Homo Sapiens or Homo Insanus you decide.

I’ve decided to open this blog by addressing the obvious and fundamental question.

What is Insanity anyway?

The dictionary definition leaves much to be desired (available here).  It only deals with legal and clinical forms of insanity but does not address the fundamental insanity that is by far the most common.

After years of study and contemplation I propose the following definition.

Insanity:  A state of mind where one believes that one’s ideas about reality are reality.

The following quote illustrates how this works.

With our concept making apparatus called “mind” we look at reality through the ideas-about-reality which our culture gives us.  The ideas-about-reality are mistakenly labeled “reality” and unenlightened people are forever perplexed by the fact that other people, especially other cultures see “reality” differently.  It is only the ideas-about-reality which differ.  Real (capital-T True) reality is a level deeper.

Principia Discordia pp. 50

Consider the story of Ignaz Semmelweis.  He was a doctor practicing at the first obstetrical clinic at the Vienna General Hospital in the 1840’s.  Ignaz proposed that childbed fever (a common infection in women after giving birth  at the time) could be prevented if doctors washed their hands prior to delivering babies.  The idea was rejected by the medical community as it did not agree with their ideas about reality.  Ignaz eventually lost his job due to his “unreasonable” obsession with hand-washing.  Other doctors were offended by the mere thought that their hands could be considered unclean.

This case is interesting as it is now commonly accepted that washing hands before delivering babies is a good idea.  In fact a doctor who proposed otherwise would most likely lose his job.  Not washing your hands before delivering a baby would not agree with the medical community’s ideas about reality.

So the question then becomes.

how can we determine how far our ideas about reality are from reality?

Stay tuned for more . . .