The Mask of Sanity

I remember watching the show, the dog whisperer. An emotionally unstable dog was introduced to a placid pack of dogs. The dogs in the pack immediately sensed the instability of the newcomer, and barked in unison to reject the new dog. The unstable dog later had to be put down.

We know what unstable dogs are like. They bite and snap with impulse for no apparent reason or in gross over-reaction. So what makes dogs emotionally unstable? The same things that make humans unstable. Trauma, abuse and neglect, especially at the earliest periods of life.

However, we do not usually see humans acting-out with aggressive or uncalled for impulse, unless the internalised trauma is chronic. This is because humans have what dogs don't have - a giant neocortex. The neocortex is a major player in repression and emotional control. It allows us to mask emotional madness, and likewise mask the worst effects of a problematic childhood.

But like dogs, other humans sense our madness instantly, though we don't worry too much about it because it's so common, not usually dangerous, and we usually come to be skilled at dealing with 'difficult' people. And indeed, in our world there's almost not a single human that can say they are without trauma and its effects. We're all a bit "rabid dog" to some degree.

However, that giant neocortex is both a blessing and curse. It allows us to carry the species on in spite of ourselves, which is kind of great, but at the same time it can stop us from getting rid of mental sickness as well. You could crudely argue that it would be better for heavily damaged humans to kill themselves off, so healthier specimens can take over the resource base they're occupying. Indeed, some would argue that wars--at least some of them--are an unconscious form of mutually-assisted suicide, to achieve exactly that end. Life is usually cheap in highly damaged societies...but that's another story.

There's a point where the controlling neocortex fails us, in part. That is, conditions where the social pressures are weak, which in turn makes us free to overtly act-out the private madness that's really there. That is in the private home. This is where the madness within can let itself loose - and on the people we can get away with losing it with. Mainly, our children.

This is how child abuse becomes inter-generational. You can't rehabilitate someone out of a nasty childhood. That would be like rehabilitating someone out of autism. It sadly doesn't work that way. When mum and dad don't have to be nice and socially acceptable, they let it all out for better and worse. In turn their children will end up pretty much like them - damaged.

The mask of sanity is created when we're under pressure to play it cool in public life. And we have a pact of silence between each other when it comes to our private truths. Indeed, the very conversation I'm trying to provoke is in itself politically taboo. No one wants to talk about it. We only like talking about child abuse at its most gross extremes, not so much the normal-level abuse which is too close to home. Hence, though people don't typically argue against what I'm talking about, trying to get a conversation going on abuse, neglect and infantile damage, is like trying to start a fire with wet wood. It falls flat. We don't want to know. We would rather just preserve that mask of sanity.

                                                 -Andrew Atkin

Note: I do not want to appear too black in this article. There's a lot we can do to step by step, generation by generation, liberate ourselves from our damage - especially the worst of it. I made a video on this [here] and have written a lot throughout this blog on mental sickness.

Nadine Harris has made an excellent video on mental health, as well.