Madness Again

[Dennis <ixohoxi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    For no really definite reason, I was thinking about the idea that
the VMs was composed by someone suffering from some form of
schizophrenia, who invented an artificial language of his
own.

    Toresella thought this.  (His "alchemical herbals" don't really
resemble the VMs very
much, and he himself said that the VMs is in a class by itself among
them.)  Here is the relevant quote:


    "Personally I think that the person who drew and wrote this herbal
was profoundly impressed by the exhibition of some charlatan at the
market place and thought that he had discovered the secret of the
world; a secret to entrust to a language and a cryptic script such as
is often found in certain forms of insanity [47].

...

    "47.  The phenomenon of invented languages is very widespread and
represents a fundamental aspect of some mental pathologies.  For an
approach to the problem see: S. ARIETE, *Creativita`. La Sintesi
magica*, Roma 1986.  A. BAUSANI, *Le Lingue inventate. Linguaggi
artificiali -linguaggi segreti- linguaggi universali*, Roma, 1974.
And the recent B. BUONARROTI & P. ALBANI, *Aga Mage'ra Difura.
Dizionario delle lingue immaginarie*, Bologna 1994."


----------------------------

    The only one of the ref's I've been able to look at is Ariete.  He
discusses the very simple "languages" sometimes seen with simple
schizophrenics;  the examples he gives consist of only a few words.  Bob
Richmond has also mentioned the (based on a real-life example) novel *I
Never Promised You a Rose Garden*.  The "Yri" language used by the
protagonist, from what I've seen just from leafing through the book,
also only includes a few words.

    However, paranoid schizophrenics' thinks seem much more lucid and
they construct elaborate world views of their own.  Jacques and I have
given samples of paranoid schizophrenics' English-language writings, but
have found no examples of their inventing languages (unless James
Hampton qualifies; there is at least one psychiatric article on him, but
I haven't read it.)

    SO... ONE MORE TIME... has anyone read BAUSANI or BUONARROTI &
ALBANI, and if so, what do they say?

Dennis


PS - Since we are entering the print media, I think that Toresella's
footnote was our very first appearance in the print media.


    "46.  The best exposition of the research on the Voynich codex is
in M. E. D'Imperio, *The Voynich Manuscript.  An elegant enigma,
Laguna Hills (Ca.) 1976.  A good summary, also easily available in
Italy, may be found in D. Kahn, *The Codebreakers.*  There also exists
an Internet site dedicated to this issue on which about forty students
from all over the world communicate their discoveries.