What Is The Definition Of Insanity?

Post Reply New Topic

Today I was playing around with the suction-cups used for getting dents out of cars, on the side of the desk. One of my workmate said in so many words that I was a bit insane. He didn’t mean anything really by that remark.

I said to him, I have done more insane things in past; most of which are financial. Then again most people have done a lot worse with credit cards, new cars and buying things they cannot afford.

Other is are sexual, with having sex without any protection with a girl who I don’t know very well and with another that is extremely secretive, naïve and from a country that I know little about.

My definition of insanity is when you do an act does harm to oneself without any benefit.

Insanity is continuing to do the same thing that failed before whilst expecting a different outcome.

Insanity means you are a potential danger to society due to a mental defect.

I have heard that insanity is a legal rather than a medical term.

Yeah, thats what I said. I mean, thats what I was referring to.

Like the mental disorder of wanting to break into banks armed with a gun. Or to mindlessly spreed sexually transmitted deseases because of neglegance.

Investigating the etymology of the word may serve us well. Insanity comes from the prefix in- (meaning not) and the root sane. Sanitas is the Latin word literally meaning health or well-being ("Mens sana in corpore sano" from Juvenal's Satires, translation: "Sound mind in a sound body"). Now a person of sound mind would be expected to make sound decisions. This is not to say that every foolish decision implies serious mental illness, but a marked tendency towards grossly foolish decisions and conduct (especially absent cognitive defect or delay) does.

An insane person's interpretation of relatively normal events is so far askew that they, even if their faculties of reason are otherwise intact, make a sound choice. Their behavior is grossly harmful to themselves and/or others. They are unable to look after their best interests in anything resembling competency.

That's what insanity means.

insanity is a fairly archaic term. There are two ways that mental illness can come about. A person can perform repeated actions (such as starving oneself ) which may lead to neurological damage/ and or repetitive irrational thoughts. Or they can start out as neurological in nature such as a brain tumor or some other malfunction which disrupts the flow of sensory information/conscious thought. In short there has to be a pattern, otherwise the definition of who is crazy or not is pretty much meaningless.

If i remember from high school right, in the American legal system you're considered insane if you are not responsible for your actions. Outside of that its pretty hard to define.

that's actually true. here is the precise definition of insanity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insanity

I am not a lawyer (but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night ), but insanity, in most parts of the United States (not sure about other countries), is basically a legal term for incompetence or not being aware of the guilt of one's actions. Insanity can be argued as general, in which case, if a person is found guilty by reason of insanity, a judge may send the person to a psychiatric facility or prison hospital. It can also be argued as a temporary state (temporary insanity).

As I understand it, insanity entered into the legal system back at a time when psychiatrists diagnosed people as insane and sent them to "insane asylums," i.e., psychiatric hospitals. Obviously, psychiatrists and other health professionals do not generally use that term any longer. It can, therefore, be a difficult balancing act for expert witnesses (like psychiatrists and clinical psychologists) to apply modern theories of the mind to artifacts like insanity.

Last edited by nominalist on 23 Oct 2007, 7:27 am, edited 2 times in total.

The definition would mean that Nazi Germany was insane. Not only they hurt others, but they hurt themselves because they lost. Hitler himself was probably more sane as he would have had great glory if he had won.

Your insane if you have less grip on reality than your doctor

It can mean a danger to yourself and/or others.

I think the correlations between insanity and foolishnesses need not be dismissed, but rather investigated.

Pretending stuff like THIS...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071116/ap_ ... di_justice

...doesn't prove that there's something deeply wrong with Islam.