What can cause insanity?

[E-mantheseeker]

While walking around yesterday, I saw a man I was convinced was insane which got me thinking "Something in the past must have driven this man insane" because as far as I know, people cannot be born crazy, some event has to drive a person to insanity.

According to the Joker, "All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day." I don't know how true this is but it is an interesting concept, so I ask, what do you think can drive a person insane?

 

[Pimppeter2]

Anything

 

[Trivun]

These would all cause insanity in the survivors, the stuff I posted in the 'Saw' thread earlier:

Spoiler: Warning, these are pretty extreme...

Spoiler: Lust

Strap a naked man and woman together facing each other, and they each have blades literally nailed to parts of their bodies at random. They're in some kind of device to force them to move, basically forced sex, and the blades are slicing them both. Ecstasy in agony, basically. To escape, one has to die. They either both die (probably of blood loss), or one dies and the other is strapped to a corpse, adding a bit of necrophilia to the mix. When one dies the other gets released, although I'd imagine forced necrophilia and torture is enough to make them go insane anyway.

Spoiler: Greed

Greed here means material greed. Think Shylock from The Merchant of Venice. Anyway, for this, basically, a series of materialistic possessions of the victim would be modified to cause pain, so for example, add miniature razor blades to the inside of the person's clothes, then force them to wear said razor clothes. Lock the person in a room, and to escape, they would be told they had to use these objects that are with them for as long as they could, and you release them after any time you want. There would be devices that make the pain more unbearable, for example, a bed of nails that they'd have to sleep on wearing the razor underwear and so on. Blades on the walls and floor make it even worse.

Spoiler: Gluttony

For gluttony, the person has a funnel nailed to their mouth and various raw animal organs are poured into the funnel at a slow rate, and more gets added and faster as time goes on. The person will either choke to death, or to escape they have to slice open their own stomach and eat part of their own flesh.

Spoiler: Sloth

Easy one here. The victim has to stay in an Iron Maiden or a bed of nails, and more nails are being pressed into them over time, all over, by a device they wear on their body. If they survive and stay awake for at least 24 hours they'll be released, the device they wear and the door to the room have time locks on them.

Spoiler: Pride

Disfigurement over time. Simple as that. The victim wears a device that has blades attached all over it and cuts them in different parts of their body, mostly the genitals and face, at set times. The slicing gets faster and more frequent over time, again, they have to survive for 24 hours to escape, another time lock on the device and door.

Spoiler: Envy

The victim here has the person they're envious of opposite them, and they're locked in chains to a bench made of blades. Their enemy then has a choice, to unlock the victim, in order to secure their own freedom, or kill themselves with a knife to give the first victim freedom instead. However, if the person unlocks the chains and frees the envious victim, then the choice of who lives or dies goes to the victim themself and they decide who is killed. Bit of a loyalty tester, this one...

Spoiler: Wrath

The wrathful victim and the object of their hate are naked in a room save for the earlier mentioned bladed devices on their bodies, and they have a choice of bladed weapons. Then they fight to the death, but the walls and floor and ceiling of the room are made up knives sticking out, and they're standing on said knives. They basically fight to the death but the devices they're wearing are slowly killing them anyway, and to escape one has to kill the other before they die themselves.

I'm a really sick bastard, so I'm warning you not to open these spoiler boxes if you have a weak stomach or can't handle a bit of gore, since these are really very disgusting.

Yeah, they'd cause people to go mad... although I suppose to think of them in the first place I must be pretty messed up too...

 

[Levziemuch]

women

 

[BlackJack47]

In a persons socialization anything to make them believe that something construed as "insane" they will believe as the norm and thus their brain will process other things as "insane" as well...insanity. there can be chemical imbalances in the brain but this isn't so much to do with madness and more with emotion.

 

[antipunt]

stress. Period.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

These would all cause insanity in the survivors, the stuff I posted in the 'Saw' thread earlier:

Spoiler: Warning, these are pretty extreme...

Spoiler: Lust

Strap a naked man and woman together facing each other, and they each have blades literally nailed to parts of their bodies at random. They're in some kind of device to force them to move, basically forced sex, and the blades are slicing them both. Ecstasy in agony, basically. To escape, one has to die. They either both die (probably of blood loss), or one dies and the other is strapped to a corpse, adding a bit of necrophilia to the mix. When one dies the other gets released, although I'd imagine forced necrophilia and torture is enough to make them go insane anyway.

