Going Crazy

Abstract

Discusses the “go crazy” escape hatch of tragic scripts, and identifies three distinct definitions: social, psychological, and medical. The medical definition is primarily technical and conceptual, whereas the social and the psychological definitions involve behaviors and a decisional process. “Going crazy” most frequently refers to the social or the psychological definition. A crucial therapeutic function is decontamination to eliminate patient belief in cultural myths which support non-accountability/non-responsibility for decisions or behaviors. The authors warn that unless therapists accomplish this decontamination, “they allow the patient to have a built-in loophole for every subsequent decision.”