<p>There are tropes commonly used in cosmic horror works that boil down to the following idea. A human mind when faced with something utterly incomprehensible may break into insanity and never get back to sanity.</p>
<p>For sure, this is just works of fiction and most likely they have exaggerated something that may actually happen in the reality. For example, if a person learns about some big dangers that may happen in the future, it may cause an extreme anxiety in them, which can cause them to be unable to live a normal live or behave in normal ways. Yet, that may very well depend on the persons' predisposition, and some other person learning about the very same fact may react in much less caring way.</p>
<p>Hence, my question is the following. Do our minds indeed have a common mechanism that will cause most of humans lose sanity when faced with some information way hard for it to comprehend?</p>
<p>To be more precise, by insanity I do not mean any particular mental illness, but rather a set of behaviors that do not allow a person to sustain themselves, be a part of the society and overall reduce their chances of survival.</p>
<p>Ideally, examples would comprise</p>
<ul>
<li>a revelation: a new piece of information that becomes available to a person</li>
<li>a reaction: once relevation sinks in (matter of less than a day) a person goes insane with no chance of recovery</li>
</ul>
<p>I guess a proper search would start with the effects that an immediate (psychological only) stress may have on a human mind, but I was not able to find anything as drastic.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-01T11:02:13.450Z
Welcome SBF. We're required to show the results of our own attempt to answer when posting and include references. Might I suggest taking a look at (the decline associated with) [The death of a spouse](https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/understanding-grief/201807/surviving-the-death-of-a-spouse#:~:text=The%20emotions%20of%20grief%20are,best%20friend%20and%20social%20contacts.) (Psychology Today) to kick-off your researches.
Jiminy Cricket.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-01T11:07:29.057Z
@JiminyCricket. thanks! I'll do a reading, yet from what I've quickly glanced at, it seems more of an extreme stress situation which may take time to show stronger effects, or can affect different people in different ways. I have done searching in google related to my queries, but fortunately have not found any examples. Let me comment on this in the question.
SBF
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-01T11:13:14.990Z
Then there's also: [PTSD, hypervigilance and aversion to ambiguity](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5247796/) to check-out.
Jiminy Cricket.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-02T14:13:42.150Z
i think you are asking not about all "mads" but about shizophrenia.
άνθρωπος
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-02T17:39:10.170Z
@άνθρωπος not necessarily. I’ve specifically mentioned what I do mean by insanity, so any kind that fits would constitute a series of examples
SBF
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-02T19:27:20.803Z
"I’ve specifically mentioned what I do mean by insanity" - where?
άνθρωπος
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-02T19:43:26.463Z
@άνθρωπος here *To be more precise, by insanity I do not mean any particular mental illness, but rather a set of behaviors that do not allow a person to sustain themselves, be a part of the society and overall reduce their chances of survival.*
SBF
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-02T20:05:51.423Z
@SBF what does it sense, can you explain on direct examples?
άνθρωπος
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-04T15:00:00.893Z
The phenomenon in question could be classified as [information hazard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_hazard). For certain individuals, certain ideas can be troublesome to handle. But generally such vulnerabilities are idiosyncratic, in that certain background factors may be required, such as ignorance of how to resolve a given dilemma, or inability to face emotionally significant repressions.
Michael
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-06T16:56:05.560Z
@SBF id though about, and i think that people go mad if they are think a lot with a "wrong way of reflection", thay got a problem with logic loop and can't to beyond it frame. But they are continue thinking, that make thinking process as reflex. When thinking process have wide area and it is reflex, without result cus logic loop - a subject get a nervous exhaustion and huge distress for nervous system that became to psychosis stance one time. Long time at psychosis stance being destruct the nervous composition and neurones are also can be damaged or may die.
άνθρωπος
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-06T16:57:02.997Z
Do not think a lot, dumb brain can't go mad.
άνθρωπος
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-06T18:40:57.010Z
@άνθρωπος thanks a lot, that's along the lines I thought of that, but how professional is your opinion? :)
SBF
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-06T19:10:58.597Z
totally is not professional)
άνθρωπος
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-06T19:24:08.643Z
and it is not an opinion, it is an intersubjective experience, probably, with some specific arguments from science knowledge: logic, philosophy, psychology, neurophisiology~...
άνθρωπος
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-06T19:26:11.663Z
@άνθρωπος could you elaborate?
SBF
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-06T19:27:18.403Z
What exactly i have to elaborate?
άνθρωπος
<mental-illness>
Can one go mad from the revelation in the real life
SBF
# Can one go mad from the revelation in the real life

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-06-01)

There are tropes commonly used in cosmic horror works that boil down to the following idea. A human mind when faced with something utterly incomprehensible may break into insanity and never get back to sanity.

