Shrink-o-Matic

Researching specific neurotic behaviors, I accidentally came across an article in Time Magazine stating, "In general, more highly developed personalities tend to develop neurotic quirks, more primitive personalities to go really crazy." Uh uh, they did not just say that! Time magazine qualified mental disorders as "crazy"? Is this a joke? Who wrote this? In my search for the un-PC (politically incorrect) author's name, I caught the date of the article: April 15, 1935. Oh, ok, that makes more sense. 1935. And on Tax day, too!

What fascinated me about this article is not only its elementary psychological language ("crazy"?) but its explanation of what psychotherapy means. Nowadays, there is hardly anyone alive who doesn't know what therapy is all about: to some, it's for the "crazies," and to the rest, it's a way of life! In either case, therapy is a staple of the medical field and neuroses don't even begin to describe the disorders that can creep out from the DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) into your medical chart.

But at the end of the day, what does it all come down to? Do people today still uphold the ignorant stigma that psychotherapy/psychology is only for the "crazy"? You betcha! However, ignorance of the field aside, I admit I got a chuckle out of the Time magazine article. After all, according to that, my neurotic quirks are not only not bad, but a sign of a highly developed personality! In other words, if you're intellectually evolved, you're likely neurtoic. Otherwise, sorry - you so crazy!

How un-PC is that? And yet, I'm laughing.

Is that so very wrong?