"SQ" by Ursula Le Guin

"He said: 'An asylum means a place of shelter, a place of cure. Let there be no stigma attached to the word 'insane,' to the word 'asylum,' to the words 'insane asylum'! No! For the asylum is the haven of mental health...'"

Mental health is an incredibly important and increasingly salient topic in our current society. Kids are being put on ADHD medications, having a therapist is a fairly common thing, etc. etc. And many people believe that we are overmedicating, overdiagnosing, and that people should just get over their issues. Now, I'm sure there are many improperly diagnosed mental illnesses out there, and there is controversy over whether ADHD is something we should be medicating in children, but if a treatment or medication genuinely improves someone's life, should they not take advantage of it? 

This is why I was unsure how I felt about this story at the beginning. It appeared to be a satire on the prevalence of mental illness treatment, suggesting that the treatment is negative. The style of writing suggested, through passages like the one quoted above, that Dr. Speakie was a monster of sorts, taking the people away from themselves and locking them away for "treatment." I sympathized with the words being said, but felt that they were being used satirically. 

However, the theme of the story takes a significant turn as the plot progresses. First, World SQ scores continue to rise, and more and more people choose to be and work in the asylums instead of living in the outside world. The asylums gain farmland, resources and general autonomy. Meanwhile, the ever-shrinking population on the outside, including Mrs. Mary Ann Smith and, for a time, Dr. Speakie, continue to struggle to separate themselves from the "insane." Eventually, Speakie breaks and admits to be incredibly insane by the criteria of his test. 

The people on the outside seem to be followers (Mrs. Smith is incredibly sheep-like and blindly follows everything Speakie says, the janitor is straightforward and seems to enjoy his simple life), and the people inside the asylum seem to be leaders. The rebels in Australia had very high levels, and all they wanted was freedom. If the desire for freedom is considered insane, then only the leaders and independent and imaginative thinkers would have high SQ scores. These are the people being put into asylums, which are becoming the more pleasant and thriving place to be. 

On the outside, Speakie struggled to deny his so-called insanity, because he seemed to feel it was wrong to be a free thinker. He internalized and tried to hide his individuality so much that he became genuinely insane.

A possible theme here could be that the people we classify as crazy, as outsiders, insane, are really the ones gifted with creativity and the capability for independence. They shouldn't be hidden away or squandered, because they are the ones with potential and strength. The story isn't criticizing the improvement of lives through treatment, like I originally thought; it's criticizing the stigma around mental illness and the concept that sanity means following the leader.