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Monday, December 7, 2015
There's Profit in Skulls Design, the Paranormal, and Mental Health
What does that mean for those of us who write about mental health?
My blog on the Great West Newspapers LP website is called The Potter's Hand
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam says "What, did the potter's hand shake?" The Bible also refers to God as the potter, and the potter's hand. The idea is, did the potter make a mistake in creating me?
I co-authored a book with Austin Mardon, PhD, CM (Order of Canada) called The Insanity Machine . On a recent visit, a publisher suggested the name should be changed, and he asked me why we decided on The Insanity Machine. He thought it sounded like a negative review of pharmaceutical companies, the companies being the "machine" - it is far from that. He suggested we rename it something like
"A Reference Book for the Mentally Ill, their Families and Therapists"or something along those lines.
Perhaps we will rename the book at some point, but writing is my passion, not promotion. I know promotion is necessary - I would use skulls and the undead to promote my newest collection of three novellas, Dark Angels, if I suspected my readers thought that was a good idea.
I may run a little questionnaire by my email group and my Facebook readers. What do you think of skulls design and mental health? Or mental health and the paranormal?
This is a topic for later blog posts. Perhaps an article or two, and maybe a book...skulls and mental health...Death as the topic of a life giving experience, because I found life through mental illness...and Death raises us all to a pinnacle of change that's forced on us, just as mental illness does the same.
Do you think Death is a change that is forced on us? Or the end of all consciousness and life?
I am like the monkey contemplating a skull. I overthink or underthink, there is no Goldilocks "just right" setting on my brain.
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Good article, promotes thinking. My first reaction was "NO to paranormal and skulls!" But there actually IS paranormal around, and skulls DO exist. It's okay not to understand or pursue them, but it's reasonable to realize such things exist. Perhaps it's important to make decisions about the use or pursuit of skulls as symbols of death and dying; of paranormal as part of life's mysteries. But these are my own thoughts, not necessarily any one else's.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that our spirits (egos, selfness) die when our bodies die. I think we are on a path that we started long ago and that may never end. But again, I can't prove this, I just believe it to be so.
I think the name "The Insanity Machine" is perfect and should not be changed. It's not just about pharmaceuticals or psychiatrists. It's about surviving as a mentally challenged person within the arenas developed by such. The key word here is "SURVIVE", which you have done, Kenna. KUDOS to those who survive!
Thank you, Judi, many of us survived and many others survived more horrific stories of abuse, abandonment, and even torture - I'm thinking of the Holocaust and today the situation in Syria and other countries torn by war. We ARE on a path, and we're all on this path together, the world must join hands and peace must reign in our time.
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