What qualifies as insanity?

We hear the words a lot but I don't think most people truly understand what it means. What, in your opinion, is madness? What conditions, prerequisites must a person have to be considered mad?

• They were born, lived in, or passed through Spartanburg, South Carolina.

• HELP - I just took on a roommate , and after reading another thread, I think he's a 'borderline' case . Seemed calm when I interviewed him, and now he's ranting over the smallest things , very lethargic half the time, and then acting all haughty, and arrogant, and bitching constantly. Not dangerous crazy, but off. Could it be insanity? Know he has very few friends, and family lives far, far away.

  Dear%20Lord%2C%20what%20have%20I%20done%20%3F

• You are right, most people don't know what it means, apparently including you. It is no longer used in the scientific community so equating it with madness, a term also no longer used in the scientific community, is imprecise. Insanity is now used as a legal term. Often, depending on the jurisdiction, it is is defined as some form of the McNaughton Rules: at the time of the commission of the acts constituting the offense, the defendant, as a result of a severe mental disease or defect, was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts" (18 U.S.C. § 17).

• when someone repeats the same action over and over again, and expects different results.

• When they don't agree with what you say

  Data%20Lounge

• Half the posts on DL

• They were born, lived in, or passed through Greenville, South Carolina.

• Who cares about insanity? Everyone is crazy in their own way anyway.

• 60% of the Republican't party. The other 40% are moderates in denial.

• Think untreated Schizophrenia where the individual is disconnected with reality.

• F A S#160;T#160;I#160;N#160;G#160;!

• OP, are you the same person as the "I don't understand pdophilia poster?

  charlie

• Broadly, mental illness involves being a danger to one's self or others and/or being incapacitated to the point of being unable to care for one's self and/or leading a life that is greatly diminished and being unhappy about it. Generally, all mental illness falls into one of three categories: a thought disorder, a mood disorder or a combination of both. "Insanity" is, I guess, an attempt to label what we now call psychosis...a profound thought disorder in which internal and external stimuli is not processed accurately to the point that one is clearly mentally ill (see above).