Recently, I started reading the book Life isn’t binary by M-J Barker & A. Iantaffi. I’m usually a slow reader but I’ve devoured this book. I could say so much about it, I hardly even know from where to start, so for now let me just say that this book has finally allowed me to see and put into words thoughts and feelings that I’ve had almost my entire life, it’s helping me not only in my self-discovery or self-determination but also in learning to find my voice and, above all, helping me to feel less “weird” or “insane” or isolated — which is wonderful!
For today, I would like to share a short excerpt from the next-to-last chapter of their book on the binary view of emotions and, in particular, on the ingrained binary of “mad/sane”.
From Life isn’t binary by M-J Barker & A. Iantaffi:
“A sane response to a mad world?
The psychotherapist Winnicott famously said, of depression:
‘The capacity to become depressed… is something that is not inborn nor is it an illness; it comes as an achievement of healthy emotional growth… the fact is that life itself is difficult… probably the greatest suffering in the human world is the suffering of normal or healthy or mature persons.’ [D. W. Winnicott, Human Nature, (1988)]
Perhaps we would do well to view the depression, anxiety, and other mental health struggles that most of us grapple with at some point as a sane response to an insane world. This would shift the emphasis for change away from the individual and towards the wider societal structures and cultural messages around us.” [M-J Barker & A. Iantaffi, Life isn’t binary]
The Little Prince and the Fox 