Psychosis is a state when one can not distinguish what is real and what is not.During a psychotic episode individuals experience a state where they hear , smell or experience things that are not happening.Psychosis can be so scary for the person that experiences those episodes as it affects cognition, perception, mood, behaviour and movement. Genetics and environmental factors define the onset and prognosis of any type of psychosis.As I have said many times those individuals with the appropriate help can be functional and learn to control the psychotic episodes.Of course psychotic episodes can also be drug induced or brief psychotic episodes that appear in a stressful period of ones life and leave as sudden as they appeared.
Last week I watched on the theater a play called "bug". The whole story is unveiled in a motel room where Agnes is leaving in fear as she finds out that her ex husband is on parole. Then her friend comes to visit her and they stay drinking and snorting cocaine in her room.Her friend introduces Agnes to Peter a person that she recently met.They are left alone and start falling in love.After they make love Peter starts observing bugs inside the sheets.Agnes can not see them but Peter says that they are really small and feed of our skin.Then Agnes finds a secret.Peter said that he was in the army where they experimented on him and things start to get worse.More bugs and an interplay of fantasy and reality.
Throughout out the play are mentioned many conspiracy theories.Conspiracy theories can leave people living in fear, in agony, in terror in an almost psychotic states sometimes.Can actually conspiracy theories induce psychosis?Can they make people even more vulnerable to any government and media demands?So many thoughts on psychosis....
(art by krecha)
10 comments:
Well, I just returned from the theater and the play was excellent, with its intense performances, and a misleading plot that darkens and darkens and darkens as the play goes on.
I can't really tell if it was the play itself or the fact that this was my first theater attendance since '05. I'm not a huge theater geek but I do relish the experience. You should all go see it.
But anyway, the play itself was very intense, funny at first, creepy later on and with a great, great, climactic ending scene.
To be honest, I didn't really focus on Peter's psychosis, rather my attention was held by how it affected the people around him, which, to me, knowing next to nothing about the true nature and consequences of the condition itself, is far more interesting. Because, while I do agree that helping the suffering learn to live with their condition is a worthy cause, I see a major problem in that very often the people that really matter, friends, family, either stay away or grow tired of the situation. And you end up with mental institutions where people are barely alive, spending their days drugged or tied down for an eternity. And, what I find really sad about the whole thing is that while a criminal gets to be tried in a court of the state, a mental patient does not. And so, how do you defend yourself when you're on drugs all day forever?
Back at the play, it was sad and at the same time brave and inspiring to watch Agnes embrace Peter's condition and eventually merge her self into it, as if she saw a way out, a way of escaping completely from her own miserable dead end of a reality, and, to me, this was the focal point in the whole plot.
All I know about conspiracy theories is that living in fear is a bad way to spend one's life. I can't make up my mind on whether believing in them eventually leads to paranoia or is itself a symptom of it. I do know however that most of humanity is experiencing itself through a big conspiracy theory. Because if the omnipotent, omniscient god's devine plan isn't one, I don't know what is. And I do know this, as well. Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you. Right? Right.
Irrelevant rant #1. The actor playing Peter was very handsome in a weird way but I found myself being amazed by how much I enjoyed Gosh's parts. Very well played by everyone on stage.
Irrelevant rant #2. Very nice place, that theater. Will be revisiting.
@Khayman
can't believe you actually went to see the play!I am happy that it affected you as mush as it affected me.
Regarding conspiracy theories that are growing so much in the States I was thinking that apart from misleading they can confuse and terrify individuals.I remember the fear in Peters face when he was explaining his condition by using known conspiracy theories.You don't need to have psychosis as fear it self can lead to delusion.
Regarding the play I did not focus on Agnes or Gosh because the readers of the blog have not seen it but I was fascinated and moved by the way Agnes believed and loved Peter.And Gosh was just the best performance ever.
Το έργο ανεβάζεται στο επι κολωνω
Regarding conspiracy theories, I think I like to attach Peter Seller's (completely irrelevant to conspiracy theories!) comment from Pink Panther: "I know that you know that I know that you know."
You know? :)
Regarding the U.S., but more or less applying to most if not all western states.
Conspiracy theories are the merely the tip of the iceberg. Fear has been a major part of the american culture.
Starting with the threat from the southern borders, the anarchist and communist threat that climaxed into the Haymarket riots, the feminist demonization, people getting lobotomies in mental hygiene crusades, the economic recession, the Japanese bombing Perl Harbor that led to the detention of thousands of American citizens of Japanese origin. Then it was the atom bomb generation and the racial disputes, the black panthers scaring the shit out of white people, the Kennedy assasination, Vietnam, Ted Bundy and the Manson Family, apocalypse-believing fundamentalist christians with their hands on the button for 12 years, multiple cases of genocide in South America, the economy crumbling, the deficit growing, homelessness rising, prisons soaring, the KKK and ethnic gangs, the demonization of the Arab world, Tim McVeigh and the Unabomber, the Gulf War and veterans returning with severe physical and mental issues, 9/11, the war on terror, anthrax, everyone packing, Marilyn Manson, Columbine and Virginia Tech.
How can you not be scared shitless over all that? Insanity seems like the most reasonable reaction.
@apotheosis
nice quote!
@khayman
fear is a great tool aim for manipulation by all governments, cults, religions e.t.c sadly
Γεια σου Pixie μου! Ελπίζω να είσαι καλά, εγώ έχω πήξει τρελά και για αυτό απέχω και από το μπλόγκινγκ...
Την παράσταση την είδα πέρυσι το Πάσχα και μάλιστα δεν ήξερα ότι παίζεται ακόμα. Η αλήθεια είναι ότι τη βρήκα ψιλοαπαράδεκτη. Αυτό δεν σημαίνει βέβαια ότι το κείμενο δεν αξίζει, προτείνει κάτι που δεν έχει ιδαίτερα αναπαρασταθεί στο σανίδι ενώ στο κινηματογράφο λογοτεχνία είναι πιο σύνηθες. O Tracy Lets που το έγραψε έχει κατηγοριοποιηθεί και στην επονομαζόμενη in-yer-face γενιά του Βρετανικού θεάτρου (αν και ο ίδιος Αμερικάνος) που έκανε θραύση στα 1990s (νομίζω ο όρος είναι self explanatory).
Από ό,τι θυμάμαι βέβαια η παράσταση είχε ενα εφέκτ επάνω μου, με είχε πιάσει φοβερή φαγούρα προς το τέλος του έργου! :)
Αυτά είχα να καταθέσω, μπλουμ στη δουλειά πάλι!Φιλάκια!
@mia
ανέβηκε με κάποιους αλλους ηθοποιούς φέτος απο οτι διάβασα.Μου άρεσε πάρα πολύ.Το κείμενο βέβαια ήταν άψογο.Ελπίζω να ξεμπερδέψεις με τις δουλειές σου και να επιστρέψεις.Φιλάκια
Ναι ο επίλογος σου είναι τόσο εύστοχος...
όσο για τα έντομα (αλκοόλ) είναι το χαρακτηριστικό που αναφέρει ο ασθενής προσπαθώντας να τα διώξει από το δέρμα του
"τι τα πετάτε πάνω μου γιατρέ;"
Conspiracy theories are the same thing as phychosis but on social level, but it happens much easier, due to the fact that masses tend to live in fear about the world they dont understand...
very interesting play, I will download it asap ;)
@Narita and stormrider I missed you!Thanks for your comments.I have heard storm that bug is out as a movie so I will definitely rent it or download it, it must be good!
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