Blog 3 Topic 3

Insanity

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, insanity is the “severely disordered state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder.” Although this succinct definition gives a general idea of what insanity pertains to, it fails to encompass the varying degrees of personal experience that may alter the meaning of “insanity”. In laymen’s terms, what is “insanity” or “insane” to one person may not completely translate well on to another. The resulting difference in opinion may be derived from contrasting values, geographical boundaries, or lack of experience. For instance, an individual who was raised in west may see practices from the Gebusi and Sateré-Mawé to be completely deranged while inhabitants of such communities may hold these practices in high regard. Likewise, the character Blanche, from Tennessee Williams’s play A Streetcar Named Desire, may portray “insanity” to one individual while others may see her character to be “normal.”

                The weakness behind Merriam Webster’s definition of “insanity” is its inability to account for difference in opinion. Based purely on the description, “insanity” is a universally translatable term that labels a mindset to portray one that is disorderly or abnormal arising from an explicit stimulus. A potential improvement to the definition consists of simply adding an additional phrase along the lines of “may vary from person to person.” This small addition increases the definition’s variability and allows for the term to be used more leniently. Such a change would acknowledge the differing factors in one’s upbringing and thus promote greater understanding between cultural differences.

                One of the main influences that shapes our view on certain phenomenon is our culture. Depending on the environment one is raised in, the social norms in each community pushes certain acceptable habits. A western norm that is often overlooked is the use of a person’s first name when casually greeting them. In many eastern countries such as Japan, the use of one’s first name is reserved for significant others. Casual use of first names would be “insane” and lead to uncomfortable scenarios and misinterpretation. A more extreme example of cultural norms eliciting “insanity” labels in different cultures lie in the initiation rituals of the Gebusi and Sateré-Mawé.

                Gebusi customs dictate that young males are inherently born without semen, and so to compensate during their initiation into manhood, they are required to attain said semen through other methods. The method most commonly used to extract the semen is the method called the “fellatio.” Young males between the age of 10-13 participate by putting their mouths on the penis of older men and further use their own techniques to extract the semen.  Comparatively, in the rite of passage of the Sateré-Mawé, participating males must wear handmade gloves made of leaves containing bullet ants. Bullet ants are known to have the most painful sting in the world according to the Schmidt sting pain index. Young males must wear these pain-inducing gloves for 5 minutes on 20 separate occasions to complete the course. Though these customs serve as norms in their society, other societies may label these rituals to be “insanity.

                In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche portrays a woman who has lost nearly all things important to her. Throughout her lifetime, she has gone through extreme circumstances such as losing possession of her estate, suffering from the suicide of her homosexual husband, and being forced into sexual activity with her sister’s fiancé. As a result, she develops negative habits such as drinking and abnormal sexual behavior to allow her to escape reality and make up for her values and lost elegant lifestyle. Although her actions may seem eccentric and abnormal, I would not label Blanche as “insane.” Very few people would be able to live normally if they had gone through the exact experiences that Blanche was forced to undergo. Though her actions were not optimal for her well-being, they were rational enough for her continued existence. I believe that had Blanche received positive reinforcement for more “rational” behavior and moved away from toxic influences such as Stanley, then she would have adopted a more sustainable, normal lifestyle. However, due to a series of unfortunate events, she finds herself in an environment that does not approve of her habits and would rather isolate her over accepting her.