The Far Side of Madness, by John Weir Perry.

Dallas, TX: Spring Publications, 19

89.) The terror of psychosisand the terrifying treatments to which the mental pati
ent is subjectedremains a source of bafflement to the outsider and a source of fru
strat ion to many practitioners in the mental health field. Although the literat
ure is fraught with descriptions of symptoms, diagnoses, theories, and methods o
f trea tment, few researchers address the patient as an equal. Rare, indeed, is
the pra ctitioner who has come to view psychosis as a strange sign of health: as
an atte mpt to heal or as a stage in a developmental process that transports th
e subject beyond sickness or health and into a positive transformation of the se
lf. Such an exception is John Weir Perry. His Far Side of Madness remains a clas
sic in the field for all these reasons. Working in the lonely tradition of Carl
Jung and R.D. Laing, who each viewed psychosis as potentially purposive and teli
c in nature, Perry describes the goalsand the terrible dangersthat are typically e
ncou ntered in the psychotic journey. Perrys work in traditional psychiatric sett
ings led him to conclude that those in the thrall of an acute psychotic episode
are rarely listened to or met on the l evel of their visionary state of consciou
sness. Instead, every imaginable way to silence the patientsto ignore and to disa
pprove of their nonrational language an d experiencewas called into play, thereby
increasing their sense of isolation, al ienation, and so-called madness. (Altho
ugh the book was first published in 1974, things have not substantially changed
in state mental hospitals or in community residence settings. To explore the str
ange imagery of psychosis with a client i n a counseling session is viewed as fee
ding into their delusional system, and it i s discouraged by psychiatrists and so
cial workers.) Perrys work with those in acute stages of psychosis revealed that
their pre-psych otic personalities were the true source of the sickness. Forced to
live an emotion ally impoverished life, the psyche had reacted by forcing a tra
nsformation in th e form of a compensating psychosis, during which a drama in dept
h was enacted, for cing the initiate to undergo certain developmental processes.
Such processes, which are accompanied by rich, emotional imagery, contain amazi
n g parallels to classical myths and to obscure rituals of antiquity: The indivi
dual finds himself living in a psychic modality quite different from h is surrou
ndings. He is immersed in a myth world ... His emotions no longer conne ct with
ordinary things, but drop into concerns and titanic involvements with an entire
inner world of myth and image. Although the imagery is of a general, archetypal
nature (imagery that pertains to all men and all times), it also symbolizes the ke
y issues of the individual unde rgoing the crisis. Therefore, once lived through
on this mythic plane, and once the process of withdrawal nears its end, the ima
ges must be linked to specific p roblems of daily life. Thus, the archetypal aff
ect-images await a reconnection t o their natural context: to the personal psych
ological complexes (which tend to be externally projected). The notion of a reorg
anization of the Self is central to Perrys approach to the psy chotic journey. Ext
reme damage to the self-image (usually, through a mothers with holding of love) w
as a typical problem in the cases he studied. The injury to th e self-image is s
o severe that, during a crisis, psychic energy leaves the highe r levels of cons
ciousness and is attracted to the psychic depths, where an arche typal process o
f renewal commences. The goal is not only to restore self-esteem but also to eng
ender a capacity to love and be loved. For this to occur, there must be a connecti
ng link with another human being (and

