Ashlyn Rojas Mr. Hegarty AP Seminar November 2015 The Socio-Cultural Construction Of Genius The concepts of insanity and creativity are so closely connected through myths, they must be analyzed together to gather the most information. The interaction between madness and genius is a socially established tradition, particularly in the west. Within these cultural myths, not only does madness evolve from genius but genius is formed through madness. Overall socio-cultural myths "legitimate and elevate, shackle and constrain, and have societal implications far beyond the reaches of its own confine" (Lavis 2005). "Insanity is not just an individual atom, a biological accident, but forms an element in the history of subcultures in its own right" …show more content…
Culturally, especially in the west, an isolated man is a madman. "A man without a group is not a man." "This construction of deviant and dangerous isolation was tempered by the asylum in "the great confinement." (Foucault 1989). The image of isolation was then adopted by the genius; most commonly "the artist sitting alone in an attic or basement" (Lavis 2005). The genius also gained many other traits similar to "the madman." "Madness and genius are regarded as transgressions from which truth is seen to be reliable and normative boundaries of the "unspeakable" are contravened. (Martin 1987). Madness is a socio-cultural construction in which briefly everybody becomes "insane" in order to become the "unattainable other" ( Lavis 2005). As a result madness becomes confined and …show more content…
In many instances, the muses are perceived as multiple personality disorder. "To see multiple personality disorder as a deviation from the norm forces us to consider what the norm is" (Hawthorn 1983). In society, this disorder is seen as menacing and vicious but also as fundamental to the concept of genius. According to the poem La Muse Malade by Baudelaire, genius and madness are contradictory-both innately within and calculated, and also out of control of the individual (Baudelaire 1995).The aesthetics of insanity are interlaced with the muses; distress and artistry. Through the multiplex of intentionality and insanity appears the duality of terror and allure. "Western culture understands disease, even mental illness, in aesthetic terms. Our discourse about the ugly is also our discourse on disease" (Gilman
Madness: A History, a film by the Films Media Group, is the final installment of a five part series, Kill or Cure: A History of Medical Treatment. It presents a history of the medical science community and it’s relationship with those who suffer from mental illness. The program uses original manuscripts, photos, testimonials, and video footage from medical archives, detailing the historical progression of doctors and scientists’ understanding and treatment of mental illness. The film compares and contrasts the techniques utilized today, with the methods of the past. The film offers an often grim and disturbing recounting of the road we’ve taken from madness to illness.
It is hard to comprehend how and why people lose their sanity and become mad. I will address how the mind’s struggles caused by individual genes, stress and social-cultural influence affect the lives of Naomi, a 24-year-old college student with schizophrenia and Eric, a 27-year-old classical musician with severe depression. Their thoughts and behavior surprised me as this is my first time exposed to what these mental illnesses are. The relation between the mind and the body and the fact that the emotions affect the functioning of the body and vice versa explains the how and why a person become insane.
People fear what they do not know or understand. Madness, or insanity can be defined as severe mental illness or abnormal behavior. It can mean that one cannot conform to society or is simply foolish. Every definition of the word, however, pertains to some deficiency in one 's relationship with oneself or the world. If a man cannot get along with people in the world because he does not operate by the same set of logical principles, moral precepts, or social graces that the society around him accepts, that society might consider him insane. When people presume that someone is mad they begin to categorize them into groups and restrict some of their freedoms. This is illustrated in several books and films that depict how people are inhibited from doing what they
It is a commonly supposed that geniuses are able to produce their masterpieces because they are geniuses - because they do not act according to the customary social expectations of “average” human beings. They ...
The sickness of insanity stems from external forces and stimuli, ever-present in our world, weighing heavily on the psychological, neurological, and cognitive parts of our mind. It can drive one to madness through its relentless, biased, and poisoned view of the world, creating a dichotomy between what is real and imagined. It is a defense mechanism that allows one to suffer the harms of injustice, prejudice, and discrimination, all at the expense of one’s physical and mental faculties.
