WE ARE ALL MAD (but just a little for our own good).

The recent news about the indiscriminate shooting of cinema goers at a batman movie preview is really heart breaking and nerve wrecking. The shooter is a young, intelligent and generally reticent man by the name of James Holmes.

How can a quiet and smart 24-year-old doctoral student go on a rampant killing spree and guns down 12 and hurts 59 in a cinema in ala Joker-vs-Batman fashion? Can't we tell who is sane and who is not anymore?

In 1975, a psychologist David Rosenham conducted an experiment to test how the society view insanity. He asked seven confederates to join him to gain admission into psychiatric hospitals. Their admission pass: Tell the hospital staff that they hear voices. They all got in without any hassle. But the real test is to get out.

While getting in was a piece of cake, getting out was hell. They spent almost three weeks trying to convince the staff and doctors that they are sane. The irony is not lost on me: it is easier to fake mad than to act sane.

But in James Holmes' case, it's just the opposite. He acted "sane" so well that no one even suspected he was not. Or is it a case where there was some definitive triggering point that caused him to go insane. That is, he was basically sane until pushed off the cliff.

Or, at some point, bubbling beneath his psychological makeup, is a defective gene that has found some form of expression of violence when the perfect storm of culture, upbringing and socialization converges under the right condition? Like a oil bunker set alight by a match. Or like a forest fire ignited by the right channeling wind, humility and leaf dryness.

I know this is a whole lot of balderdash and no expert can detect such violent tendencies no matter what test or early detection is used.

In fact, it is said that a mad man has lost everything except his reasons. You see, it is not his reason faculty that is fractured but his perception of reality. And he is basically acting out in a "reasonable manner" in response to a distorted reality. It is therefore his reality that is screwed up and not his actions. To him, he is acting perfectly reasonable. Scary ah?

So, insanity is such a fungible concept and looking for it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. For example, in Singapore, for a brief period in November 1967, a scarce broke out where men thought that their penises were shrinking and withdrawing into their abdomen. (I can't say at times that I am immune from such thought...mmm).

Some went crazy. They visited the doctors. Took medication. Rested. And some even drank boy's urine and ate placenta as a myth cure. You see, distorted reality and reasonable actions in response.

They say great leaders are "mad" in some ways. Gandhi and Martin Luther King attempted suicide when they were teenagers. They were deemed to be suffering from depression. But it is also said that you find the most realistic and empathic people to be suffering from some kind of depression. Go figure...

Then, we have JFK and Bill Clinton, who have issues with their "lower tissues". In fact, it is a historical fact that JFK is hyper-sexual who had sex with prostitutes and models. They are basically suffering from (or thriving under) the classic manic disorder. And yes, most successful leaders have some form of mania or hyperthymic personality, which make them more resilient and creative. So should one pray for some madness in your kid? Go figure...

All leaders, admired or despised (like Hitler and Mao), have one or two screws loose. So, next time you go into the ballot box, check for some personality disorder as one of the criteria for your vote.

Now the question is: how do you tell them apart, the sound and the unsound? Well, the truth is, you can't; for now at least. In the interim, you have to do some damage control. Be realistic and take precaution. Or, to err on the side of safety. 

Therefore, I think the gun culture in America may be the catalyst or gateway to mass killing. They say, "Giving politicians power and money is like giving a teenager alcohol and car keys."

Similarly, if you give a potential border-line, psychopath or schizoid the option of a knife or a gun, which would result in most harm? The question answers itself. Giving a mad man a gun is like giving Hitler a nuclear trigger switch promising world destruction just before he set his claustrophobic bunker aflame.

That's why things like that (gun-killing) doesn't happen in Singapore, or rarely. I thank God that common sense, as a foreign migrant, doesn't encounter any problem becoming a permanent citizen in Singapore, metaphorically speaking.

Let me end unconventionally with this joke:

"Welcome to the Psychiatric Hotline:

--if you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly;

--if you are schizophrenic, listen closely and a little voice will tell you which number to press;

--if you have borderline personality disorder, hang up. You have already pushed everybody's buttons" Cheers out.

(Ps: in case you wondering, what mental condition do I suffer from? Well, amongst many such as OCD and narcissism, for starter, I think it's called "Hypergraphia" - the incurable disease of writing or medically termed as "temporal lobe epilepsy". Wow, thank God I am as normal as normal is).