not necessarily a link with a professional): one that instills warmth and trust. T
his will allow a forward progression of the inner-imagery (remi-niscent of Jungs
statement that a schizophrenic is no longer schizophrenic when he feels underst
ood by someone else). Therefore, analysis seems (at least, at this stage) secondar
y to the basic human consideration of kindness. In place of an omniscient psych
o therapist, Perry posits the autonomous psychic process as a crucial factor at
th is point in transformation. Perry searched for and finally discovered a regul
ar pattern of imagery and ideat ion in the psychotic process. The negative self-i
mage is typically compensated by an overblown archetypal one, the latter manifestin
g in imagery such as that of the hero, clown, saint, ghost, or sovereign leader.
In addition, theres a sense of pa rticipating in some form of drama or ritual per
formance. Most significantly, ten sets of motifs emerged: symbols of the center;
death; return to beginnings; cosm ic conflict; the threat of the opposite sex; a
potheosis; sacred marriage; new bi rth; new society; and the quadrated world. Fo
llowing the Jungian school of thought (from which Perry emerged), comparative sy
mbolism and cross-cultural studies were used to uncover a holistic context, in o
rder to view such motifs in a larger context. Further research led to the disc o
very of the same sequence of imagery in archaic religions and in other cultural
structures. Most significant to the author is that the myth and ritual form that
resembles it is the principal and central rite of the civilizations of remote a
ntiquity, and parallels the image sequence step for step. That is, the ceremonial
pattern of sacral kingship, found in the ancient Near East, the Mediterranean, Eu
rope, and the Far East, which involves an annual renewal of the cosmos during t
h e New Year. The author devotes an entire chapter to the psychic significance o
f kingship, an d he refers to its importance throughout The Far Side of Madness.
Indeed, the co rrespondence is striking: in the New Year festivals, we find a cr
eation rite also emphasizing the center, the beginnings, death and renewal, the
sacred combat an d sacred marriage, and the other elements of the process. The sa
cred functions of kingship represent a projection of mans spiritual potential as a
n individual. Once such functions were integrated in the collective psyche, the e
ra of the sac red king gave way to a new era: one ushered in by great prophets an
d founders of the great religions, and characterized by a revaluation of the indi
vidual and of the Eros principle. Thus, kingship reflects an archetypal pattern
of growth: one progressing through dismemberment, reconstitution, and the rebirt
h of psyche, p aralleling the outer historical processes (which themselves were pr
obably based on inner archetypal correlates) and culminating in the Eros princip
le (the return to love). He places the advent of this era of exalting Eros at ar
ound the middle of the fir st millennium B.C., and he refers to it as the revolutio
n of democratization. The g reat prophets and mystics proceeding from that timefou
nders of culture and heroes with a visionunderwent eerie and turbulent psychic expe
riences. Afterward, they co mmunicated a vision that was concerned not only with
their own transformation bu t also with one within the societies of their time.
The genuine depth experience , however, is never supported by society-at-large
when in its acute stage. As has been noted by Perry and by others before him, the
great prophets of old would ha ve been locked up in psychiatric wards by todays p
ractitioners of health. The point of Perrys inquiry and of those in that lonely tra
dition I alluded to ea rlier (it might be called the Romantic tradition in psych
ology) is not to diagnos e artists, prophets, and mysticsnot to label or denigrate
the highest human values and aspirationsbut to reexamine such rich transformation
processes and to value the cultural elements that enrich human life. Thus, Rathe
r than what is pathologi cal in mysticism, we ask what is mystical in its intent
in psychosis? Perry concl

udes: The content of the depths reached in the ultimate ecstasies is on the one
hand i llumination that enlarges the understanding, and on the other, rapture th
at fill s the heart with lovingness. The obsession of the schizophrenic with soci
al reform is viewed as more than merel y a complaint against the faulty parental w
orld. For Perry, the schizophrenics idea tion of a new society is a legitimate psych
ic concern that affects us all: a colle ctive problem seeking a collective solut
ion and one that especially manifests in psychotic and visionary states of consc
iousness. He asks: With our secular governments, and with our diminishing trust
in any generally ac cepted higher moral or spiritual authority where do we find
our real governanceon e that involves us in depth? I consider this to be the mode
rn problem that the a rchetypal psyche is wrestling with in order to produce a c
onvincing new myth tha t will satisfy the need of the times. The rebirth of soci
ety is e social archetype rooted e true matrix of history. here that we will unc
over based upon continual psychic upheaval: a renewal of th in each individual p
syche. It is there that we find th And when social institutions become too rigid
, it is t a creative means of overcoming them.