At first glance, it further says in the Basics of Psychoanalysis, the principle according to which everyone is potentially crazy might seem to be inhumane. But that is an illusion. If things are studied a little more carefully, it becomes clear that the Asylum is the most humane and most civilized social system. The Basics of Psychoanalysis do not interpret deviations from so-called “sane” behavior as illness or (even worse) sin, crime, or insanity, rather, all kinds of deviant behavior are considered to be errors arising from an insufficient differentiation of the Ego, and as such are corrected and channeled, not punished. Through the consistent application of these new principles — which the construction of the Asylum will make possible — law, politics, prisons, courts, violence, prostitution — all the evils of this world — will be done away with. There is only the Asylum and “illness”; only the relatively healthy and those under treatment. However, not even the treatment, as it will be seen, will be violent. Psychiatry will also be done away with.
Modern psychiatry is a backward science. It is actually difficult to correctly call it a “science” at all. It is charlatanry or even magic. Its greatest mistake is certainly its incorrect projection of insanity. Mental hospitals are above-ground buildings in which patients are forced, with medicines or torture, to conform to the representation of “the sane.” That is fundamentally wrong. The patient should be offered the possibility of being what he is, no matter what he thinks he is, and then he should be placed on one of the lower floors of the Asylum, deep beneath the earth which is a symbol of the unconscious.
Insanity can be conquered only if it is lived out. So, for example, if someone thinks that he is Napoleon, from storage he is given a hat, a tunic, medals, an office, and orderlies. To his heart’s desire he can issue commands, plan campaigns, until he finally grows bored, if he grows bored. It is a matter of choice. In the section for schizophrenia, constructed on the principle of a gigantic TV studio, all possible settings can be constructed. Starting with Golgotha — where someone with the idée fixe that he is Jesus will be crucified — to western towns, operas, or even haunted medieval castles.
On the other hand, those suffering from paranoia are given a special treatment — they are confronted with reality. They are placed in a situation where their irrational fears become tangible. In the running track-labyrinth, specially built for that purpose, they are chased by hooligans and asocial types. This is doubly usefuclass="underline" confronted with real persecution, the patients are liberated from their unmotivated fear, and the hooligans are able to do a socially useful job and become re-socialized.
A truly important element is the spatial-temporal organization of the Asylum. It was thought to be unjust to force even those who do not wish it to be so into a life within the limits of real space and time, which are relative anyway, as Kant showed. Toward that end, a series of vertical temporal communities is planned, beginning with tribal communities and ending with communist municipalities, thereby connecting the distant past with the even more distant future.
THE GREAT REGION OF SCHIZOPHRENIA
The Great Region of Schizophrenia takes up the largest amount of space in the territory of the Asylum; everything begins and ends there. It is the battlefield of good and evil, of the beautiful and the ugly, of light and dark, of all the contradictions that have created history through the tension between them. The region of Schizophrenia is divided into two halves by an imaginary line. Each of those halves is, from the standpoint of those who live there, good, light and beautiful, while the other half is evil, ugly and dark. Everyone with ideas about progress and fixing the world are sent to this region. In that way, wars are localized and they encompass only those people who live there, while the rest are spared the troubles of the fighting, and this region can even serve as entertainment for them. All those little wars, all that constant pushing and shoving in Schizophrenia, is coordinated by the central computer in cooperation with those who are interested in video-games. A hall with a multitude of monitors is planned, where the players can follow the movements of units and outwit the opposing side through the command panel. Of course, in Schizophrenia itself, no one knows about that; conflicts are justified by ideological motives, even though they are determined by the commonplace whims of the players in the video room. There is nothing inhuman in that either. The world is a game, and death is a biological necessity; if someone wants to die for a great idea, it does not matter to him whether he dies by accident or because of the mistaken plans of one of the players.
However, Schizophrenia is not just a battleground, far from it. It is also the center of intellectual activities in the Grand Asylum. Two large buildings are constructed next to each other so that they are also divided into two halves by the border that divides the region. These are the Thomas Aquinas School of Theology and the Sigmund Freud School of Social Sciences. At the theological school, endless discussions are held about axiological and teleological problems, which is — according to the Basics of Psychoanalysis — good, because thereby the theologians are distanced from God and his Commandments, which are beyond human abilities. “Theology is good,” it says in the Basics, “but God is cruel and inhuman.” On the other hand, at the Sigmund Freud School, extensive research is done with the aim of proving the non-existence of the Soul and the spirit as entities independent of highly organized matter.
The advantages of this kind of organization are obvious and undeniable. Freedom of choice is the highest principle. Everyone can choose and create their biography according to their own desires. If X wants to be a hero, the ROMA III computer meets his needs; his life is unmistakably programmed in that direction, and as the crown of that life there is a heroic death — either in front of a firing squad or in battle — whereby X takes up his honorable place in history. In fact, there used to be heroes in earlier societies as well, but they were deprived of satisfaction; death deprived them of the enjoyment of their post mortem glorification. Thanks to the computer, the matter has been changed from the outset; many years before he dies in battle, the hero gets an insight into the events that will happen in the future. Because everything is programmed and everything is known ahead of time.
In terms of their vertical coordination in time, things are like this: In one part of the Region of Schizophrenia, a faithful copy of Troy has been built, where every Achilles and Nestor can do battle; next to Troy are the ramparts of Jerusalem being assailed by Crusaders; nearby are the battlefields of World War I, where the combined forces of the Western Roman Empire attempt to overcome the allies and correct the course of history.
Under the Region of Schizophrenia lies the Region of the Guilt Complex.