This material is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical, psychological, or psychotherapeutic advice. If you are experiencing an acute psychological condition or need professional support, please contact a doctor, psychologist, psychotherapist, or crisis service.
1. For neuroses
Viktor Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning"
Віктор Франкл
"Every time has its own neuroses, and every time needs its own psychotherapy."
2. For a crazy life
Leo Tolstoy, "On Madness"
Лев Толстой
"We live a crazy, unpleasant life, the simplest and first requirement of common sense, but since this life is lived by all or the vast majority, we no longer see the difference between a crazy and a sane life, and we recognize our crazy life as sane."
3. For psychopaths
Petro Hannushkin, "Abnormal personalities. Teaching about psychopaths"
"Between psychopathic features and their corresponding "simple human defects" the difference is mostly only quantitative, not qualitative."
4. For creativity
Salvador Dali, "Diary of a Genius"
Сальвадор Далі
"I'm absolutely normal. And the one who doesn't understand my painting, the one who doesn't like Velázquez, the one who doesn't care what time it is on my scattered dials is abnormal, because they show the exact time."
5. For people
Donald Winnicott, based on the book "Winnicott and Kohut" by Carlos Nemirovsky
Дональд Віннікотт
"Madness is the consequence of the impossibility of finding those who would bear us."
6. For character
Карл фон Клаузевиц
Karl von Clausewitz,
"The term "strength of character" refers to the firm defense of convictions, regardless of whether the latter are conclusions from someone else's or one's own system of views, or arise from principles, norms, momentary impressions, or any other manifestations of the mind."
7. For normality
Carl Gustav Jung,
Карл Густав Юнг
Being "normal" is the ideal for a loser, for all those who have not yet managed to rise to the level of general requirements. But for those whose abilities are much higher than average, who have easily succeeded by doing their share of worldly work, for such people the framework of the norm means a Procrustean bed, unbearable boredom, hellish obscurity and hopelessness. As a result, many become neurotic because they are simply normal, while others become neurotic because they cannot become normal."
8. For the future
Жак Фреско
Jacques Fresco,
"The people of the future may perceive our stage of civilization as an era of intellectual and economic failure. It will be difficult for them to understand why we accepted aggression and competition as the norm."
Madness is a powerful word, but not a precise criterion
In everyday speech, madness may refer to unusual behaviour, risk, creative intensity, or severe mental distress, so without context it easily becomes stigmatising. Mental health is not defined by conformity to one image of a normal person. Duration, intensity, distress, safety, self-care, and functioning within one's environment all matter. A quotation may open a conversation about difference, but it cannot diagnose oneself or another person.