MCLC: Book explores fine line btw genius and insanity

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Book explores fine line btw genius and insanity
Source: Global Times (1/6/16)
Domestic writer's new book explores the fine line 'Between Genius and Insanity'
Domestic writer Gao Ming explores a world of lunacy
By Lu Qianwen
Given the chance to spend time in a mental institution, would you go for it? Many people would probably decline, asking: "Are you crazy?!" This was also the reaction Gao Ming usually got from his family and friends whenever he told them he was too busy to go out with them because he was busy traveling to different hospitals to talk to patients suffering from mental illness.
"In the beginning, I was doing it just out of curiosity. I wondered what the world looks like in their minds," said Gao, who recently published an unabridged version of his 2010 book Between Genius and Insanity, a collection of his conversations with nearly 200 mentally ill patients. His previous shorter edition, was hugely popular and has currently sold around 2 million copies.
Between 2004 and 2008, he visited dozens of mental hospitals around China to talk to patients, a group that has long been ignored by the public and in some cases even their families.
"Their backgrounds are very diverse, ranging from farmers to the highly-educated. Some of them have really interesting ideas and interpretations about certain phenomenon or subjects, but they are also a bit sad, as their reasoning makes so much sense to them that they find themselves trapped deep in a world of their own logic. They can't stop thinking along their own line of reasoning and so can't get out. It's really painful to see," Gao told the Global Times.
Stigmatized and ostracized
For years, the image of the mentally ill in the eyes of the public has been polarizing. On one hand they are seen as special since the idea is that they walk the line between gifted and insane, like John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. On the other hand, they are also seen as a group of extremely dangerous and violent criminals who appear in newspaper headlines from time to time and are capable of anything.
In many ways, the world of the mentally ill mirrors some of the helplessness many people feel when it comes to perception. Gao mentioned that sometimes he would ask his interviewees about the harmful behavior that some mentally ill individuals have committed. Many of them could only sigh awkwardly. "It's just like when you hear someone tell you about how your fellow countrymen once again did something really bad-mannered overseas. Although it has nothing to do with you, you still feel embarrassed," said Gao.
Stigmatized by the extreme behavior of a violent minority, those suffering from mental disorders are kept at arm's length from society as a group. Meanwhile, even with treatment there is no guarantee of recovery. In 2013, Gao and a patient suffering from mental illness appeared as guests on Phoenix TV's program To the Dream. When the host asked them if there ever was a case where a patient recovered completely, Gao said that one doctor mentioned to him that one patient took two years to reach the point he could reenter society.
"A team spent two years helping one patient. This shows we basically have no effective means to completely cure a mentally ill patient. This is not just China. It's pretty much the case all over the world," said Gao.
Mad genius
One silver lining that comes from reading Gao's Between Genius and Insanity is that readers are inspired to talk about and get to know more about mental illness. Of course, interviewee candidates were carefully selected by Gao with the advice from doctors, and so were limited to those who were capable of communicating and were not prone to violence.
A 17-year-old boy mad about quantum physics was one of these interviewees. Attempting to talk with him on seven different occasions but not understanding a thing, Gao dived into research on the field. Sitting in on lectures and even bringing a university professor with him to talk to the boy, Gao finally made some progress in communicating with him.
"Stepping across time, humans (as a whole) are just really long worms that can stretch from bed to streets, to schools and companies, to those many places..." the young man told Gao.
And after going on at great length about the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, the young man put forward his conclusion: Time doesn't move, it's we who are moving.
Actually quite a few of his interviewees were wild about quantum physics.
"It's a discipline that can easily drive someone mad," said Gao.
No one knows if their research into this discipline  caused them to lose touch with reality, or whether they became infatuated with the subject after they began to lose touch. What we do know is that the world is a very different place in their eyes.
Patients with consistent internal logic are especially appealing to Gao. They are also the reason why he finally decided to write these stories down and share them with the public.
Their logic can be shocking at times. One woman in the book loves to talk to stones. In her mind, stones are old creatures that have always watched over human beings. According to her, in the eyes of stones, humans are just a transitory species. They look at us as we see short-lived bacteria.
Prevailing helplessness
While these stories may sound cute and fun, Gao's interviews weren't completely without tension. In order to make conversations go as smoothly as possible, he tried to be as inoffensive as he could, such as not wearing any flashy jewelry or colorful clothing, not pointing at them with his pen or asking questions too frequently. Even then, he encountered some situations where things spun out of control and patients became agitated and hit him.
"I asked the wrong questions," Gao explained.
However, these experiences didn't phase him. What makes him even more uneasy is the prevailing sense of helplessness that surrounds these patients.
"In our life, those who are the happiest think very little, but these people, they can't stop thinking," said Gao.
The ideas of some patients have even attracted the attention of some advanced research institutes. Cambridge University once asked Gao to help them get in touch with one of the patients in love with quantum physics, but when Gao returned to look for him, he found that this individual had committed suicide.
"It makes one feel very helpless," Gao said.
by denton.2 at osu.edu on January 9, 2016
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