Defining Insanity

Paxil. Xanax. Zoloft. Prosac. We have become a drugged society. Veins that once pumped pure blood are now saturated with chemically-engineered, colorfully-encapsulated, side-effect-laden toxins. Mood stabilizers are the new black of the 21^st century. They serve as yet another attempt to normalize civilization. Although the medication may be a new-age way of thinking, the idea of streamlining societal behavior is an innate aspect of civilization. It is because of this obsession with ‘the normal’ that anomaly and abnormality draw such attention and have the power to create impact.

While walking through the Uffizi the other day, one of our classmates upon hearing the name, “Goya,” immediately exclaimed, “oh, Goya, the one who went insane.” I’m not particularly knowledgeable about the specifics of Goya’s life, but the one thing that every scholar, author, and professor seems to agree on is that he went crazy. How was ‘crazy’ defined in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries though? Today, he would perhaps just be classified as clinically depressed. It his artistic aberration however that has given breath to his fame. Marcus Aurelius once said "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." With this being the growing trend of the 21^st century however, the insane has morphed into normality, and the mundane is seeming just a tad bit crazier every moment.