IDEOLOGY CAN MAKE YOU SICK
Etyen Mahcupyan
Zaman Online, Turkey
Sept 6 2006
The fear of reality forms the basis of all mental illnesses, because
mental health implies harmony between the animate creature and nature
that is harmony with the reality in its environment.
Psychology examines this harmony through the person’s connections to
his social environment and to himself. Consequently, people we call
"sick" are those who are nurtured by an unreal image of themselves…
Similarly, some societies produce unreal valuations and evaluations
about themselves and embrace them with passion. They elevate them as if
they were qualities belonging to the divine. According to the science
of psychology, the reason for this is the societies in question that
lack the maturity to accept reality and their choosing to escape from
the truth rather than face their own weaknesses. As for situations in
which this escape has been made systematic and is nurtured by official
ideology, we are confronted with a chronic state of mental illness…
Turkey lived this state for years. The rapid disintegration of
the Ottoman Empire, the inferiority felt before the West, and the
communal rejection of every kind of religion and ethnicity for the
sake of elevation as a "fair ruler" resulted in shock. After this
period of disintegration in which a feeling of being looked down
upon and a determination of truly being worthless went hand-in-hand,
unfortunately the easiest path was chosen: Instead of trying to
perceive history from an objective perspective, first history was
produced by the state and then when this absurdity became apparent,
the past was frozen and put under an ideological shield. However,
it’s not possible to prevent scientific and literary efforts and
keep them within this molded history… For example, however mature
a society encountering a different history can behave depends on how
prepared it is to use this opportunity to "get better." It can be
said that in general the public in Turkey is passing through this
threshold. We are finally aware that the history "presented" to us
is not tied very well to the truth and the works dealing with history
need freedom of interpretation.
However, some "sensitive" citizens and their natural equivalent
bureaucracy have not yet been able to pass over this mental
threshold. Consequently, for example, Elif Safak can be tried in court
for a character in her latest book who defends "Armenian genocide." In
other words, our government doesn’t suffice with saying "there was
no Armenian genocide," it even condemns characters in a novel who
say the opposite. Whereas, there are people who say "there was an
Armenian genocide…" External reality encompasses these people,
too. In short, what is said to a writer is that he/she can only put
a part of the truth in a novel. While the other part of reality is
ideologically deemed "unreal," the author is forced to be a part of
the state of illness under the protection of the government.
But there are even more "dangerous "situations. In Ipek Calislar’s
biographical novel entitled Latife, it is said that Mustafa Kemal
escaped wearing a woman’s dress when Topal Osman’s men came. Of course,
this information comes directly from Latife Hanim’s memoirs… But
our government doesn’t accept this because Mustafa Kemal wouldn’t
have done something like that. In other words, we don’t try and
understand Mustafa Kemal according to what he did, but we establish
reality according to the Mustafa Kemal in our imagination. Plus,
we want to punish those who say anything contrary to it.
How possible is it to govern a society in a healthy manner and
interpret today in a healthy way with a perspective that is afraid of
the truth? Everyone needs mental health… But it’s especially needed
by a state that claims to represent "institutional intelligence." For
when ideology begins to be perceived like a kind of mental derangement,
no "state" will remain except for brute force…