ZAMM and Psychiatry

ZAMM says something of the early Seventies approach to psychology, which is to say that it was something of a mish-mash of notions about mental health, along with a bit of romanticization of insanity. Let's be fair to Pirsig, though; psychiatry as a field was more primitive back then (witness his having to undergo electro-shock therapy) and the bio-chemical origins of mental illness were not well-understood.

The Seventies were awash with books written by and about shrinks, most of them pretty lame. It was a decade of self-help, although minus the 12-step component. Classical Freud was still in vogue, and if a person went nuts there were many who would still blame their parents for botching the toilet training. On the other hand were "experts" like Thomas Szasz, the psychiatrist who insisted that there was no such thing as mental illness at all. There were accounts of mental illness, probably most notably The Eden Express by Kurt Vonnegut's son Mark, which laid the ordeal of somebody suffering from schizophrenia out in horrifying detail, but which still searched for some hidden meaning in delusion. And of course there were still advocates of drugs which induced temporary insanity, i.e.: the psychedelics, who thought that profound observations could be had by inducing hallucinations. (Have you ever met somebody who took that stuff who had any great insights? (Most of the acid heads I've encountered were pretty boring).

Pirsig's protagonist questions some notions of insanity from a very personal perspective, considering his past experiences, which ended with his being involuntarily committed to a hospital after his wife finds him sitting in what amounted to a catatonic state. How he got that way is fascinating, and one could debate the issue endlessly. But there is no romanticization here; the ghost of the protagonist's past is coming back to haunt him, and he fears becoming insane again, while watching his son behave in an increasingly bizarre manner. How he reconciles his experiences is fascinating.

Do read this book. If you already read it during the Seventies, I strongly suggest reading the newer editions, which include an update by the author.