Madness as religious experience: The case of Allen Ginsberg |
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Authors: | Martin Wasserman |
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Affiliation: | (1) Adirondack Community College, State University of New York, Glens Falls, New York |
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Abstract: | Various writers have considered madness to be a religious experience. On the basis of the literature in the area and conversations with psychiatric patients, it is argued that madness as a religious experience can be viewed as a four-stage developmental process. The four stages are: 1) The hurt-and-be-hurt state of being, 2) The self-induced psychedelic experience, 3) The confusion-and-dread reaction, and 4) The reconstruction-with-insight world view. To clarify how these four stages make up a religious experience, the poet Allen Ginsberg's so-called psychotic episode is organized around each of the stages. |
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