by now you have the idea that you know me. while i will never be able to assert the validity of your assumption, what i know is that you could be very far from knowing me. just a few days ago a friend and i realized that although we have known each other many years, and that while we trust and love each other unconditionally, we are both very far from knowing the other. i could add that this is not surprising, i am also very far from knowing myself.
yesterday i had the privilege of being guided through the exhibits at the psychiatric museum in berne by the museum director, a faculty member of the well known waldau klinik. the institution is well known in switzerland and outside in particular in the art and literature worlds mainly due to the fantastic opus created by adolf wölfli, its most famous patient to date. besides an historical perspective of the treatment's evolution of those whose behavior falls out of the normative, the museum gives a sampling from the creations of other patients in the clinic. i could have spent hours and hours looking at the drawings, paintings, and sketches exhibited which constitute a very small fraction of the collection.
sobering is not only the fact that while the treatment methods and therapies have changed greatly throughout the 150 years of the existence of the clinic, the percentage of the population needing psychiatric treatment (mostly schizophrenia ) has remained constant. what is more alarming is that the number of depression patients is increasing. in europe, switzerland has the highest rate of suicide.
what does all of this have to do with me?
i do not know, what i observe is that normal includes a small fraction of schizophrenia, manic depression, depression and other unsettled states of mind.
while walking out of the park like grounds of the clinic i went past some hedged in rabbits; one of them was just sitting there staring blankly at the grass with its front limbs hanging in front of its chest, to me, he was the most zen rabbit that i have ever seen.
