What is insanity? What are its features? what defines it? how does it pertain to good and evil? how would one recognize insanity in others or one's self?
WHAT IS INSANITY?
WHAT IS INSANITY?
Philosophy/Psychology: What is Insanity?
- Thread starter CulixCupric
- Start date
Beats me.
I'm not an expert in the field of diagnosis, but I would personally rely on people that are to define this before I take a stand.
Something I do think is an interesting feature of someone who would be diagnosed as insane is that they don't think/realise that they are insane. To them, their actions, beliefs and thoughts make perfect sense. They might be scared by them, and they can be discouraged by more "normal" people that don't see it from their point of view, which might be triggering. Frustration is quite an annoying feeling after all.
Sorry, I'm just talking crap, I have no intelligent point to add.
I'm not an expert in the field of diagnosis, but I would personally rely on people that are to define this before I take a stand.
Something I do think is an interesting feature of someone who would be diagnosed as insane is that they don't think/realise that they are insane. To them, their actions, beliefs and thoughts make perfect sense. They might be scared by them, and they can be discouraged by more "normal" people that don't see it from their point of view, which might be triggering. Frustration is quite an annoying feeling after all.
Sorry, I'm just talking crap, I have no intelligent point to add.
When you spend most of your time behaving in a way which society would deem illogical and irrational but seems to you as perfectly normal.
CulixCupric said:
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity.
Copypasta from wikipedia.
To answer what its features are or how it pertains good or evil is a question that I think cannot be answered since it manifests differently on an individual level.
Think of it like this.
To get into your house you need to open the door with a key. Simple enough right?
Insanity is trying other ways to open such door and never even considering using the key, and I mean unconventional ways to open said door. Using an axe, saying mean things about its mother, pleading with it, driving your car through the door, or using your ex-girlfriend as a battering ram.
And as for the reason people go insane? I'd say the number one reason is utter boredom. Because when you're bored out of your mind, the only way to spice things up by trying to think outside the box.
To get into your house you need to open the door with a key. Simple enough right?
Insanity is trying other ways to open such door and never even considering using the key, and I mean unconventional ways to open said door. Using an axe, saying mean things about its mother, pleading with it, driving your car through the door, or using your ex-girlfriend as a battering ram.
And as for the reason people go insane? I'd say the number one reason is utter boredom. Because when you're bored out of your mind, the only way to spice things up by trying to think outside the box.
Severe and often destructive deviation from behavioural patterns that are considered to be the norm.
If you can hide the way you think, you're not insane.
If you can hide the way you think, you're not insane.
Dont ask a philosopher about good and evil relating to something, they (including me) will likely just laugh at your ignorance, good and evil exists only in relative terms, prey will always consider the predator "evil" etc etc.
That said, insanity is basically when your mental process is broken in some way, meaning that your brains inaccurately translates the signals coming from your senses and internal relativity.
This is not to be confused with cognitive dissonance (though I suppose you could argue that it's very nearly the same) where the mind will twist what the senses and the memory tell it in order to fit an ideal (for example someone who's utterly incompetent at something who completely believes that it isn't him who's incompetent and blames everything else)
Insanity, contrary to popular beliefs, has nothing to do with deviating from social norms, this misunderstanding people have is what makes them confuse genius and insanity, and is the main cause for people to believe genius and insanity are very close (they're on the opposite sides of the spectrum, no where near close to each other) unusual thought processes also have nothing to do with insanity, insanity is more of an inconsistent thought process, looking at an apple once and understanding its an apple, then blinking and seeing something entirely different, that's insanity.
Excuse the short example, for I only know most of the technical terms in Dutch, but a "healthy" thought process goes something like this:
Perception (your brain receives information) -> Verification (your brain checks the quality of the information) -> Processing (your brain compares the information it received to information previously processed and "archives" it) -> Verification (once again checking the quality of the process, making sure everything is accurate) -> Action (reacting to the information received) -> Verification (checking the results of the action and the new information it leads to, this step leads to repeating the process all over again)
Now, many people dilute the process of verification to suit their image of the world and themselves (if you are incapable of understanding something, its not you who is flawed, but the information itself <- fooling yourself) and for some people parts of this process work slow and or slower than other parts (this is what you call being retarded) and then we come back to insanity, which is simply not having some of these steps or some of these steps not doing what they're supposed to, insanity is a term mostly used for people who have an inconsistent brain because of something being "broken" as opposed to "slow" or "subconsciously disabled" etc etc
That said, insanity is basically when your mental process is broken in some way, meaning that your brains inaccurately translates the signals coming from your senses and internal relativity.
This is not to be confused with cognitive dissonance (though I suppose you could argue that it's very nearly the same) where the mind will twist what the senses and the memory tell it in order to fit an ideal (for example someone who's utterly incompetent at something who completely believes that it isn't him who's incompetent and blames everything else)
Insanity, contrary to popular beliefs, has nothing to do with deviating from social norms, this misunderstanding people have is what makes them confuse genius and insanity, and is the main cause for people to believe genius and insanity are very close (they're on the opposite sides of the spectrum, no where near close to each other) unusual thought processes also have nothing to do with insanity, insanity is more of an inconsistent thought process, looking at an apple once and understanding its an apple, then blinking and seeing something entirely different, that's insanity.
