Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

tvieno said:

I think Pink Floyd"s The Wall album is one of the best albums and I never tire of listening to it.

What I want to know is how these terms have come to mean mental illness?

1. Crazy…toys in the attic I am crazy,
2. Truly gone fishing.
3. They must have taken my marbles away.
4. Crazy, over the rainbow, he is crazy.
5. Bars in the window.

My interpretations are:
1. Like a couple of hundred years ago when you just locked a crazy family member in the attic and didn"t tell anybody. The toys are there because the person was a child.
2. Not a clue why
3. Similar to throwing a tantrum when a child gets upset
4. At a loss for this one too.
5. Prison.. maybe insane asylum?

Anyone else with some insight?

This is just speculation:

1. Toys in the attic – Not real working machinery in the head.
2. "Gone fishing" implies leaving responsibility/work behind, temporarily. The "Truly" may mean a more permanent state without responsibility nor an expectation of return.
3. Whether taken away or misplaced that person has lost their marbles.
4. Oz was "over the rainbow" and a place of a girl"s delirium. If someone is living in a place of fantasy like Oz, she is not sane.
5. You are probably right with respect to confinement against ones will.

Emmett