Friday, March 28, 2008

I know crazy when I see it

From the MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia:

Psychosis: a severe mental condition characterized by a loss of contact with reality.

The symptoms of psychosis include:

  • Loss of touch with reality
  • Seeing, hearing, feeling, or otherwise perceiving things that are not there
  • Disorganized thought and/or speech
  • Emotion is exhibited in an abnormal manner
  • Extreme excitement
  • Confusion
  • Depression and sometimes suicidal thoughts
  • Unfounded fear/suspicion
  • Mistaken perceptions
  • False beliefs

Basically what we're talking about here is a mental illness that can prevent a person from functioning normally. If the condition is left untreated, there is a significant possibility of self-harm or harm to others.

Now obviously, I'm no doctor, but if Sanjay Gupta can pretend to be a doctor on CNN, I feel pretty comfortable pretending to be a psychologist on the internet and I'm saying that psychosis is a complex and severe mental disorder. The clinical definition, identification, and classification is best left to actual professionals, but it doesn't take Sigmund Freud and his cigar to figure out that if a person is manifestly, obviously, blatantly and repeatedly meeting ten out of ten defining diagnostic criteria for the batshit gibbering but-I-am-Napoleon fuzzy wuzzies, then you should be getting that person some serious help of the rubber room and Thorazine variety.

March 27, 2008:

The patient and his perception of reality: US President George Bush hails Iraqi leader for "Remarkable" progress. This isn't me making snarky comments, this is the situation as the patient sees it, in his own words. Watch the video, tell me I'm the crazy one here.

Google results for Iraq for the last week. This search-results set includes both Liberal and Conservative biased reports, from US, Coalition Nation, Uninvolved Nation, and Hostile Nation sources. Taken together they give a testable and accurate picture of reality on the ground. And, they all agree on one thing when it comes to the situation in Iraq - see if you can figure out what it is.

Let's do the math, shall we?

- Loss of touch with reality? [Check]
- Seeing, hearing, feeling, or otherwise perceiving things that are not there? [Check]
- Disorganized thought and/or speech? [Check and Check]
- Emotion is exhibited in an abnormal manner? [Big Check]
- Extreme excitement? [Varies - half Check]
- Confusion? [Check, Check, and Check]
- Depression and sometimes suicidal thoughts? [Check and I wish unknown]
- Unfounded fear/suspicion [Check and Check]
- Mistaken perceptions (illusions) [Check]
- False Beliefs (delusions) [Check]
Total: 95% positive is we're being generous, 100% if we're not.

Additional indicators:
Engaged in behavior harmful to others? [Big fucking Checkaroo]
Unable to function normally in society? [Check]
Bizarre Behavior in social situations? [Check]

Yeah, I'm the crazy one. Hand me the butterfly net, will you?


  1. Oh dear, and I thought you were writing about Ms. Clinton. Perhaps psychosis is a political condition.

    (And yes, I hate that I'm picking on Ms. Clinton, but that whole "They shot at me in Bosnia" business still has me grating my teeth into a fine calciate powder.)

  2. I'm just supremely tired of GWB and I hope he'll decide to just rest on his laurels, (such as they are), for the rest of his term.

  3. This is why I often hide under a rock.

    Cuz I've personally believed Bush was batshit crazy since 2000.

    If you like, I can hollow out some more room under here and you can all join me. After all, we're not THAT far from the Greenbrier.

  4. I think that anyone running for high-level public office has to be nucking futs to even contemplate the process... yellow journalism, campaign finance, bipartisan bickering, the whole shebang. And then there's the narcissistic element of it too... per the Mayo Clinic:

    Criteria for narcissistic personality disorder to be diagnosed include:

    * Having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
    * Being preoccupied with fantasies about success, power or beauty
    * Believing that you are special and can associate only with equally special people
    * Requiring constant admiration
    * Having a sense of entitlement
    * Taking advantage of others
    * Inability to recognize needs and feelings of others
    * Being envious of others
    * Behaving in an arrogant or haughty manner

    Instead of a UCF back fence, maybe we need a UCF bomb shelter, stocked with good beer, gourmet food and a lifetime supply of used SF books & DVDs.

  5. Hell, I'll hand you Dick Cheney's arsenal.

    Note to the Secret Service: I'm kidding. KIDDING. Internet silliness, nothing more.

  6. Huhn, and see I just thought they were suffering from plain, run of the mill, sociopathy.

  7. Forgot to mention that I notice that now the State Department has instructed all personnel to travel in armored vehicles and sleep only in reinforced bunkers while in the Green Zone because of the dangers.

