doro – mud. Lava, thus tennis, also relationships. Words are really interesting things, I believe we’ve been quite fooled by them. Scientific terms, for example.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
I have no feeling of trust for our leaders but I am trying to understand what they’re all in such a fluster about. One thing appears to be the particular tendency at the moment to form alliances with marked hostilities; whether right against left, one group against another, one belief against another, one country against another. And the particular strength that technology has in facilitating that. We also seem caught up in America’s neurotic struggle with itself, and likely too Murdoch’s particular struggle with mortality. We’re caught up because we’ve been dazed by meaning. Starting with advertising, creeping into the rest of our media, creeping out of our televisions into our lives so that we’re so manouvered and constrained I sometimes wonder why they would BOTHER to monitor us. But they do, so I assume that there are some aspects they haven’t figured out how to dog whistle to. I was not around for the entire Howard switcharoo so I have no idea whether I’m just a bit shocked at how people are falling into line. Also by how easy it is for them to be distracted off something onto something else, it’s like toddlers. That’s also one of Murdoch’s big skills by the way; distraction, distraction from distraction. Also relying on the usual thing, which is that people get really fired up about something and then lose interest. Governments know how easy it is to get people to forget about things; they just bore them. So I suppose they must be wanting us to pay attention to something at the moment. It’s looking to me strongly like that thing is: look how smart we are. Which makes me think that it’s an overseas audience.
One thing that ISN’T particularly strong at the moment, which surprises me, is the “poor against rich” scenario. Although I seem to be pretty fond of it myself. We are somehow all so APPROVING of rich. But that’s television for you.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
Thanks. You know I first noticed it you guys. How much you were affected by the things you were watching on TV, how much the media you were watching was actually shaping your discussions. You know one part of Australia seems to be watching one thing, one part of Australia seems to be watching another, another part another again. You should be aware of that. And maybe go a bit out of your comfort zone, otherwise you won’t see it.
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sandshoe said:
Hello, Lehan
You are right regards how much ‘us guys’ are affected by the things we watch on TV. Re going out of my own comfort zone, there felt nothing comfortable about being in my shoes when I have expressed adamant concern about that feature of communication… but neither when I indicated I joined here and got involved believing it was not an arm of the discussions or style of conversation on the ABC forums. The latter has an historical hook however I reckon on and that there is a culture that will live on in reference to the ABC forums and conversation others can know nothing about. That is culture.
I can see different perspectives I have thought through …on my own because I have never been met with discussion on the specific comments I have made. Discussion can be whatever it wants to be (by some argument) and discussion is exclusive (“go away that’s none of your business”) or discussion is conclusive (“enough has been said about that”).
The time I have spent reading material here includes thinking about what will increase opportunity for others to join in and what will inhibit that given the nature of contribution is conventionally to be across media reports and how people do or do not perform/or are perceived on television. The audience here is limited by that in one sense. However, the pub is struggling for alternative input. We need more volunteers because a culture will simply not change itself.
It isn’t comfortable being prepared to step out of a comfort zone.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
Go Shoe! Dig up them goalposts!
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Lehan Ramsay said:
Cause if there’s anything wrong, there must be a problem with the system. No, that’s what the system is for. For things that go wrong.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
And in that way no, it isn’t like the rest of the medical system.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
Because of course in the rest of the medical system when we detect a problem it means that the system is working.
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Voice said:
Either that or someone has complained so loudly that detection of the problem is unavoidable
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Voice said:
She says just before shutting down.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
Sadly, complaining loudly is seen as the problem itself. Isn’t that a problem? You’ve really hit the nail on the head there. We need to listen. Don’t you think?
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Lehan Ramsay said:
Cool, thanks guys, I wasn’t sure if I was correct about that.
So I suppose we can make the assumption that if there is mental illness, there is something that is not right.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
It seems our society may have forgotten that bit.
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Voice said:
You can make that assumption if you like but it’s not necessary – it’s true by definition of illness.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
What is an illness, after all.
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Jayell said:
An illness, is just a malfunction of part of the Higgs Boson. You know the God Particle.
Some of us handle it well though and others can’t cope.
it’s electronics really.
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Lehan Ramsay said:
You know I met a Higgs Bosun once.
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Jayell said:
must be a country cousin Lehan. They alwys put a U in.
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Big M said:
He was the First Mate’s Uncle.
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
He was a poop deck head, Big.
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Big M said:
I wuz wrong, Poop Deck Head, how do youz get a job doin’ poop deck headin’?
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
Apprenticeship in the Mondrian Brothers’ Marine Division. Off Shore, for sure.
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Big M said:
I’m orff ta bed, now that I’ve ‘ad a whinge, an’ a wine!
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
Nighty night, sweet sister.
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Big M said:
Thanks Darling!
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Jayell said:
I know a seer.
