Internet fora and the insane, the unstable and the just plain weird

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Do fora like this one provide crazy people with a safety valve or does the posting of opinions increase anger levels and make society in general less safe?

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[+3] - chai2 - 08/18/2010[quote="OmSigDAVID"] A friend of mine, who is a psychiatrist, said to me: "David, anyone who u think is [u][b]not[/b][/u] crazy is just someone who u don 't know well...

@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

Do fora like this one provide crazy people with a safety valve or
does the posting of opinions increase anger levels and make society in general less safe?

Does one possibility exclude the other ?

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A friend of mine, who is a psychiatrist,
said to me:
"David, anyone who u think is not crazy
is just someone who u don 't know well enuf."

David

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@OmSigDAVID,

An interesting and almost poetic statement.

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@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

Do fora like this one provide crazy people with a safety valve or does the posting of opinions increase anger levels and make society in general less safe?

More than any of the three, it seems to be quite the avenue for catharsis. But no, I doubt that actually leads to any more danger

1 Reply

@Khethil,

Catharsis? How?

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

A friend of mine, who is a psychiatrist,
said to me:
"David, anyone who u think is not crazy
is just someone who u don 't know well enuf."

David

yes, you just don't know their opinion on ketchup yet.

What?

2nd base.

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@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

Catharsis? How?

To let loose complaints, rantings, concerns, indignation, fear, anger, angst or disgust over events or perceptions in their world. Many folks don't have an avenue to let loose these expressions; "get it off your chest"-kind of thing. I think that posting them out can be therapeutic just in the expression.

Letting loose these expressions, I think, is a catharsis of sorts.

Thanks

1 Reply

@Khethil,

OK. I see what you mean and you are right. I think that everyone has been in a situation -- whether it was caused by the end of a love affair or the death of someone close to us -- when we knew that those around us were fed up with the depths of our personal wells of grief (god, I love stealing phrases) and had to shut up. THe problem with shutting up, it that the rage, the grief are still inside, throwing themselves at our rib cages, demanding release.

Are you familiar with an old song, Twenty Mile Zone by Dorrie Previn? Previn became a feminist icon through this song. It is about screaming alone in the car. The car and the shower are great places to scream out the grief, to, as Previn wrote, "seek a little relief." CAtharsis.

Here's a link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHm6CPh6mIQ&feature=search

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@plainoldme,

So, are some of the political ranters seeking catharsis?

1 Reply

@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

... when we knew that those around us were fed up with the depths of our personal wells of grief (god, I love stealing phrases) and had to shut up. THe problem with shutting up, it that the rage, the grief are still inside, throwing themselves at our rib cages, demanding release.

Yes, exactly. Obviously this isn't everyone who goes on a rant, but I think it accounts for a lot. Also, online ranting is a convenient, semi-anonymous outlet - no repercussions. These things have to be let out, "Unexpressed feelings never die; they're buried alive and come forth later in uglier ways." - Steven Covey

plainoldme wrote:

Are you familiar with an old song, Twenty Mile Zone by Dorrie Previn? Previn became a feminist icon through this song. It is about screaming alone in the car. The car and the shower are great places to scream out the grief, to, as Previn wrote, "seek a little relief." CAtharsis.

No, hadn't heard this but just did from the link. Nice mood; an age of story-telling songs that are nice just cuz they're nice and speak to our everyday experience. Very good

Thank you

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@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

So, are some of the political ranters seeking catharsis?

I don't know - probably. Our culture is so "My Team is Right!"-oriented that when we think we've found the cure to our woes, the litany of caustic polemics around us give us easy outlet that "Those people!" are the ones to blame. Yea, probably stress relieving.

My days of political whining are long gone (knock on wood), but as I think back to my angry-20s and 30s, I could see this to be the case. At least in part. For some of us its true (and we don't realize it), for others still they've not the slightest idea of the mental stress-relief valves (often through blame) firing.

I've read a lot on this - still none the wiser I'm afraid.

Thanks

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Letting off steam, however, doesn't cover some of those posts that made my stomach turn. There is the occasional omg post that -- as my 88 year old father says -- shows the writer doesn't have both oars in the water.

1 Reply

@plainoldme,

How TRUE that is

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As I said in my original post: is this forum, and others like it, a safety valve? Does posting anger on line keep a person from 'going postal?'

1 Reply

@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

As I said in my original post: is this forum, and others like it, a safety valve?
Does posting anger on line keep a person from 'going postal?'

I have always felt safe, since the age of about 8.33.

The forum did not make me feel safer.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

'fess up! How many people have you met who are as obsessional about guns as you are?

1 Reply

@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

'fess up! How many people have you met who are as obsessional about guns as you are?

None that I know of;
I very clearly remember at age 3, my eyes used to LOCK on the revolvers
on the hips of NY Police and bank guards. Many were the times
that I was in bed remembering those occasions and imagining
my misappropriating not only the gun, but the whole rig.

(If u 'll pardon me for bragging, I have been accosted by the police
at gunnery ranges who have commended me upon the beauty of MY ordnance.)

However, there r many in the pro-freedom movement
with whom I 've had little contact. Maybe it coud be possible
that some of them r more obsessive.

David

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@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

OK. I see what you mean and you are right. I think that everyone has been in a situation -- whether it was caused by the end of a love affair or the death of someone close to us -- when we knew that those around us were fed up with the depths of our personal wells of grief (god, I love stealing phrases) and had to shut up. THe problem with shutting up, it that the rage, the grief are still inside, throwing themselves at our rib cages, demanding release.

Are you familiar with an old song, Twenty Mile Zone by Dorrie Previn? Previn became a feminist icon through this song. It is about screaming alone in the car. The car and the shower are great places to scream out the grief, to, as Previn wrote, "seek a little relief." CAtharsis.

Here's a link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHm6CPh6mIQ&feature=search

Its funny that u bring that up.
Years ago, I had an experience like that which was at least semi-weird, to wit:
I had been obsessed with a young lady named Joyce for many years.
We shared a classroom whose number was 216.
We parted and attended different schools; mentally, I associated that number with her.
I was distraught for a long time.

One afternoon, I was returning to my office from court.
My radio played a song that aroused emotions of yearning, guilt, self reproach n frustration;
something a little like a panic attack, at whose conclusion the DJ said: "and its 2:16".

That evening, I was driving East on the Southern State Parkway alone in the middle lane,
to pick up a young lady (who resembled Joyce) for dinner.
I suffered a resurgence of the earlier emotions, as I drove.
Silently, in the privacy of my mind I called out, soundlessly yelled to the Universe
for succor & nepenthe. Literally, within one second -- the time it takes to sneeze -- a car
went past me very, very fast on my right, zooom: license plate number 216.

I felt like I had a Cosmic pat on the head.

David

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