I’ve experienced enough madness in my life and work to confidently recognise that its main causal factor is when a significant experience that we know to be real and true is denied by those around us.
When our reality is not witnessed or affirmed it can take us into the realms of insanity. If you said to me each day that the sky was not blue it was brown and if those around remained silent and did nothing to affirm my reality of seeing it was blue, I would eventually become very mad indeed. This process is often experienced by those who have been abused in one way or another. No one witnesses it, those around do not believe it, the perpetrator denies it, then the impact of that over time is madness.
Activists and those who work for truth and justice can also be vulnerable to such damaging levels of denial. If you are saying something that others do not want to hear, if those around you cannot tolerate anything other than their own agenda, if the truth of your message is uncomfortable then, again and again, you will be confronted with the negation of your experience, belief, identity and value.
Whatever our cause, what we all require to keep us sane is a reliable witness, someone who is able to say’ you are right, I hear you and I get it. An effective witness enables us to recognise that when we have been made to feel insane, it is often because we have named something, revealed something that others with to think is unthinkable. These moments, rather than being silenced by self doubt or allowing ourselves to be convinced of insanity, are in fact moments when we can be reminded that madness is in fact very intelligent.
Being witnessed and being a witness for others is a powerful reminder that we are not in this world alone. To experience both is a privilege indeed and often the very light that we all need.
Br Stephen Morris CJ
