what is crazy?
i once owned a 1979 monte carlo. it was two tones of green; one ugly, the other hideously ugly. when i bought the car, the radio didn't work; neither did the horn. every other day or so, though, i would start the engine and turn on the radio to see if anything had changed. every time i got the same result - a dead radio. one day, however, i indulged in my usual habit of turning the dial to 'on' after starting the ignition and i heard static. after fiddling with the dials i picked up an oldies rock station and every day thereafter, the radio worked.
now this was no miracle. as it turns out, i had had a problem with a turn signal or the dashboard lights or something and had searched for the cause until i found two burned-out fuses. so i replaced them both. it was the day before the radio started working. the solution had simply been a burned-out fuse but i never would have realised the radio was now operational had i not habitually checked to see if would one day miraculously come to life. a few days later, i realised my horn was working, as well.
they say the textbook definition of insanity is 'repeating the same action while expecting different results'. this doesn't work for me. suppose a man walks into a dark room and flips the light switch and the light comes on. so he flips the switch the other way and walks out of the room. then he walks back in and flips the switch again. the light, of course, comes back on. now, suppose he repeats this action over and over and over and each time the light comes on when he flips the switch. by definition, for him to expect any other result is insanity. but what about the one time weeks later when he walks into the room and the light doesn't come on in response to the switch being flipped? obviously, we all know that the bulb has burned out but the result has still dramatically changed.
so my question is this: was the man sane after all? or is insanity sometimes correct?
now this was no miracle. as it turns out, i had had a problem with a turn signal or the dashboard lights or something and had searched for the cause until i found two burned-out fuses. so i replaced them both. it was the day before the radio started working. the solution had simply been a burned-out fuse but i never would have realised the radio was now operational had i not habitually checked to see if would one day miraculously come to life. a few days later, i realised my horn was working, as well.
they say the textbook definition of insanity is 'repeating the same action while expecting different results'. this doesn't work for me. suppose a man walks into a dark room and flips the light switch and the light comes on. so he flips the switch the other way and walks out of the room. then he walks back in and flips the switch again. the light, of course, comes back on. now, suppose he repeats this action over and over and over and each time the light comes on when he flips the switch. by definition, for him to expect any other result is insanity. but what about the one time weeks later when he walks into the room and the light doesn't come on in response to the switch being flipped? obviously, we all know that the bulb has burned out but the result has still dramatically changed.
so my question is this: was the man sane after all? or is insanity sometimes correct?
posted by scøüpe at 11:12 PM
2 Comments:
I've yet to actually find a textbook definition of insanity. The word doesn't occur in the majority of my psychology books. They prefer the terms "severely disturbed" or "suffering from a mental disorder."
There IS a textbook definition of mental disorder: "A disturbance in a person's emotions, drives, thought processes, or behavior that a) involves serious and relatively prolonged distress and/or impairment in ability to function, b) is not simply a normal response to some event or series of events in the person's environment, and c) is not explainable as an effect of poverty, prejudice, or other social force that prevents the person from behaving adaptively, nor as a deliberate decision to act in a way that is contrary to the norms of society." (Psychology, 4th edition, Peter Gray)
So, if the question is, what is crazy in regards to one man's expectations when flipping a lightswitch, then my best answer is, well, does he freak out about it when it doesn't work, or does he just replace the lightbulb?
Which is a long way to say, I have a blog now just so I can leave you comments. http://mostlyawake.blogspot.com
oh my god! is greg actually active again ion his blog. it's about damn time. look forward to hearing your commentaries once again.
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