Mistress, both man and master is possess’d;

I know it by their pale and deadly looks;

They must be bound and laid in some dark room.

– Shakespeare,The Comedy of Errors IV, 4

I know that it’s not politically correct to use the term mad when referring to someone who’s afflicted with mental illness. But there was a time in Jamaica when people would describe such a person saying, “Him mad as shad.”

I’m pretty sure that they used the word shad merely because it rhymed with mad, and for no other reason. After all, a shad is a type of fish that lives in the ocean, and there is no scientific proof that shads are insane. There’s also ‘crazy as a loon’, and ‘mad as a hatter’. The belief was that hatmakers back in the day often went insane due to the prolonged exposure to the lead that was used in the making of hats.

Back in the day also, people who were of unsound mind were bound and laid in some dark room, often trussed up in a straitjacket and placed in a padded cell. Here, we have our own hospital for the mentally challenged – Bellevue. And if anyone says that you belong in Bellevue, then you know exactly what that person thinks of you.

We’ll delve into the mental world of the insane, right after these responses to ‘Shot him a box’.

Hi Tony,

The phrase ‘shot him a box’ is the Jamaican variation of the Victorian era of boxing one’s ears as a form of punishment. Parents would discipline their children by giving them a sharp box on the ear, and schoolmasters would punish schoolboys likewise. As for domestic abuse, I do not tolerate men hitting women and vice versa, but when this occurs it should be immediately nipped in the bud by a sharp rebuke and warning. Abuse me once, shame on you, abuse me twice, shame on me.

Susan

Tony,

I am one of those men who suffers at the hands of an abusive woman. Ironically, I am a big man and she is petite, but she has a fiery temper and flying fists. She knows that I would never retaliate due to my Christian upbringing, but I have come close at times. Sometimes we’ll be talking and out of the blue comes a slap to my face. This all started years ago as a playful slap but has grown since. I’m seriously thinking of leaving her but I can’t leave my children. Please don’t make fun of my situation.

Peter

Mental illness is a serious issue, which, sadly, is not treated like other illnesses. In fact, there is a degree of shame associated with it and people will not mention anyone in their family who’s suffering from this malady. “Is there any history of mental illness in your family?” The belief, perhaps backed by science, is that some mental illnesses are passed down from generation to generation. In other words, if your granny was mad, then chances are you’ll be mad too.

Back in the day, they’d just lock them up in a dark room and act as if they didn’t exist. But mental illness is more pervasive than you’d think, as thousands, millions of people across the world suffer from it.

We may see the obvious ones roaming the streets, rummaging through and eating out of garbage bins. Many are insane, yes, but some are just homeless people. From time to time when these mendicants request a handout from me, I ask them their names and what happened to them why they’re in this situation. You’d be surprised at their backgrounds, from high school teachers to university graduates.

I have learnt quite a bit about some of them and realise that many are not mad… er, mentally challenged, but simply down on their luck and battered by life’s challenges. But that’s another story.

What we used to call madness comes in various forms and has new, fancy medical names. Now they are bipolar, schizoid, schizophrenic, delusional, psychotic, demented. Nobody is termed mad anymore.

But even royalty had the term mad placed beside their names, and the famous book and movie, The Madness of King George was very popular. The symptoms are varied, with some persons simply drifting off into their own, silent world. Even the untrained would spot these symptoms and make a medical snap judgment. “Him talking to himself, him is mad as shad.”

Others may become violent, and the last thing that you want to do is fight a mad man, as their strength is almost superhuman. I have witnessed this myself where a skinny escapee from Bellevue easily fought off and dispatched five burly orderlies and policemen as he shouted, “I have the strength of thirty men.”

Some clerics attribute this madness to demonic possession and laymen will often say, “Is what get into him why him gone mad so?” Maybe there is some correlation between insanity and demonic possession. Others attribute it to the moon, hence the word lunacy from lunar. I used to hear stories of patients at Bellevue howling like wolves at the onset of a full moon.

At times, people will do violent crimes and plead insanity, as no sane person could ever do such heinous deeds. The courts treat them differently if they enter such a plea. “Listen, wi know say yu chop up the entire family, but just plead insanity and dem won’t give yu the death sentence.” The man who shot President Reagan served his time in an institution for the criminally insane. I guess madness can save you from being executed.

Friends and relatives may detect the quiet types, calling them ‘silent mad’. Even Shakespeare alluded to them thusly, “Thou art essentially mad, without seeming so.”

1 Henry.

But should we pity those who are mentally challenged? After all, those guys who walk the streets and sleep where and when they wish have not a care in the world. It’s the relatives and friends who feel the pain and anguish. Well, some do, while others just forget about them and deny their existence.

It was T S Eliot who said: “There is a certain pleasure found in madness that only madmen know.” The ancient Greeks used to say: “Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.” I have known quite a few people who have gone around the bend. And worse, I watched some as they slowly slipped away. One was a young lady who was jilted by her lover who left her for another. She walked the streets naked one day muttering, “He loves me, he loves me.”

Another was the victim of substance abuse who eventually lost her mind, giving away everything she owned and moving to the country as she succumbed to mental illness and left this reality, living in her own twilight dimension.

It is indeed sad to witness this slipping away by someone who you once knew as a sharp, vibrant human being. This can affect anybody, as illness respects no one. The saying is that there is a thin line between genius and insanity. The causes are varied and the results often bizarre.

Despite what Shakespeare said, “Though this be madness, yet there is method in it,” many onlookers often fail to see the method in the acts of the insane, especially when love is at the epicentre.

In fact, love is often compared to madness, and as the Bard said, “Love is merely a madness and, I tell you, deserves as well, a dark house and a whip as madmen do.” Is that why so many people who purport to be in love do insane things? And is there method in what they do? “Mi say, de woman mash up de man car glass dem in sequence. She mad as shad.”

As for those perennial murder-suicides spawned by love, is that madness? The thin line is often breached, so be careful how you love or who you allow to love you.

Over the years, I have spoken to people who are mentally challenged, and it’s an eerie feeling conversing with someone who’s not all here. They speak of hearing voices and view us as odd because we cannot hear them. I feel sympathy and sadness. But then I remember what Julius Caesar said: “Shall I be frightened when a madman speaks?”

My friends, who’s to tell who’s mad and who is not in this topsy-turvy, insane world of ours? Maybe we’re all mad as shad and do not know it. After all, could sane people treat each other as mankind has for centuries?

More time.

seido1@hotmail.com

seido1@hotmail.com

Footnote: I must touch on schoolboy football and how disillusioned I am by what’s happening regarding this player transfer scheme. I went to KC from first form to sixth form and the love for my school courses through my purple veins. Now I see boys playing football for one school one year, then playing for another school another year. To be fair, I do not mind the occasional transfer, but this wholesale transfer when a team is comprised of 13 boys from different schools saddens me. What love or loyalty can those boys have for their current school? Call me old-fashioned.