Author/Editor		Milčinski, L
Title		Obličja norosti
Translated title		The faces of madness
Type		članek
Source		In: Zupanič-Slavec Z, editor. Zbornik referatov Med medicino in literaturo. 1. Pintarjevi dnevi: srečanje medikohistorikov Alpe-Jadran; 1994 okt 14-15; Ljubljana. Ljubljana: Inštitut za zgodovino medicine,
Publication year		1994
Volume		str. 45-51
Language		slo
Abstract		From the author's point of view the idea of mental insanity is scientifically defined and is still developing. In fact, some 150 or 120 years ago the word "madness" would be used to define mental disorder: nowadays, we find it oldfashioned. It is used only among ordinary people in a pejorative sense. Yet the word "madness" culd be used in the sense of "unreasonable, irrational action or behavior", as described by Erasmus Disiderius in his well known work "Ode to madness". Actually our everyday life is full of "madness" of this kind, but very rarely we find it unreasonable and irrational. Let us think of destructive situations that the so called science could have brought us into. In his discussion Erasmus points out that mystics and extatics as individuals appear in the society from time to time. They have a profound knowledge of a true human destiny, but as we may learn from the history, they are almost never understood. The article comments on the recently published book "The Saint and the madwoman" by C. Clement and S. Kakar. The authors describe "mad behavior" of a psychiatric patient and an Indian prophet Ramakrishna. Is the eccentricity of the enlightened really more insane than the blind steering of crowds through the confused and misty stream of life, from birth to death? This dilemma is as old as our civilization and has already been discussed by the philosopher - daoist Lao Zi some 2.500 years ago.
Descriptors		MENTAL DISORDERS MYSTICISM