Monday, November 10, 2014

Quotes

More from Mental Patients in Town Life:

"According to the Geel endoculture, a boarder is never totally disturbed. He is always, in some way or other, socially or mentally normal. He always knows something, however little. He always has some feelings or other like those that move normal people. Mental illness or feebleness never comprises the entire person in all his aspects." (172)

"The irrefutable fact that internment in the psychiatric hospital is felt by all patients as a severe punishment shows, apart from all subtle measurements, that boarders much prefer to stay with their host family and in the Geel community than in an institution, even if the latter provides a very human environment, good food, and optimal care. The patients' many different disturbances and handicaps apparently do not prevent them from being unanimously convinced that an institution is still an institution." (189)

"To bring normals in direct contact with mental patients in a 'natural' environment seems to be the best, and probably the only efficient means of eliminating prejudices and promoting the integration of the patients. To put it bluntly: Most people tend to see many 'crazy people' as crazier than they are, and by direct contact this tendency is corrected in favor of the mental patients." (189-190)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Regarding the middle paragraph, Dad and I have been realizing how much all people desire relationship. It is so important, it is God's design.