What is madness? Is madness a brain disorder or a chemical imbalance? On the other hand, is it an expressed behavior that is far different from what society would believe is "normal"? Lawrence Durrell addresses these questions when he explores society's response to madness in his short story pair "Zero and Asylum in the Snow," which resembles the nearly incoherent ramblings of a madman. In these stories, Durrell portrays how sane, or lucid, people cannot grasp and understand the concept of madness. This inability to understand madness leads society to fear behavior that is different from "normal," and subsequently, this fear dictates how they deal with it. These responses include putting a name to what they fear and locking it up in an effort to control it. Underlying all, however, Durrell repeatedly raises the question: who should define what is mad?
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Porter, Roy. A Social History of Madness: The World Through the Eyes of the Insane. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. New York: 1987.
History has always held a place for the "mad genius", the kind who, in a bout of euphoric fervor, rattles off revolutionary ideas, incomprehensible to the general population, yet invaluable to the population's evolution into a better adapted species over time. Is this link between creativity and mental illness one of coincidence, or are the two actually related? If related, does heightened creative behavior alter the brain's neurochemistry such that one becomes more prone to a mental illness like bipolar disorder? Does bipolar disorder cause alterations in neurochemistry in the brain that increase creative behavior through elevated capacity for thought and expression? Is this link the result of some third factor which causes both of the two effects?
"Every man is to be presumed to be sane, and ... that to establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of mind, and not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong."
History shows that signs of mental illness and abnormal behavior have been documented as far back as the early Greeks however, it was not viewed the same as it is today. The mentally ill were previously referred to as mad, insane, lunatics, or maniacs. W.B. Maher and B.A. Maher (1985) note how many of the terms use had roots in old English words that meant emotionally deranged, hurt, unhealthy, or diseased. Although early explanations were not accurate, the characteristics of the mentally ill have remained the same and these characteristics are used to diagnose disorders to date. Cultural norms have always been used to assess and define abnormal behavior. Currently, we have a decent understanding of the correlates and influences of mental illness. Although we do not have complete knowledge, psychopathologists have better resources, technology, and overall research skills than those in ancient times.
“The ones who are insane enough to think that they can rule the world are always the ones who do.”- Stefan Molyneux. Insanity is an inherently foreign but ancient concept, it can be defined as when the mental processes of a person functions out of the social norm. An example of a person with such a mental state is Crake from Margaret Atwood’s book, “Oryx and Crake”. Crake is a mature and brilliant but unhinged person, who is responsible for the destruction of mankind, who believes that the root of all problems in the world is man himself. This could define Crake as a psychopath, with an askewed moral compass, as he knows what his actions are wrong but he continues with them. In the tale, the main character, Jimmy/Snowman, recounts his past
Forever has insanity plagued our lives. From the beginning, those who were not what society considered normal were labeled out of their minds. We look back at the old medicine men, and what do we see? Men, who themselves, were insane enough to think of crazy ways to heal our headaches and everything that ailed us, yet we’d hate to be one of them. None of us want to be labeled crazy, out of our minds, or insane. It is the one constant fear in humans, it’s what is hiding under our beds and in our closest, at ages so young we still have night lights. It causes us to scream, hide, and call for someone else to help. Just one person to tell us that we didn’t imagine things and we are not indeed losing our minds. But the truth is the real meaning of insanity is being lost.
Madness is a disease. It’s a disease that can exponentially consume the host and make them lose their minds overnight. Allen Ginsberg, a famous beat poet, was a victim to madness. Under his circumstances, it was a disease that was incurable. Ginsberg, along with the other famous beat poets of his time in the 1950s’, had a remedy to his madness which was what he did best, create poems. In his famous poem, Howl, he vividly and emotionally paints a picture of a horrifying time in his life in which he was consumed and destroyed by madness. In HOWL, it is clear that the three parts of Ginsberg’s poem echoes the theme of madness with the use of form, tone, and language which in turn shows us of how our society really is
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