Maintaining A Balance of Harmony

If you were to look up madness in the dictionary or online, you would get an answer along these lines: Insanity, a semi-permanent, severe mental disorder typically stemming from a form of mental illness. This seems to be a very accurate definition of madness, but aren’t there more ways to look at it then just an illness or disorder? Can one transition from being in a healthy mental state to this form of illness through significant events in their life?  We can provide some good theories on what we believe leads to madness. There are good arguments to both sides of this issue and obviously we cannot say who is right and I certainly am not an expert in this field. But we can say in that madness can be portrayed in many ways.  I recently read a short story by the name of “The Harmony of the Spheres” in a book named “East, West” written by Salman Rushdie. In the story, he provides a good theory of the character’s madness and what causes this madness. 

 Eliot is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia in this story and when asked why we lose our minds, he provides a good theory for us. As Rushdie puts it in his book, madness is: “A simple biochemical imbalance,’ was Eliot’s view………various biochemicals surged, off-balance, through my veins as well.”  The title of the story seems to support this idea appropriately, “The Harmony of the Spheres.”  I am not a psychology major, but this seems to be an idea of a chemical imbalance of the left brain and right brain halves which drives us into madness. One side taking majority or total control over the other side.  The harmony refers to the balance of the two sides.  I believe this is what Rushdie is portraying in the story. Is it right? Is it wrong? No one can really provide a totally correct answer, but I think Rushdie has a good theory worth investigating.

What are the contributing causes to this madness? In general, it could be a chemical imbalance or a tough upbringing or significant event that occurs in an individuals life that makes a big impact on their life.  I wrote a blog earlier this year talking about how writers or artist seems to be driven to suicide or madness when trying to conjure up an innovative piece of art. This “outside of the box” thinking can lead to a mental breakdown, in theory. Maybe it can be narrowed down to one general causation, maybe not. In the story, Eliot is a writer, which seems to be consequently relevant to this “outside the box” thinking. He is, after all, a writer of overt and covert occults of the twentieth and nineteenth century of Europe in the story.  The writing seems to help as well as hurt Eliot in the story, which seems to support the idea of the creative aspect the writer’s try to impose in their writing and the madness it drives them too.  He seems to have a chemical imbalance as well, as he takes medication in the story. It can be a combination of the two.  This can be seen in the following excerpts form the story:

 “ the drugs were working, the drugs were not working because he refused to take them regularly, he seemed better as long as he did not try to write, he seemed worse because not writing plunged him into such deep depressions, he was passive and inert, he was raging and violent, he was filled with guilt and despair.”

 It seems almost ironic that he is working on a cure for paranoid schizophrenia in the story.  The results of these contributing causes for Eliot are death at the end, with a gun shot to the head.

 Seeing how Eliot went through this tragedy, one might ask is there any way we can restore balance and harmony.  It is a good question that can be addressed, but is hard to answer.  In the story, the narrator and Eliot speak of Mesmer’s theory, which I believe Rushdie is indirectly advertising in this story.  For those not familiar with this theory, it is as follows: all animated bodies including man were affected by a magnetic force which also mutually influenced the celestial bodies and earth. His curative technique, which was publicly accepted in Paris in 1778, was said to occur when patients sat around a large vat or 'baquet'. In the 'baquet' was a mixture of various substances. From top of the 'baquet' extended rods and each patient held an end of the rods. The treatment session continued until a crisis was reached in which the patient experienced symptoms of violent convulsions, crying, laughter, or other physical symptoms which was then suspended by an extreme lack of energy. However, many claimed to be cured of their afflictions following such treatments. 

 Rushdie seems to imply that the character Eliot was looking into this theory for a possible outlet or maybe even solution.  It is in the apparent in the following excerpt form the story:

 “From Eliot I learned the secrets of the Great Pyramid, the mysteries of the Golden Section, and the intricacies of the Spiral. He told me about Mesmer’s theory of Animal Magnetism and the Four Trances of Japanese spiritualism.”

 I feel that this is an indirect message to the reader as what we can approach as a society to try and restore balance and harmony.

Salman Rushdie

 I personally cannot provide a direct solution to the answer to any of the above mental states or breakdowns. But who can? There are many other ways we can look at this.  I feel that Rushdie provides some good theories on which we can look at and keep in mind when thinking about this in this story and takes an interesting route when explaining it in his story.  We just have to be careful as individuals when thinking “outside the box” and try to maintain a healthy mental state under severe conditions.