Fathers' Day, a time to reflect on life? I don’t think so

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A Father’s Day get-together with friends and two of my sons (the neuroscientist in Ann Arbor and my black son an internist in Detroit) got a bit vibrant.

This stemmed from my online and public stance at Quora and Academia.edu (plus elsewhere) that “insanity” is a misnomer for what would be better described as mental disarray, a position not unlike that of Thomas Szasz, noted here the other day.

I recognize that some persons go “crazy” in the common sense – acting out of the ordinary or normal way of things.

But persons who say they hear things or see things – common examples in the UFO literature as I mentioned the other day here – actually see and hear what they report or tell others.

Both sons agree. But some of their colleagues and friends – girlfriends among them – disagree.

People who have what are commonly called hallucinations or visions – like Joan of Arc or the three Fatima children – can be called temporarily insane or crazy, a common barb – temporary insanity. They are not dangerously insane as those who shoot up fellow humans they have no connection with. But they are mentally defective, even for a temporary moment.

Yes, madmen (and women) who kill people indiscriminately as happened several times the past few days, may be said to be insane but neuroscientist Josh insists that the gun-shooters are not insane in a psychological sense but have an ingrained moral or ethical  disability that is learned and bolstered by a flaw in their biological brain, caused by a number of things, all determinate if they were to be examined.

Normal persons, if there is such a group, son Alexander noted also could have temporary mental defects, caused by food or ingestions or malfunctioning biological systems that cause them to sense things that are not actually there but derive from remembered input from a previous time.

We went off on a back-and-forth about memory and consciousness that took us astray and my sons’ friends were not inclined to dig into the UFO aspects I tried to introduce.

The outcome is that some professional or academic persons see apparently normal persons having hallucinations that come upon them suddenly for no apparent reason and no one bothers to check what may have brought their observations or odd sounds to sensory reality, for them.

We, most of us, at the gathering, were of the opinion that insanity has been maltreated (and my adoration of Freud is wrong-headed despite the fact ! that everything has a sexual patina about it – movies, literature, TV shows, poems, music and especially, advertising).

UFOs are not grist for dinner or social talk among the millennia set and insanity or mental abilities are a topic for another time other than a sunny day, on the lake with lemonade and common vittles.

(The photo atop is for intentional illustrative purpose, to make an extra Freudian point)

RR

http://ufocon.blogspot.com – The UFO Iconoclast(s)