Dr Michael Cornwall

In Zen, a koan is a very frequently pondered question or riddle aimed at breaking down the logical mind’s rational process of understanding, so a deeper intuitive apprehension can take place. In this essay, I’d like to share how intensely pondering the meaning of madness, and exploring its inner subjective phenomenon, can sometimes bring new understanding, but leaves me still with seemingly endless questions about madness and its purpose in our individual lives and in our cultural evolution. Even though I have been serving people in extreme states as a dissident Jungian therapist for 35 years, I have to say that madness is ultimately still a profound mystery to me. I closely encounter madness in others almost every week, and still I marvel at how my hair sometimes stands on end in its presence. Something ancient and awe-inspiring is present while closely beholding and conversing with another person whose inner world is alive with fiery power or frozen in a ghostly void. People in madness are often helpless as unstoppable currents of emotion take over – those flowing emotions creating imagery-laden stories that can be rich in mythic-like themes. Scenes and voices out of heaven and hell and empty barren wastelands abound, if a caregiver sits quietly and welcomes what until now has perhaps been waiting to be shared, waiting to be lovingly received by another. Waiting for the detached diagnostic clinical gaze to be turned off. Being in the presence of madness registers with me as being near other naturally awe-inspiring presences in our midst – like standing at water’s edge at the ocean beach and feeling the power of the unstoppable waves, or sitting far out at Death Valley on the silent expanse of endless salt flats. We often can be stunned when perceiving our fleeting individual existence in the face of the immensity and humbling presence of nature’s vast power. Being present with the human experience of madness, or witnessing a child being born or a person dying, has that kind of strong impact on me.

The subjective experience inherent in the act of offering merciful love by caregivers to those in extreme states is explored. Also, the subjective experience of receiving merciful love from caregivers by people in extreme states is explored. The author draws on both the personal experience of being in extreme states, and on the experience as a dissident Laingian–Jungian oriented therapist and researcher, specializing in serving people in extreme states for 40 years.

In Zen, a koan is a very frequently pondered question or riddle aimed at breaking down the logical mind’s rational process of understanding, so a deeper intuitive apprehension can take place. In this essay, I’d like to share how intensely pondering the meaning of madness, and exploring its inner subjective phenomenon, can sometimes bring new understanding, but leaves me still with seemingly endless questions about madness and its purpose in our individual lives and in our cultural evolution. Even though I have been serving people in extreme states as a dissident Jungian therapist for 35 years, I have to say that madness is ultimately still a profound mystery to me. I closely encounter madness in others almost every week, and still I marvel at how my hair sometimes stands on end in its presence. Something ancient and awe-inspiring is present while closely beholding and conversing with another person whose inner world is alive with fiery power or frozen in a ghostly void. People in madness are often helpless as unstoppable currents of emotion take over – those flowing emotions creating imagery-laden stories that can be rich in mythic-like themes. Scenes and voices out of heaven and hell and empty barren wastelands abound, if a caregiver sits quietly and welcomes what until now has perhaps been waiting to be shared, waiting to be lovingly received by another. Waiting for the detached diagnostic clinical gaze to be turned off. Being in the presence of madness registers with me as being near other naturally awe-inspiring presences in our midst – like standing at water’s edge at the ocean beach and feeling the power of the unstoppable waves, or sitting far out at Death Valley on the silent expanse of endless salt flats. We often can be stunned when perceiving our fleeting individual existence in the face of the immensity and humbling presence of nature’s vast power. Being present with the human experience of madness, or witnessing a child being born or a person dying, has that kind of strong impact on me.

Abstract: As part of its 2008 Winter Study, JASON was asked by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to review the current status of the conflict between the ever-growing number of wind-turbine farms and air-security radars that are located within some ...