Walter Bishop Jr, Trio - Milestones
There have been plenty of posts about great men in the history of psychology and psychiatry spending years of their lives studying schizophrenics—that is, people whose minds are not working correctly. I think it’s safe to say that it was a flawed sample from the get go, and it would bring many of their conclusions into doubt and question.
Why not study those whose hearts and minds are working in pristine harmony?
It hasn’t happened. Perhaps hooking Buddhist Monks to an MRI. But still, that’s watching, not so much studying.
So here is an example of everything coming together perfectly. Why not begin a theory of consciousness from this point, this recording? That would be the first step, going through the door where people are inspired rather than the door of a locked facility where the inmates are treated as less than human.
Another problem with the historical development of psychology has to do with striving. Who strives to become schizophrenic? But this recording caused striving in other folks—leading to the question of striving toward what? Immediately we run out of sidewalk. This is a pathway that has not been traveled. What questions come next? And how does one answer the question.
If the goal is peace, where is there peace, among the schizophrenics, or among the musicians in the act of playing? To me, peace is most definitely in the latter. But scholarship will not go there. It’s an unwritten rule.