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'Insanity', or 'madness', is a general term for a semi-permanent, severe mental disorder. The concept has been used in a number of ways historically. Today it is most commonly encountered as a generic informal term, or in the more narrow legal context of criminal insanity. In the medical profession, it is nowadays avoided in favor of specific diagnoses of mental illness.

Contents

Historical treatment

Criminal & civil law

Slang usage

12-step usage

Linguistic roots

External links

Historical treatment

During the 18th century, the French and English introduced the new practice of humane treatment of the clinically insane, though reasons for placement in an asylum and being labelled mentally unstable were considerably looser than the diagnoses used by contemporary society, often including afflictions such as speech impediments and epilepsy.
The world's oldest asylum is The Bethlem Royal Hospital of London, also known as Bedlam, which began admitting the mentally ill in 1403. The first American asylum was built in Williamsburg, Virginia, circa 1773. Before the 19th century these hospitals were used to isolate the mentally ill or the socially ostracized from society rather than cure them or maintain their health. Pictures from this era portrayed patients to be bound with straitjackets, rope or chains, often to beds or walls.

Criminal & civil law

Main articles: Insanity defense

In criminal law, 'insanity' may serve as a defense for a person's criminal acts. In most U.S. states, legal insanity is not sufficient to avoid a guilty verdict, rather to be not guilty by reason of insanity it must be demonstrated that the defendant could not tell the difference between right and wrong. The prosecuted could be charged as "not guilty for reasons of insanity" (NGRI).
In civil law, 'insanity' renders a person unfit for entering contracts or other legal obligations.
In some judicial systems, it may allow for someone to be involuntarily committed.
Many who support the movement of anti-psychiatry take the position that mental illness is questionable as a diagnosis either legally or medically and especially should not permit their involuntary commitment.

Slang usage

In popular culture, "insane" could also refer to something extremely foolish, while persons may be deemed "insane" if their behavior strongly deviates from accepted social norms; in the past, insanity has been used to refer to individuals who have exhibited apathetic, cruel, hypersexual and homosexual behavior. The term is typically negative, but departure from established norms may also be seen as a positive quality; in this case, being "insane" is being daringly unconventional or individualistic. This use of ''insane'' is illustrated by the following quote from Henry David Thoreau's ''A Plea for Captain John Brown'', an essay supporting the well-known militant abolitionist:
In this sense, "insanity" is not implied to be an actual disorder, let alone severe.

12-step usage

Concerning substance addiction and abuse, insanity is recognized in twelve-step recovery groups as "repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results".

Linguistic roots

In English, the word "sane" shares the Latin adjective ''sanus'' meaning healthy. The phrase "mens sana in corpore sano" refers to a "healthy mind in a healthy body". From this perspective, one can see that "insanity" of the mind can also be considered poor "health" of the mind. This of course does not refer to the health of the brain as an organ, though that can affect one's mental health, but rather it refers to the health of the mind itself. The Latin phrase itself for "sane" is "compos mentis" (lit. "of composed mind")

External links

★ Rosenhan, David L. "On Being Sane in Insane Places."