Breaking down the walls

Dr. Harry Reiss, a psychiatrist of enormous experience and learning, used to tell me that he met the most interesting people in his consulting office.  I don’t doubt him. Why then do we as a society shun, stigmatize and push aside these very people, who in fact have so much to share? There is an alternative. We could learn to embrace those who look at the world differently. Through some combination of genetics or environmental influences, they have developed an intellectual framework that gives them a different outlook. Couldn’t this be a cause for celebration rather than dire fear?

There was a time in the not too distant past, when the very word “cancer” was not uttered in polite society. We have managed to move past that form of stigma. Could mental illness be next? If we were able to allow the mentally ill a place at the dinner table, might we not find that they bring wonderful insight to the conversation? Might we not find their depth of experience, their suffering, their different take on things to be a refreshing alternative to the processed and reprocessed verbiage of the everyday?

We do, however, pay an even greater price when we shut the mentally ill in the metaphorical back room. The fear of what we believe they represent is not so easily confined. The rest of the world, the so-called “normal” people, are left with the abiding fear that they might soon be called upon to join them. The “normal” people walk around with that baggage, that concern, that lingering fear. Were the walls of that back room to be knocked down, the windows opened, and free passage granted to all, how much easier everyone would rest.

I conclude by applauding the editorial staff of The Riverdale Press for opening its pages to discussion of a subject most would not consider worthy of publication. They, in my view, are taking a step in the right direction.

Josh Greenfield is an author who lives in Riverdale. His most recent book is “Homeward Bound: a novella of idle speculation.” Point of view is a column open to all.