Why we’re all crazy

Most people don’t consider themselves crazy. Sure, mediocre and uninteresting individuals will call themselves “crazy” in a vain attempt at uniqueness. And loads of people pay a great deal of money to mental health “professionals” to have themselves diagnosed defective in some way; so as to validate both their feelings of inadequacy and their sense of entitlement to an elevated level of deference from their family and friends. But, putting all these societal trappings aside, people don’t consider themselves crazy – that is a label reserved for others whom we find threatening, incomprehensible or simply unpalatable. 

But, I’ve come to realise, we’re all crazy! That’s right. You, me, all of us. It is the work of social theorist and psychologist Dieter Henrich that has brought me to this realisation. In his essay “Hegel Grundoperation”, Henrich explains that human consciousness is comprised of an I-subject and an I-object. In order to speak about our thoughts, our feelings, our reactions, our minds (both to others and to ourselves) – we externalise our consciousness from the confines of our minds. In other words, when you admonish yourself for being scared or shy, your I-subject is telling your I-object to behave. When you can’t help but react in an emotional and irrational way despite yourself, your consciousness is being objectified by an I-subject that you believe yourself not to be in command of. Confused? I don’t blame you.

So what does this all mean? You’re nuts, basically. We are all. In a way, we all suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorders (formally known as Multiple Personality Disorder). In order to talk to ourselves, or to talk about ourselves, we must separate or disassociated our consciousness.

In other words, you have to be more than a little crazy to be called sane.