Bonitaj

Feb 20, 2010 ⭐ View statistics (Premium feature)

MENTAL ILLNESS

Bolshevics* to bedlam**we're well on our wayCharcot*** cannot help usit's after his day.Hysteria was the passwordto garner the insane,the split-self is schizoid -it's there in the name. We all long for succour,some psychic releasethey see us coming -  a diagnostic disease.Psychiatry has the DSM IV - page such and such says: 'either panic disorder, borderlineor a narcissistic quest for more...'"Take your pills Ma'am, let me show you the door !" Freud was the forerunnerJung had no cloutit's now the Existential phenomonologistswho fight it out!"Which therapy is the bestfor each diagnosis?Why none will do -  if they've got psychosis!" BjR 20/02/10 Word History: The word Bolshevik, an emotionally charged term in English, is derived from an ordinary word in Russian, bol'she, "bigger, more," the comparative form of bol'shoĭ, "big." Bedlam: a popular name for the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in London, which served as a lunatic asylum from ca. 1400; cf. MEBedleem, Bethleem, OE Betleem Bethlehem
Charcot, Jean Martin 1825-1893.
French neurologist known for his research into diseases of the nervous system. Sigmund Freud was one of his pupils.Phenonmenologists:coined from Gk. phainomenon (see phenomenon) + -logia, from -logos "one who deals with certain topics." Psychological sense, esp. in Gestalt theory, is from 1930.

— Bonitaj, Feb 20, 2010

About This Poem

About the Author

Region, Country: Tip of Southern Africa, ZAF

Favorite Poets: Too many to narrow down, but briefly :, AUDEN, T.S. ELIOT, DICKENSON, RILKE, THOREAU, RUMI ... the list is endless. Am inspired by many, especially those that live lives of "quiet desperation, and go to the grave with a song still in them" (THoreau)

Critiques

Bonitaj

16 years 3 months ago

Hey Indi!

Did you know that Borderline P.D. (Personality Disorder)has a large Narcissistic component? Fascinating stuff - check out a book called 'WHY IS IT ALWAYS ABOUT YOU'? Sandy Hotchkiss THere's a lot of 'em out there! (Narcissists that is!) Thanks for the read! Boni

Bonitaj

16 years 3 months ago

ps!

No problems here Indi! No self-respecting Narcissistic would come within a 1000 miles of admitting anything untoward! You're safe!! ;) Boni

Ink Dragon

16 years 3 months ago

Dear Boni,

I really enjoyed this clever write. I am reading a really great book about psychiatry/psychology at the moment, it's called "Irre. Wir behandeln die Falschen. Unser Problem sind die Normalen" (translates: Crazy. We are treating the wrong ones. The problem are the normal ones). I have always wondered about some of Freud's and Jung's theories, which seemed to me to be oversimplifying. Yours, ~Nina

Bonitaj

16 years 3 months ago

wow guys!

Thank you so much! I am amazed that you liked this so much - especially you learned, skilled poets! What got me thinking was a website I went to when I looked up some history on Bedlam! Fascinating! There's an entire history on the Hospital and they even show case studies with photos! Brilliant! I have such passion for this psychology thing - maybe because I discovered it so late in life! (i.e. had been crazy all those years and only then discovered WHY:) lol! Boni

Nordic cloud

16 years 3 months ago

To norm or not to norm...?

Ann of Norway Oh I did enjoy this one what fun a romp among the psychiatrists and psychologists and the pharmachologists and all that jazz. Too true, who is it that's not normal, who is it that's normal, what IS normal? I think I have a good dose of the not normal just enough to escape being incarcerated, but keeping a low profile in my environment is a good way of avoiding that. And the fact that firstly I was a foreigner who happened to be an 'artist' gave me the benefit of the doubt in the countryside of Norway, where otherwise I might not have been allowed such licence as I received!! Lovely fun Bonni thank you love from Ann.

Kailashana

16 years 3 months ago

The ego is such a terrible

The ego is such a terrible thing to waste. It's all we have, we dress and feed, medicate, obfuscate, irritate and truncate it every day. And no doctor in his/her right mind knows what to do about Maria. ;-) ~A

Bonitaj

16 years 3 months ago

Love your comments Anna & Anne of Norway!

Double day discount ;) Interesting how so much work has been done around the construct of THE EGO. It's huge in psychology and much maligned in common parlance! ;) Thanks for your comments ladies (or is that girls...?) lol Boni

Tam the Chanter

16 years 3 months ago

phrenology

The voices told me to let you know they like this piece. Just because one is paranoid it doesn't mean that they aren't watching you all the time. Mental illness is such an easy target for cheap shots , I'm embarassed to be doing it. I think we all fear it. Regards Ian

Bonitaj

16 years 3 months ago

thanks for stopping by Ian!

Must say I respect it more than fear it! It's definition and boundaries are unfathomable at best! Boni

Kailashana

16 years 3 months ago

We’re all voices inside

We're all voices inside each other's heads. However, mental illness is simple: one just listens to the wrong ones. Ha! ~A p.s. I do not take this lightly although I am lightly taken. I am the daughter of a bipolar man who was the subject of many research papers... he just didn't fit under even an usual and customary bipolar label. Fear of insanity was always a conscience thought... however, I found every human being is insane in as much we are disconnected from the source of life and each other. And so create hell on earth.

Bonitaj

16 years 3 months ago

THanK you for your honesty

and the clarity it throws on the subject matter. I think people with so-called mental illnesses have indeed been "touched by fire" and they are very special! Boni

Seren

16 years 3 months ago

Dear Boni

I felt this could have been expanded ... there was something missing in the end for me,cant put my finger on it ... as someone with schizophrenia I know the battle well, its possible to live a productive life with a mental illness ...the combination drugs therapy and my own relaxation techniques and a will to be better is a must and recognising the condition I call it knowing your monster ... Kind regards Jayne-Chloe

Bonitaj

16 years 3 months ago

THanks for your disclosure Jayne

Wish I could put my finger on what this lacks for you - perhaps you could give some suggestions? thanks for stopping by - and Yes! I have nothing but respect for all the Monsters out there! THere's a mind set that people with incurable diseases like HIV/AIDS use - that is to say - acknowledge the 'virus'/monster and say that you're only prepared to let it/him live inside you if he abides by your rules. Hey it works for some! I think it's positive and certainly puts the meaning of 'taking control of your own life' on to another level! Lol Boni

R.M.Shanmugam

16 years 3 months ago

a poem of need to

a poem of need to kunderstand. good. shan

Nordic cloud

16 years 3 months ago

a blue-print of ourselves in all our pristine ordinariness,

Ann of Norway I feel here is an area where the human mind is in limbo, where the insanely bent minds can meet the insanity of poetic minds in an area of otherness from this world, where we mingle our own minds in our own insanity (whatever the hell that is!!!) And tap essences that intoxicate our thoughts into thinking and doing things that ordinary, normal, norm people(whatever they are!!!) can produce works of art( whatever the hell that is!!!!) and move the masses with their rhetoric and ramblings of sensed absurdities, making a mirror magic and mysterious from the given atoms and cells we possess, a blue-print of ourselves in all our pristine ordinariness, or wonderful fantastic humanity. Phew!!! Ann.

mona

16 years ago

GREAT

I loved ALL THE POEM these lines I can see it (around me?!),,, Hysteria was the password to garner the insane, the split-self is schizoid - it’s there in the name.