“can't we allow people to just live in their delusional/fantasy world or other dimension or whatever a while and come back when they are ready”
I should be writing an academic essay, but this plea for compassion and patience by my friend Magpie has distracted me from my assignment. My immediate thought in response was the word 'fear.' We don't allow people to live in their own mental worlds because it frightens us: the unknown, the unfamiliar, the deep jungles of our psyches. We fear freedom. Psychiatry is deputised by society to drag us away from madreality, back into consensus reality, because ultimately we fear freedom.
In the Western world we pride ourselves on our freedoms – particularly freedom of speech whereby we have the right to express our thoughts. “The right to express our thoughts, however, means something only if we are able to have thoughts of our own.” (Erich Fromm) Dissenting thoughts are one thing (and barely tolerated if that) but mad thoughts are forbidden: shackled away and stamped out in hospital wards.
The same friend has drawn my attention to the idea of 'safe spaces' with his critical stance on this concept. Can such a thing ever really exist? The purpose of a safe space is to provide haven from discrimination and abuse. Wikipedia describes safe spaces as "intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations." Yet there is a real tension between safety and freedom – they don't coexist. Regulating potential threats means establishing control, an artificial construct that aims to curtail freedom where it can. I understand the desire to mitigate offensiveness within safe spaces, but then I'm reminded of Bill Hick's throwaway comment, “life is offensive.” It is indeed. But it's one thing for an able-bodied, rationally-minded white man to cause offense; another thing entirely should a black, disabled, mad woman cause offense. Safe spaces are an attempt to address the imbalance of power – though whether they are an effective means remains questionable.
Anyway, I realise I've bitten off more than I can chew here; my assignment beckons and I don't have time to dig much further. But I want to post this anyway, because there's something in it to offer, and to come back to. Freedom, power, safety, madness... all to be explored in madreality.
photo by Basil James on Unsplash
Good luck with your assignment, Julia. I enjoy reading your words.