An Obscurely Sane Situation

So Jon Ronson, author of the book The Psychopath Test, has been a superb book thus far and though it is my first Ronson story, I must say I am quite fond of his writing ability. In this book, Ronson tells the story from a first person prospective (Jon Ronson himself being the narrator), and he embarks on his adventure as a journalist speaking with psychologist, psychiatrist's, Scientology leaders, and any other doctor that might deal with someone who is, well, not quite right. One of his stories early on in the book has recently sent me into long periods of thought and dilemma. (I am going to try to do my best to not completely ruin the story). A very broad synopsis of what took place is, this guy named Tony, once got into some trouble and he was going to head to prison. At a young age, Tony was hesitant to go to prison and realized he had to get out. This is the part that has had my brain warped like a bad acid trip. He decided that he would FAKE his way into making the court and the doctors that he was insane by plagiarizing movies that involved "crazy" people e.g A Clockwork Orange. Tony being an apparently swell actor, pulled it off, avoided prison and was sent to a mental institute.

Well played right? Wrong. Tony was from what seemed so good at what he did that by the time he tried to speak with his doctors about getting out, they told him that he was not okay. So ironically, Tony, a normal guy  could fake his way into a hospital, however, when trying to be himself, normal, he could not get out.

Crazy I know. I was equally blown away by the circumstances, but then I started to think...if you were to walk up to a stranger assuming they were normal (only 1% of the world is labeled a psychopath so your odds are good) and told them to prove to them that they were normal, what would they say? For better argument, what would you say? Not to mention Tony is already accused of being mentally unhealthy. What would the first words be out of your mouth if someone were to approach you and ask to prove your sanity?

At first I thought that would be simple. Perhaps my name or something I enjoy doing, you know, a normal thing. But then I thought about if that is what other people would say? are my own thoughts sane one's? When I tell people information does it seem honest and true? How does my face look? Crazy? Normal? Confused? And question after question can be poured out of this ridiculous scenario but it made me realize a few things.

1.) It is bizarre to me that we have a diagnosis for what people who are crazy, psycho, insane, whatever you want to call it have a definition for them. They can be labeled and persecuted yet the definition for normal (normal state of mind, or having similar state of mind as general population..thanks Wikipedia) seems incredibly broad and vague.

2.) It is a lot easier to act crazy than act normal.

3.) From the looks of it, crazy people are getting a bad wrap.

4.) Thank you Jon Ronson for hitting me with an absolute mind-fuck.

p.s read the book The Psychopath Test it is really really good...for normal people.