Photos: otisarchives2 (left), modcult (right)

Are cave paintings signs of intelligence of ancient cave dwellers or are they just scribbles of crazy cavemen?

Take a look at the two photos above. The one to the left is a painting made by a patient at St. Elizabeth's hospital. The patient had a case of dementia praecox (eventually classified as schizophrenia) and used a pin or fingernail to scratch paint from the wall, creating pictures symbolizing past events in the patient's life and represent a mild state of mental regression.

Jeb of Modcult made this intriguing observation:

You know, everyone assumes cave paintings were made for some sort of vaunted religious or technical purpose, but maybe in olden times they just sent their crazy people into a cave. I mean, that’s basically what we do now.

Link - via Cliff Pickover's Reality Carnival