Spoiler: Greed

Greed here means material greed. Think Shylock from The Merchant of Venice. Anyway, for this, basically, a series of materialistic possessions of the victim would be modified to cause pain, so for example, add miniature razor blades to the inside of the person's clothes, then force them to wear said razor clothes. Lock the person in a room, and to escape, they would be told they had to use these objects that are with them for as long as they could, and you release them after any time you want. There would be devices that make the pain more unbearable, for example, a bed of nails that they'd have to sleep on wearing the razor underwear and so on. Blades on the walls and floor make it even worse.

Spoiler: Gluttony

For gluttony, the person has a funnel nailed to their mouth and various raw animal organs are poured into the funnel at a slow rate, and more gets added and faster as time goes on. The person will either choke to death, or to escape they have to slice open their own stomach and eat part of their own flesh.

Spoiler: Sloth

Easy one here. The victim has to stay in an Iron Maiden or a bed of nails, and more nails are being pressed into them over time, all over, by a device they wear on their body. If they survive and stay awake for at least 24 hours they'll be released, the device they wear and the door to the room have time locks on them.

Spoiler: Pride

Disfigurement over time. Simple as that. The victim wears a device that has blades attached all over it and cuts them in different parts of their body, mostly the genitals and face, at set times. The slicing gets faster and more frequent over time, again, they have to survive for 24 hours to escape, another time lock on the device and door.

Spoiler: Envy

The victim here has the person they're envious of opposite them, and they're locked in chains to a bench made of blades. Their enemy then has a choice, to unlock the victim, in order to secure their own freedom, or kill themselves with a knife to give the first victim freedom instead. However, if the person unlocks the chains and frees the envious victim, then the choice of who lives or dies goes to the victim themself and they decide who is killed. Bit of a loyalty tester, this one...

Spoiler: Wrath

The wrathful victim and the object of their hate are naked in a room save for the earlier mentioned bladed devices on their bodies, and they have a choice of bladed weapons. Then they fight to the death, but the walls and floor and ceiling of the room are made up knives sticking out, and they're standing on said knives. They basically fight to the death but the devices they're wearing are slowly killing them anyway, and to escape one has to kill the other before they die themselves.

I'm a really sick bastard, so I'm warning you not to open these spoiler boxes if you have a weak stomach or can't handle a bit of gore, since these are really very disgusting.

Yeah, they'd cause people to go mad... although I suppose to think of them in the first place I must be pretty messed up too...

Thinking of them is twisted, putting them into practise is insane.

I'd say anything can drive someone to insanity, given the right circumstances.

As a psych studend, i have a lot of info to share on a subject such so complex as mental disorders. Insanity is a misnomer because it doesnt denote any particular affliction or mental state. I have only found one way to succinctly explain such a complicated series of events that may lead to mental break down:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-CehxoJy0I

Urge to kill...Rising...

 

[Zand88]

"A pile. A pile of little arms."

And no, people can be born crazy. Ala Charles Whitman or schizophrenia.

 

[Lukeje]

Can I be the first to say 'Cthulhu'?

 

[kaziard]

....this guy has a worrying thought process, whats with all the razors anywho?

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

Are they insane? Are they really? Or are they just suffering from an extreme variant of a mental illness?

The trouble with labeling anyone as having a specific mental condition is that most of the time, it's all subjective. You can't literally go inside someone's brain and definitively prove they have a mental illness or that they're 'insane' like you can definitively prove that, say, someone has lupus. (they probably don't, it's never lupus, but still)

I suppose it could happen from extremely traumatic events, or letting a mental illness go untreated for a long time, or well-placed sonic devices scattered throughout a nameless city placed by a group of mysterious individuals that can scream at you and make your head explode....the reasons are myriad.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

These would all cause insanity in the survivors, the stuff I posted in the 'Saw' thread earlier:

Spoiler: Warning, these are pretty extreme...

