Blog #3: Topic 3

Insanity in law, in medicine and in laymen terms, there is no void of the multitude of definitions of Insanity. According to Merriam Webster, the legal definition of insanity is the “unsoundness of mind or lack of the ability to understand.” In medicine, it is defined as “a severely disordered state of the mind” and in English learning terms as “something that is very foolish or unreasonable.” But who are we to say who fits into that category of foolishness and a disordered state of mind. What exactly does it entail? Blanch from “A Streetcar Named Desire” was sent away due to the fact she did fit into that cultural definition of Insanity but the questions arise when we analyze whether or not she fits into this categorized personality. Was she actually insane?

Insanity, in a few words, is far from the normal. What society considered obscure and out of the traditional is thought to be weird and foolish. But who’s to say what is actually normal? There is no overarching power that controls who is in category A the sane and category B the insane. But somehow a concrete divide has formed between the two. The sane involves following cultural norms and living the traditional lifestyle: work, family, subtle pleasure, and stabilized emotions. All that is not included in this definition defines a person as insane. One with too many emotions, too much work or no familial aspect in their lives is what constitutes a person to become insane. Yet society has forgotten about those that carry around a veil to conceal that insanity that most people possess. Our overarching and sometimes unachievable passions that cause us to forget everything else in the world, isn’t that insanity? But then society disregards a desire we call passion that needs a type of insanity where we “lack the ability to understand” failure in order to even have the possibility of achieving what we desire.

Blanche is the definition of Insanity, but not the one society’s medicine defines as. Her insanity is composed of drive, passion and the atmosphere around her. It's not her mental instability that leads her to the mental asylum but her over-emotion and desire to find her goal: love. Her definition of insanity is her sister who bears the wrath and insolence of Stanley. It is her husband that killed himself when the truth unfolded, it is Stanley who acts as the supreme controller of all those around him. Blanche may not have fit into the “normal” of society but I believe she doesn’t fit into this definition of having a disorder. Agreed that Blanche lived a life of a lie, but it was her way of attaining that purpose and goal of her passion, love, and happiness-which she almost got if it wasn’t for Stanley. And if society defines that ambition as insane, then how is any other individual any different. In that definition, Stanley is equally insane in his thirst for lust and dominion.

Blanche did not choose the right means to get what she desires so eagerly making her appear insane. But insanity is so ambiguous in what it should and should not conclude that those boundaries are invisible and difficult to articulate. Society, however, seems to have a clear-cut definition of insanity that is: the abnormal.