Then vs Now
Don’t try to relate the title and the heading, I’m not going to talk about the history of mental diseases. I’ll relate them later in the post…
The above image may look like something from the controversial animation movie inside out. But its also closely related to Schizophrenia. It’s a mental disorder that comes in many a form. One of the symptoms is that the patient hallucinates or in simple words..hears voices in his/her head. Its like… if the girl in the movie ‘Inside out’ starts hearing her emotions talk to each other. Why this preamble… ? Well.. before I narrate something, its only fair that I explain where I’m coming from…
I had a realisation / revelation this week. By revelation I don’t mean I also heard voices…. I mean that I pieced together something I never thought of before.. I had a colleague beside me.. and because I didn’t know how he would react..I put fwd this theory/realisation of mine as a quote by some stand up comedian… He liked the idea and agreed with me.. and then asked ‘Who said that?’… I minced my words a little and said I don’t remember..
It is a sensitive topic.. I mean now a days in India every thing is sensitive… So.. I’m not going to put fwd my idea like I did to him.. I’m going to give you an example and see if you can meet me half way through the idea…
I saw in a lot of movies.. English ones.. Kids have imaginary friends. Eg: The 2012 Billy Crystal comedy Parental Guidance. I like the movie a lot. Explains a lot about what’s wrong with the current generations parenting skills. Now.. back to the topic. In this movie, Billy’s grandson has a imaginary pet. A Kangaroo. His parents fearing that the kid will get mentally disturbed if they say anything, pretend that they see it too. The grand parents are initially shocked but play along because they fear backlash from their kids.. Now imagine an adult saying something like that..
What would be your initial reaction? Would you treat him like a nut case or would you believe him. I’m going to give you another movie example here.. Raman Raghav 2.0. Its a dark cynical thriller serial killer story. The killer in the movie.. speaks to Gods. Not just one god but all gods. He justifies killing people based on his interactions with god. He even calls himself.. God’s CCTV camera..
Man hearing God’s voice and killing people because god told him to.. Clearly a Phsycopath..
That Now. Not Then. Finally something related to the Heading of the post… Hold your horses.. I’m getting there.. The then I’m referring to is a couple of thousands of years ago.
Let’s say a man said to people.. he heard god’s instructions for mankind and who ever doesn’t agree or obey these instructions are to be killed or stoned to death.. What did people do? They wrote them down.. when from place to place.. did as per instructions.. In fact they are doing it even now.. They call this religion.
Let me take a less violent example… Another guy.. in the same period(then) sat below a tree and told people that he realised that the current way of life is wrong… and redefined everything.. It became another religion. Its a prominent one too.
This even happens till this day.. Though the registration process for new religion is tedious and success rate is less,we still have Mormons and Scientologists.. In India several self proclaimed god men live life king size talking about the voices they hear..
This is what I wanted to say… If someone heard voices in their head… Now they are put in a psychiatric facility and back then…..
If you agree with me.. you are free to ponder over it.. But if you don’t then please think of me as a schizophrenic..
Random thoughts of a confused primate 