Casey, on May 27 2007, 12:58 AM, said:
Grandpa Harley, on May 27 2007, 01:32 AM, said:
The joy of 'care in the community'... there again Martin Luther (the German Preacher, not the Civil rights guy) often heard the devil in the night...
Rather a sidebar, I know, but when Luther visited what was then East Prussia, he proclaimed it was inhabited by many evil spirits. Given the events of 1939 - 45,
perhaps the mad now and then know something we don't, eh?
Casey
Well I think all humans have the capacity for this kind of imagination and visualization. My grandmother lived with my parents when she was in the advanced stages of Alzheimers. Living with her helped me get some insight on the complexity of the human mind. Mom did not believe in using meds to control her mind so she (grandma) had spells when would talk all day and sometimes all night. What amazed me most was that she still knew some things, such as when she had to go to the bathroom, but she did not know the language for it.
She would start having this dialogue with a person only she could see and she would "talk dirty" so I took her to the bathroom and that solved the problem. Many a time did I feel so sorry for her because she was angry at invisible people, and felt that people were mocking and torturing her. As a teenager and young woman she had gone through a lot of church-related trauma. I figured some of this was coming to the fore. Another thing that obviously was coming through was her dead baby. She had a baby that died. I understand she was not allowed to see it and that this had very seriously bothered her at the time. Also, before she got married she worked in many homes of families when they had new borns, some of whom did not live long.
I think some of this haunted her, too, in her old age with Alzheimers. My mother's sisters helped care for her. One day one of these aunts came out of Grandma's rooms and said, "A baby has died!" Grandma wore the long dress and apron of traditional Mennonite garb. In those times when she thought a baby had died, she would bunch up her apron and hold it close to herself like a baby. She might also cry.
I have this theory that the only difference between them and us is that we have the capacity to divide life into the "real" and "unreal." Or the dream/imaginary and the concrete/material. With reference to the statement above re the mad might know things the rest of us don't. I think you're onto something, Casey. Humans have believed that this kind of thing is evidence for non-terestial beings such as gods and demons. I believe it all originates and ends in the human psyche.