Irrational Unknown: Fear of Madness

When I was a child, madness was the most terrifying affliction I could imagine. The idea that I might not be able to control my own life was bad enough. But to think that I might be controlling it, yet in ways that my conscious mind would never allow, was enough to give me nightmares. The irrational unknown inside me was terrifying. The notion that I might be someone other than the sane person I thought I saw, when I looked into the mirror, was simply horrific. The idea of losing rationality and, with it, my central core of me, that hub around which my life revolves, has always been more frightening than anything else I can think of. This sense of horror is not unique to me. The Fear of Madness and the Irrational. We still, today, see people who clearly are suffering from recognised psychological disorders, being subjected to ‘exorcisms’ – the result of which can often be death – in parts of the world where science has not lit the darkness of religion. There are