Within the medical and therapeutic communities the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is a standard. It is regularly referenced by doctors and therapists when diagnosing their patients, but the definitions of abnormal behavior within this manual are based on an assumed definition of normal. Normal behavior is not defined. What exactly is normal? If a child is regularly acting out, does s/he suffer from ADHD or is s/he simply trying to draw attention to a particular problem or concern s/he has?

Mental disorders afflict millions of people, yet the experience is quite individual. Psychiatry is not a precise science. No one knows why Ritalin, an amphetamine, has a calming effect in some people, while acting as a stimulant in others. There are suppositions, but not exact knowledge. Will there ever be?

In Plato's Republic, the shadows dancing on the cave wall are mere reflections of reality, not an absolute. Are the definitions within the DSMMD simple attempts to get at the absolute of normal, defining it by what it is not? Too often doctors and therapists lose sight of this point. They will repeatedly tell you what is wrong, but rarely what is right. They forget that one individual cannot be defined by another person's words, because one person's experience is quite different from another's.

As light flickers off the cave wall, it reflects off the beads. My choice of medium is specific. Beads twinkle, dazzle, and recede. Color shifts. Move your head slightly to the left and then to the right. The piece looks the same and equally different. An absolute perception of these works is allusive. The shadow is a faint representation of the being.