Spoiler: Lust

Strap a naked man and woman together facing each other, and they each have blades literally nailed to parts of their bodies at random. They're in some kind of device to force them to move, basically forced sex, and the blades are slicing them both. Ecstasy in agony, basically. To escape, one has to die. They either both die (probably of blood loss), or one dies and the other is strapped to a corpse, adding a bit of necrophilia to the mix. When one dies the other gets released, although I'd imagine forced necrophilia and torture is enough to make them go insane anyway.

Spoiler: Greed

Greed here means material greed. Think Shylock from The Merchant of Venice. Anyway, for this, basically, a series of materialistic possessions of the victim would be modified to cause pain, so for example, add miniature razor blades to the inside of the person's clothes, then force them to wear said razor clothes. Lock the person in a room, and to escape, they would be told they had to use these objects that are with them for as long as they could, and you release them after any time you want. There would be devices that make the pain more unbearable, for example, a bed of nails that they'd have to sleep on wearing the razor underwear and so on. Blades on the walls and floor make it even worse.

Spoiler: Gluttony

For gluttony, the person has a funnel nailed to their mouth and various raw animal organs are poured into the funnel at a slow rate, and more gets added and faster as time goes on. The person will either choke to death, or to escape they have to slice open their own stomach and eat part of their own flesh.

Spoiler: Sloth

Easy one here. The victim has to stay in an Iron Maiden or a bed of nails, and more nails are being pressed into them over time, all over, by a device they wear on their body. If they survive and stay awake for at least 24 hours they'll be released, the device they wear and the door to the room have time locks on them.

Spoiler: Pride

Disfigurement over time. Simple as that. The victim wears a device that has blades attached all over it and cuts them in different parts of their body, mostly the genitals and face, at set times. The slicing gets faster and more frequent over time, again, they have to survive for 24 hours to escape, another time lock on the device and door.

Spoiler: Envy

The victim here has the person they're envious of opposite them, and they're locked in chains to a bench made of blades. Their enemy then has a choice, to unlock the victim, in order to secure their own freedom, or kill themselves with a knife to give the first victim freedom instead. However, if the person unlocks the chains and frees the envious victim, then the choice of who lives or dies goes to the victim themself and they decide who is killed. Bit of a loyalty tester, this one...

Spoiler: Wrath

The wrathful victim and the object of their hate are naked in a room save for the earlier mentioned bladed devices on their bodies, and they have a choice of bladed weapons. Then they fight to the death, but the walls and floor and ceiling of the room are made up knives sticking out, and they're standing on said knives. They basically fight to the death but the devices they're wearing are slowly killing them anyway, and to escape one has to kill the other before they die themselves.

I'm a really sick bastard, so I'm warning you not to open these spoiler boxes if you have a weak stomach or can't handle a bit of gore, since these are really very disgusting.

Yeah, they'd cause people to go mad... although I suppose to think of them in the first place I must be pretty messed up too...

your a wee bit sadistic Trivun. but yeah, Seven Deadly Sins usually cause insanity. and the Necronomicon.

 

[-Orgasmatron-]

The Escapist.

 

[Trivun]

....this guy has a worrying thought process, whats with all the razors anywho?

I don't know myself, to be honest. I just have this dark side that I never really show to anyone, and a part of that is a fascination with the macabre. I think it's linked to that, I just have a morbid fascination with blades of any kind...

 

[Soulgaunt]

These would all cause insanity in the survivors, the stuff I posted in the 'Saw' thread earlier:

Spoiler: Warning, these are pretty extreme...

Spoiler: Lust

Strap a naked man and woman together facing each other, and they each have blades literally nailed to parts of their bodies at random. They're in some kind of device to force them to move, basically forced sex, and the blades are slicing them both. Ecstasy in agony, basically. To escape, one has to die. They either both die (probably of blood loss), or one dies and the other is strapped to a corpse, adding a bit of necrophilia to the mix. When one dies the other gets released, although I'd imagine forced necrophilia and torture is enough to make them go insane anyway.

Spoiler: Greed

Greed here means material greed. Think Shylock from The Merchant of Venice. Anyway, for this, basically, a series of materialistic possessions of the victim would be modified to cause pain, so for example, add miniature razor blades to the inside of the person's clothes, then force them to wear said razor clothes. Lock the person in a room, and to escape, they would be told they had to use these objects that are with them for as long as they could, and you release them after any time you want. There would be devices that make the pain more unbearable, for example, a bed of nails that they'd have to sleep on wearing the razor underwear and so on. Blades on the walls and floor make it even worse.