Excuse the short example, for I only know most of the technical terms in Dutch, but a "healthy" thought process goes something like this:
Perception (your brain receives information) -> Verification (your brain checks the quality of the information) -> Processing (your brain compares the information it received to information previously processed and "archives" it) -> Verification (once again checking the quality of the process, making sure everything is accurate) -> Action (reacting to the information received) -> Verification (checking the results of the action and the new information it leads to, this step leads to repeating the process all over again)
Now, many people dilute the process of verification to suit their image of the world and themselves (if you are incapable of understanding something, its not you who is flawed, but the information itself <- fooling yourself) and for some people parts of this process work slow and or slower than other parts (this is what you call being retarded) and then we come back to insanity, which is simply not having some of these steps or some of these steps not doing what they're supposed to, insanity is a term mostly used for people who have an inconsistent brain because of something being "broken" as opposed to "slow" or "subconsciously disabled" etc etc
The incapability of rational thoughts (or most of them), rendering you unable to function in human enviroments. A better synonym for insane is "bugfuck crazy" or Top Gear. It doesn't matter what defines the insanity, like psychopathic insanity or fobias, but if you need to blow up Starbucks to safe the world from an evil flying space-McCain, you're going to have a nice therapy session.
You know what would be ironic? if the people who were "insane" were actually the sane ones and all of us are insane....[sub][sub]damn it i still need to find that movie[/sub][/sub]MassiveGeek said:
Pretty much this ^^Sebastiaan Veldman said:
OT:
The dictionary defines insanity as such:
in·san·i·ty   [in-san-i-tee] Show IPA
noun, plural in·san·i·ties.
1.
the condition of being insane; a derangement of the mind. Synonyms: dementia, lunacy, madness, craziness, mania, aberration.
2.
Law. such unsoundness of mind as frees one from legal responsibility, as for committing a crime, or as signals one's lack of legal capacity, as for entering into a contractual agreement.
3.
Psychiatry. (formerly) psychosis.
4.
a.
extreme foolishness; folly; senselessness; foolhardiness: Trying to drive through that traffic would be pure insanity.
b.
a foolish or senseless action, policy, statement, etc.: We've heard decades of insanities in our political discourse.
Origin: 1580?90; < Latin insānitās. See in-3, sanity
And then defines insane as such:
in·sane   [in-seyn] Show IPA
adjective
1.
not sane; not of sound mind; mentally deranged.
2.
of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a person who is mentally deranged: insane actions; an insane asylum.
3.
utterly senseless: an insane plan.
Origin: 1550?60; < Latin insānus. See in-3, sane
Related forms
in·sane·ly, adverb
in·sane·ness, noun
pseu·do·in·sane, adjective
Synonyms 1. demented; lunatic, crazed, crazy; maniacal. 3. foolish, irrational. See mad.
I'd add my view from the sociological point but since it has already been posted it would be redundant. See the second post I quoted and that about sums it all up.
Insanity would be everything that is beyond what is generally be considered sane behaviour. From a medical standpoint it would have to consist of a significant difference to what can possibly be within the norm, within bounds of the generally acceptable. To a certain point, we're all somewhere inbetween sane and insane, hovering in the middle or oscillating within the bounds. Generally, as long as no harm is done and the flow of energy doesn't suck people's batteries dry or create emotional warzones, normality is still within reach.CulixCupric said:
In our modern 21st century, insanity cannot possibly be considered anywhere inside the system of good & evil, as it is more of a peculiar illness and an abnormality that can manifest itself in strange and/or bad/criminal behaviour, without the insane person perceiving any of it as being beyond good & evil or outside the norm. In less "enlightened" societies, mental illnesses are still considered manifestations of evil spirits, but that doesn't exactly help anyone. While Scientology does not think much of psychiatry, I do believe that psychology and psychiatry are still the best tools we have at our disposal. If there's really something terribly wrong, therapy alone won't do the trick. But compliance and the will to cope with the situation usually do the trick and help nudge the situation into more normal territory.
The sheer scope of insane human behaviour is too big to condense, really. A good therapist might recommend some book or other reading material, if he or she thinks it might help.
If, say, you find yourself more than casually talking to inanimate objects to the point where others consider you to be rather odd, you should probably seek professional help. If you find your thinking drifting off into magical wonderlands beyond logic or reason or if you interact with people that aren't really there, especially when no drugs are involved, seek professional help.
If someone you think you know changes behaviour too quickly to keep track, is obviously loopy, has violent moodswings beyond the normal hormonal imbalances or is considered a strange one by friends, family and strangers alike, it is possible that professional help is strongly advisable. If insanity takes hold of someone else than you, though, it can be rather hard to make things right without making a mess. If someone truly insane considers themselves to be quite normal, you'll not only hurt their feelings, you're bound for an extra rough trip through Hell on Earth.
Either way, this is not a one-person project. But just discussing the odd one's strange behaviour with family and loved ones can be considered treason and worse by the loopy one.
A "good", albeit sad example of insanity within the bounds of current online pop culture would probably be the video clips Jared Loughner put online, as they clearly show someone who has left "normal" thoughts and conventions of communication behind, whirring away into a logic that may have been amazingly perfect to him, but left everyone else behind, puzzled.