A First Rate Madness – by Nassir Ghaemi
This book undermines entrenched ideas about success being contingent upon mental stability. The most successful people are actually a little wacky. Â And then there’s the issue of “success” in and of itself. And the definition of this term depends on the worldview ascribed to. A culture that views success as the accumulation of wealth, power and fame also values mental stability as a necessity in moving towards that goal. Mental stability becomes less essential from a worldview that see value beyond the material realm.
The yogis have the idea of the “avadhuta” the “crazy adept” who eschews social norms in search of the divine. Finding the divine is the mark of success and materialism is irrelevant from this worldview.
What’s interesting about Ghaemi’s argument to me is that it implies that even in the quest for the typical money, power, fame trinity, socially defined “mental/emotional stability” is not necessarily an asset.
