‘That’s So Crazy’

Why the way we talk about mental health matters

Illustration by Louisa Bertman

A year ago, for one month, I ran a private experiment. Whenever I heard someone say the words “crazy” or “insane,” I surreptitiously recorded the event in a notes doc on my phone. I recorded instances of “schizophrenic or “schizo” too, though those happened less often. I wrote the time (most of the time) and context and only noted the speaker if it was…