This video is about the way that Western society views people with schizophrenia in contrast to the way tribal cultures view shamanism. The video explores the stigmata assigned to people who have mental processes that we can’t understand and the resulting casting off that these people must go through. Is it productive to treat people who are different by ostracizing them into lock-up the same way we do criminals? Shaman’s act in very similar ways to people who exhibit schizophrenic behavior but they are treated as polar opposites in their respective societies: the former as an outcast who must be treated; the latter as revered leader from which there is much to be learned. We feel it necessary to treat schizophrenics in hopes that we can coax them to think more normally but in shamanistic cultures they are armed codes, traditions, and tools that have been handed down for generations so that they can expand their thought. Is it morally justifiable to stamp someone as diseased and prescribe treatment because we can’t understand them? Why as a culture, do we fear madness?
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