For sure, this is just works of fiction and most likely they have exaggerated something that may actually happen in the reality. For example, if a person learns about some big dangers that may happen in the future, it may cause an extreme anxiety in them, which can cause them to be unable to live a normal live or behave in normal ways. Yet, that may very well depend on the persons' predisposition, and some other person learning about the very same fact may react in much less caring way.

Hence, my question is the following. Do our minds indeed have a common mechanism that will cause most of humans lose sanity when faced with some information way hard for it to comprehend?

To be more precise, by insanity I do not mean any particular mental illness, but rather a set of behaviors that do not allow a person to sustain themselves, be a part of the society and overall reduce their chances of survival.

Ideally, examples would comprise

* a revelation: a new piece of information that becomes available to a person
* a reaction: once relevation sinks in (matter of less than a day) a person goes insane with no chance of recovery

I guess a proper search would start with the effects that an immediate (psychological only) stress may have on a human mind, but I was not able to find anything as drastic.

**Tags:** mental-illness

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Welcome username_0. We're required to show the results of our own attempt to answer when posting and include references. Might I suggest taking a look at (the decline associated with) [The death of a spouse](https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/understanding-grief/201807/surviving-the-death-of-a-spouse#:~:text=The%20emotions%20of%20grief%20are,best%20friend%20and%20social%20contacts.) (Psychology Today) to kick-off your researches.  
> **username_0**: @JiminyCricket. thanks! I'll do a reading, yet from what I've quickly glanced at, it seems more of an extreme stress situation which may take time to show stronger effects, or can affect different people in different ways. I have done searching in google related to my queries, but fortunately have not found any examples. Let me comment on this in the question.  
> **username_1**: Then there's also: [PTSD, hypervigilance and aversion to ambiguity](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5247796/) to check-out.  
> **username_2**: i think you are asking not about all "mads" but about shizophrenia.  
> **username_0**: @username_2 not necessarily. I’ve specifically mentioned what I do mean by insanity, so any kind that fits would constitute a series of examples  
> **username_2**: "I’ve specifically mentioned what I do mean by insanity" - where?  
> **username_0**: @username_2 here *To be more precise, by insanity I do not mean any particular mental illness, but rather a set of behaviors that do not allow a person to sustain themselves, be a part of the society and overall reduce their chances of survival.*  
> **username_2**: @username_0 what does it sense, can you explain on direct examples?  
> **username_3**: The phenomenon in question could be classified as [information hazard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_hazard). For certain individuals, certain ideas can be troublesome to handle. But generally such vulnerabilities are idiosyncratic, in that certain background factors may be required, such as ignorance of how to resolve a given dilemma, or inability to face emotionally significant repressions.  
> **username_2**: @username_0 id though about, and i think that people go mad if they are think a lot with a "wrong way of reflection", thay got a problem with logic loop and can't to beyond it frame. But they are continue thinking, that make thinking process as reflex. When thinking process have wide area and it is reflex, without result cus logic loop - a subject get a nervous exhaustion and huge distress for nervous system that became to psychosis stance one time. Long time at psychosis stance being destruct the nervous composition and neurones are also can be damaged or may die.  
> **username_2**: Do not think a lot, dumb brain can't go mad.  
> **username_0**: @username_2 thanks a lot, that's along the lines I thought of that, but how professional is your opinion? :)  
> **username_2**: totally is not professional)  
> **username_2**: and it is not an opinion, it is an intersubjective experience, probably, with some specific arguments from science knowledge: logic, philosophy, psychology, neurophisiology~...  
> **username_0**: @username_2 could you elaborate?  
> **username_2**: What exactly i have to elaborate?  

---

## 0 answers