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Big M said:
Thankyou, Lehan, for this insightful piece. I have, through work, been able to have some conversations with the ‘mad’. Some are difficult to converse with, either they are just ape-shit crazy, or there is insufficient time, or will, to get through. Others are quite candid. They know they are mad. Some even claim to enjoy it. There are some with bipolar disorder, who try to manipulate their medication doses, to keep themselves in a slight state of mania, a difficult and dangerous behaviour. the saddest, to me, was a woman who had suffered pueperal psychosis, after her first pregnancy,but never fully recovered. To her, her brain had simply let he down, wandered off with it’s own, unintended activities, which, unfortunately, endangered her, and her family.
Then there are others, who, we forgive for aberrant or excessive reactions, like those mentioned in the article, because, we know that person is ‘under stress’, ‘has been ill’, ‘has a lot on his plate’, yet can be unforgiving to those who’s reactions to some social situations seem odd. ‘He’s strange’, ‘don’t invite her’, that bloke ruined the party’. Perhaps these individuals need more listening, more talk, more social interactions?
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
So, she said to me “You look a bit down. Are you OK ?”
I said “Well, I feel a bit down but I don’t know why”.
“Tell me anything that’s bothering you”
“I’m worried about the boy and how he has no interest in anything other than computer games”, I said. “If he continues like this he will bomb school, miss out on uni and be virtually unemployable”.
“I think you’re catastrophising a bit. What if he does bomb school ? What if he wakes up at 20, instead of 16 ? Is that so bad ?”
“I guess not”, I said.
“I think you might be ‘projecting’ your own fears about being out of work”, she said.
“I think you might be right” I said.
“Back to the mindfulness principles”, she reminded me.
“Ah yes, thinking about what I am thinking …. there goes that old job insecurity thought again. Let it go. It’s not reality, it’s just a perception. And you’re building a persecuting monster on the basis of a falsehood. Here’s another thought – the job market does seem to be coming back to life. And another – I am a skilled, intelligent and experienced person and the world needs people like me. I have many advantages. And another – I can and will approach the job of getting a job more energetically and I will stop catastrophising, stop projecting, stop worrying about the boy”.
Is ‘madness’, like depression, another form of wrong thinking ? Can we become less mad by taking a step back from our thoughts, accept that shit does in fact happen, not dwell on it and question whether there might be other, more positive or more productive thoughts to be getting on with ?
If one is accused of being mad, or in fact if one feels mad, could a good response be to say “Well, that’s a piece of information that may or may not be true, may or may not be important, may or may not be fleeting ? But I choose not to accept that it is the entire me forever and ever. And I may choose to seek help to resolve the concern.”
Many thanks for another of your wonderful thought-provoking pieces, Lehan.
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vivienne29 said:
Interesting insights there Lehan. There are mad buggers and then there are mad buggers. It’s when the mad buggers don’t know they are mad and other mad buggers don’t know who is mad that the madness getter madder. We’re standing in it now – it’s called Australia 2014.
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sandshoe said:
Professor Oliver Sacks’ story I have cited before about the drummer with a mental condition that meant he behaved in excessive ways (that was key to his success as a local drummer) springs straight to mind. I recalled the story he had developed a party trick highly admired by observers that he timed a rapid entrance through a set of revolving doors as an athletic feat and medicated damaged himself badly. In consultation with the good professor he was able to express himself strongly that his world, or sphere of influence had become for him topsy turvy since treatment, that he was relatively impotent when he took medication that specifically treated his symptoms for him to conform.
Although my illustration of what I thought of is independent of ‘mad’. It simply came to mind in regard to your final sentence, aside your acknowledgement is particularly media and public dialogues… and ‘mad’ aside is very much up for grabs and grabbers who want to worry it like a terrier or exult it, this ‘mad’ state. Ironic, there I go, I happened on the word ‘state’ …so easy when we introduce the word ‘mad’ for me to clutch, speaking of grabbing, at ‘state’, the stage of being something or other, from a temporal viewpoint a point in time relative to something that does something. The very implication is that somehow all around it will be inert. Another part of me (perhaps that’s idish or not so) wants to now link my use of ‘state’ with the act of political and social union explicit in the use of the word to describe in Australia (and other administrations) borders and boundaries, limitations we can say. Our extrapolations can carry us through a dictionary.
‘Mad’ is a condition of non-accountability. Speaking to the nub of what is essentially ‘mad’. We all know who is essentially the maddest in the Kingdom…o, I’m sorry…I forgot…this is not a Kingdom, but a democracy. My apologies. Nice bit of writing, Lehan. You are a gem.
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gerard oosterman said:
Correction; it helps ‘to’ take
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gerard oosterman said:
Yes, it is tricky and unfortunately we have limited tools at our disposal to interact with others on a level sensitive enough not to cause conflict at all times. We all have antennas to pick up signals from each other but often it is a stab in the dark and rely so much on gestures, looks, eye contact, sounds etc. and often don’t allow for things not to be as they immediately appear. It helps no take contrary views and then let it simmer and for enough time to lapse to weigh up all possibilities.
I hope this article gets many responses…
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