Sanity And Ability

As the months go by, I become more and more aware of what I am trying to convey with this blog.

I think that one of my main goals might be to suggest that 2 words do not mean the same thing.

“Sanity” and “ability” are not synonyms.

In other words, I believe that a person might be sane and not able. Perhaps they are mentally healthy, but, for other reasons, struggle to survive in today’s world. They might have a physical limitation, or have other roadblocks getting in the way of being competitive.

A person might also be insane and able. Insane people are traditionally called “disabled”. There are many examples of mentally ill people who were quite able, in many ways– from John Nash to Syd Barrett, to (possibly) people like Nijinsky, Vincent van Gogh, and others.

Hence, when we say that someone is mentally ill, I believe that we really are referring to certain particular symptoms, and not to an all-around lack of ability.

To me, that is an important distinction. It asks healthy people to keep open minds about schizophrenia. It allows schizophrenics to feel hope that they still might be able to do great things.

Author: mystified13

Sole member of Mystified and Mister Vapor. View all posts by mystified13