Are You Crazy?

[renderman]

We all know that much of the hacker community is, eccentric to say the least. We all have our quirks and interesting facets to our personalities, but are they just part of the normal spread of personalities or are they actually disorders.

This article was the impetus for the question: http://www.naturalnews.com/028803_ps...y_disease.html

It basically states that there is a push to make any deviation from the center line of 'normal' a disorder that needs to be treated.

So the question for discussion is: Are you crazy?

[LosT]

Re: Are You Crazy?

WTF.

There is no hope for me then. And I don't even drink.

I *live* to do weird stuff. Not because it's weird, but because it makes me happy.

And who is to say what is normal? Come on.

If that line of thinking is followed, we'd have no Tesla. Or Kaku. Or Sagan. Or Feynman. Or just about any awesome-kick-ass-inventor-scientist.

And can you imagine if all artists were the same?

Guess the Mystery Challenge crew is doomed.

[Voltage Spike]

Re: Are You Crazy?

And who is to say what is normal? Come on.

I always thought normal was the thing that went perpendicular to everything else. No?

[charliex]

Re: Are You Crazy?

normal is just average. where is the fun in that.

[theprez98]

Re: Are You Crazy?

Sounds to me like we're all certifiable.

[xor]

Re: Are You Crazy?

Only on Mondays, the rest of the time I'm normal

xor

[YenTheFirst]

Re: Are You Crazy?

I'm not Normal, I'm Gaussian. :P

[Thorn]

Re: Are You Crazy?

Other "disorders" being considered include personality flaws like antisocial behavior, arrogance, cynicism ...

Cripes, that's 95% of the people I know, including most of my family.

[theprez98]

Re: Are You Crazy?

In Sir Ted Robinson's TED talk entitled "Do schools kill creativity?" (link), he recounts the story of famous British dancer and choreographer Gillian Lynne:

Lynne's gift for dancing was discovered by a doctor. Lynne had been underperforming at school, so her mother took her to the doctor and explained about her fidgeting and lack of focus. After hearing everything her mother said, the doctor told Lynne that he needed to talk to her mother privately for a moment. He turned on the radio and walked out. He then encouraged her mother to look at Lynne, who was dancing to the radio. The doctor noted that she was a dancer, and encouraged Lynne's mother to take her to dance school.

Today, she would have been diagnosed with ADHD or something similar and prescribed a bunch of meds.

[Chris]

Re: Are You Crazy?

You got to be crazy, you gotta have a real need
You gotta sleep on your toes and when you're on the street
You got to be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed

[sintax_error]

Re: Are You Crazy?

I'm normal, it's the rest of the population that are bat shit crazy. To me normalcy is striving to go beyond the standard or average. If being bored with what is "normal" makes me crazy, so be it. I personally don't want to be classified as normal, because what is "normal" to the masses isn't living for me, it's simply existing, and who the hell wants to go through life merely existing? Normal is something that will be defined differently by individuals and to some extent by groups of individuals. Hell, the first 6 sentences of this article likely finger the majority of this community to be off their respective rockers. As where the members of said community would likely state the opposite.

[YenTheFirst]

Re: Are You Crazy?

Hmm. This is interesting enough to warrant some research. Are there any strong arguments in favor of adding what I would call 'personality quirks' to the DSM as actual disorders?

I suppose on one level, if a person has a negative personality flaw, which interferes with life & interaction with others, and they wish to change this aspect, but find themselves unable to do so, then that might be something which merits treatment.

A disorder is:

(medicine) A physical or psychical malfunction.

. That seems ambiguous enough that you could argue that personality flaws are technically 'disorders'. (It still wouldn't make them serious enough to warrant attention or treatment for the general population, in my opinion).

If these personality 'flaws' are to be considered 'disorders', though, it would imply & assume that things such as deferment to authority, optimism, and limited desire to have sex as the natural functions of humans. I don't think this is the case, myself.

While "oppositional defiant disorder" may be a negative personality aspect, I'd say it is inherently composed of some beneficial components. Even assuming that antagonism, short temper and disobedience are negative, skepticism and assertiveness aren't.

[bascule]

Re: Are You Crazy?

I'm not crazy. Institution, you're the one that's crazy.

[Nikita]

Re: Are You Crazy?

I'm not crazy. Institution, you're the one that's crazy.

All I wanted was just one Pepsi.

[hexjunkie]

Re: Are You Crazy?

Crazy is defined by the person's perspective.

To me I am a sane normal person, to someone else what I do or how I act is as crazy as any person in a "loony bin".

So to answer your question, we are all crazy in someone else's eyes.