Human or Android?

Ms. Monáe sets this video in a psych ward named 'The Palace of the Dogs', a place she claims to have done 'research'. Amidst the fancy footwork, we are shown ghosts (visual hallucinations), and a psych nurse rolling out meds, who eventually breaks loose (only in a corner),  to show her moves. Is this simply feel-good commentary on the dehumanization of a psychiatric facility, or part of a larger project by Monáe?

Yes I am African American, yes I am part android and all these different things, but at the end of the day love is universal and music is universal. That universal language we often speak. There is no race involved in that and there's no religious belief in that. That's something we can embody together. (TheVine)

What is the distinction between a successful artist who believes she is part android and can time travel, with a person locked in a psych ward who believes those same things? How much of Monáe's act is for secondary gain (publicity), and how much is her authentic self?

Bits of this interview resemble "word salad", or is that scat? Or android language? Is classifying the form of communication even relevant? Monáe frequently talks about tapping into feelings through her music that the listener was not aware of. "I want to create music that will be their choice of drug whenever they feel oppressed or depressed" (MTVHive). Perhaps Monáe has been able to escape being 'pressed by not only artistic genius, but by sublimating those qualities which could have otherwise been perceived as insane.

In embracing her android-ness, she softens what could be considered both inflammatory social and cultural critique, not to mention a sign of illness. What could be considered a symptom, is transformed to free the artist and hopefully her listener as well. This leads to a larger question, who is Monáe really trying to reach? A poor patient, locked in the ward, or the nurse, administering medications and carrying out other "therapeutic interventions"? Who does Monáe believe really needs freeing? 

Here she is talking about Fritz Lang's Metropolis as an inspiration for her music: 

There was just something about the imagery that led me to want to create a whole album around the concept of the haves and the have-nots, and how we can get along. And I think the most important thing that I saw was the quote at the beginning, 'The mediator between head and hands must be the heart.' (Colorado Springs Independent)

By embracing and twisting our own pathologies/gifts, for popular consumption, can we similarly free both ourselves, and our listeners/patients/nurses? To these ends, would the psychiatric interview be better off starting not with, "How are you feeling?" but rather, "Human, or Android?"