# seeing too much makes you insane **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 22, 2015, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622 "2015-05-22T23:58:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MaverocK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@MaverocK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaverocK)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/1 "2015-05-22T23:58:56Z")
I was randomly look at a website about quotes and I came across this one: “The only problem with seeing too much is that it makes you insane.” - Phaedrus I have found this very interesting, stimulating etc., and it got me wondering about its possible interpretations. In my high school class, we would talk about how we were going to end up being crazy because we studied so much. I would feel different after long hours of studying. I would laugh for no reason. My class was filled with hard-studying people. This experience of mine does not directly relate to the quote but it might give you an insight about one possible interpretation of the quote. How would you interpret this sentence from Phaedrus? What could it possibly mean? ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/2 "2015-05-23T00:08:33Z")
“The world was made for people who aren’t cursed with self awareness.” ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2015, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/3 "2015-05-23T01:06:56Z")
Enough trauma makes it hard to function in polite society. ---
**Author:** ![MaverocK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@MaverocK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaverocK)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/4 "2015-05-24T19:27:16Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Enough trauma makes it hard to function in polite society. What is your definition of trauma? ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/5 "2015-05-24T21:39:36Z")
The first two interpretations that occurred to me are that it’s from the point of view of soldier or someone similar - someone who’s seen the worst humans can be, and wish they hadn’t. The other is someone, say, staring up at the night sky, and realizing just how small they are in the scale of things. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/6 "2015-05-24T21:47:07Z")
Is it possible that quote is from ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’? That would give it a more specific meaning, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/7 "2015-05-24T22:35:52Z")
> [@MaverocK](#): > > I was randomly look at a website about quotes and I came across this one: > > “The only problem with seeing too much is that it makes you insane.” - Phaedrus > > I have found this very interesting, stimulating etc., and it got me wondering about its possible interpretations. > > In my high school class, we would talk about how we were going to end up being crazy because we studied so much. I would feel different after long hours of studying. I would laugh for no reason. My class was filled with hard-studying people. This experience of mine does not directly relate to the quote but it might give you an insight about one possible interpretation of the quote. > > How would you interpret this sentence from Phaedrus? What could it possibly mean? I take it to mean that most people have filters that keep them from seeing most of what happens around them. The result is that they’re able to construct a world-view that’s better than what they’d otherwise be able to create. It’s related to selection bias: people see what they want to see, and disregard the rest. I have a theory that one of the reasons great artists often go insane is that they lack the filters ordinary people have. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/8 "2015-05-24T22:36:56Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > “The world was made for people who aren’t cursed with self awareness.” +1 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/9 "2015-05-25T19:15:01Z")
[Blinky Watts is not blind. He suffers from Bozeman’s Symplex. He actually sees 25.62 times as much as we do](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-1UunyuhBE). ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/10 "2015-05-28T14:02:41Z")
> [@LinusK](#): > > It’s related to selection bias: people see what they want to see, and disregard the rest. This. Societies have a code of what sorts of things are good, bad, acceptable, right, etc. If you don’t want to think about something, you really don’t have to go any deeper than deciding which pigeonhole a particular event fits in, and then display the requisite reaction. If you choose to actually think about stuff, observe the event as well as what led up to it, ask “why” a few times, it becomes harder to pigeonhole and you start to have trouble reacting in the expected way to the event. And although you are thus eminently more aware than your peers, you are less able to function with them and are by definition insane. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/11 "2015-05-28T15:13:22Z")
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.” - HP Lovecraft. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/12 "2015-05-28T16:03:36Z")
Ignorance is bliss ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/13 "2015-05-28T16:21:22Z")
I was reminded of [Stendhal syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal_syndrome). ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/14 "2015-05-28T16:31:18Z")
To me, it just sounds like something a crazy person says. They’re not crazy, they just see things we don’t. Uh huh. That’s what insane means. Here’s your padded cell, buddy. I’ve heard the same thing from drug addicts. The drugs open up their minds so that they can only see the truth when they’re stoned. It’s a self-serving justification for their addiction and for the psychological problems that are caused by the drug habit. In fact, not so long ago, some poster here on the dope was trying to figure out how space-age humanity could possibly survive without the spiritual connection provided by some Amazonian plant/drug. I’m not discounting what everyone else is coming up with. If we mean to interpret this expression as having uses for a sane person, it makes sense that it refers to the blinders we put on so that we can focus on what need. I’m just not convinced this kind of thought came from a sane/sober person. ---
**Author:** ![UberArchetype](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/2bfe46/32.png) [@UberArchetype](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UberArchetype)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/15 "2015-05-28T17:04:50Z")
It goes hand-in-hand with the old saying, “the more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know.” It’s a paradoxical dilemma, well managed by healthy yet not-so-sane minds. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/16 "2015-05-29T15:10:34Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > Ignorance is bliss Wait. If what you’re saying is true then this whole website is devoted to fighting _bliss_? Is this something that we ought to be doing? What about all those deranged idiots following their bliss, are they all heading to the Creation Museum? Should we stop them, too? Is the reverse true that Bliss is ignorance? Arrrgghh! ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/17 "2015-05-29T18:31:16Z")
It’s an incorrect statement. [/psychologist] ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/18 "2015-05-29T22:23:43Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > Wait. If what you’re saying is true then this whole website is devoted to fighting _bliss_? Is this something that we ought to be doing? What about all those deranged idiots following their bliss, are they all heading to the Creation Museum? Should we stop them, too? Is the reverse true that Bliss is ignorance? Arrrgghh! [QUOTE=Confucius] Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance [/QUOTE] So…yeah I can’t do the math on that one. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/19 "2015-05-30T00:15:53Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > The first two interpretations that occurred to me are that it’s from the point of view of soldier or someone similar - someone who’s seen the worst humans can be, and wish they hadn’t. I’m going to vote for this interpretation. There’s no reason to think that PTSD didn’t exist among the ancients. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622/20 "2015-05-30T01:03:09Z")
I haven’t found the quote in the Phaedrus, btw. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-too-much-makes-you-insane/720622.md?page=2)