Spoiler: Gluttony

For gluttony, the person has a funnel nailed to their mouth and various raw animal organs are poured into the funnel at a slow rate, and more gets added and faster as time goes on. The person will either choke to death, or to escape they have to slice open their own stomach and eat part of their own flesh.

Spoiler: Sloth

Easy one here. The victim has to stay in an Iron Maiden or a bed of nails, and more nails are being pressed into them over time, all over, by a device they wear on their body. If they survive and stay awake for at least 24 hours they'll be released, the device they wear and the door to the room have time locks on them.

Spoiler: Pride

Disfigurement over time. Simple as that. The victim wears a device that has blades attached all over it and cuts them in different parts of their body, mostly the genitals and face, at set times. The slicing gets faster and more frequent over time, again, they have to survive for 24 hours to escape, another time lock on the device and door.

Spoiler: Envy

The victim here has the person they're envious of opposite them, and they're locked in chains to a bench made of blades. Their enemy then has a choice, to unlock the victim, in order to secure their own freedom, or kill themselves with a knife to give the first victim freedom instead. However, if the person unlocks the chains and frees the envious victim, then the choice of who lives or dies goes to the victim themself and they decide who is killed. Bit of a loyalty tester, this one...

Spoiler: Wrath

The wrathful victim and the object of their hate are naked in a room save for the earlier mentioned bladed devices on their bodies, and they have a choice of bladed weapons. Then they fight to the death, but the walls and floor and ceiling of the room are made up knives sticking out, and they're standing on said knives. They basically fight to the death but the devices they're wearing are slowly killing them anyway, and to escape one has to kill the other before they die themselves.

I'm a really sick bastard, so I'm warning you not to open these spoiler boxes if you have a weak stomach or can't handle a bit of gore, since these are really very disgusting.

Yeah, they'd cause people to go mad... although I suppose to think of them in the first place I must be pretty messed up too...

.....Excessive use of just razor blades.

 

[SharPhoe]

As a psych studend, i have a lot of info to share on a subject such so complex as mental disorders. Insanity is a misnomer because it doesnt denote any particular affliction or mental state. I have only found one way to succinctly explain such a complicated series of events that may lead to mental break down:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-CehxoJy0I

Urge to kill...Rising...

Oh, damn it. Well played, Metatr0n, well played indeed.

 

[Zelist]

There was a commercial on the discovery channel a couple months ago(maybe a year) and they said the first sign someone could be suffering from a mental illness or insanity is if they live on earth, and i would say right now, i am in a state of consious insanity, kinda like the joker, i am in full control of myself, but i can "go off" for unknown reasons the reason for it....women

 

[razer17]

As a psych studend, i have a lot of info to share on a subject so complex as mental disorders. Insanity is a misnomer because it doesnt denote any particular affliction or mental state. I have only found one way to succinctly explain such a complicated series of events that may lead to mental break down:

pretty much this. i did an exam yesterday, and a large part of it was psychpathological abnormality. there are at least 4 theories of how mental illness is caused. and all have different assumptions and treatments, and all are "proved" (nothing in psychology is technically proved, but that is more a matter of semantics, as there are things that are basically taken as fact) to some extent. many different types of mental illness are caused by different factors: be it repressed memories, chemical imbalance or brain damage, genetics, negative cognitions, learned behaviour.

 

[Xanadu84]

"Insanity" is a lot less theatrical then the Joker would imply. Primarily, its genetics and drugs. It eventually manifests, and the person can't take care of themselves. It's generally not funny or insidious. Generally, a person doesn't just snap and fall into a fantasy world. The Mental illness that is usually considered Insanity is Schizophrenia, and it has that genetic factor. Great shocks and stress may cause things like Post Traumatic Stress, Depression, other things that arn't exactly considered Insane, but rather Ill. In incredibly rare situations, a shock might bring about Dissociative Identity Disorder (updated name for Multiple Personalities). People might consider that, "Insane", but real DID is nothing like Multiple Personalities as it has been displayed to the public. I think the word, "Insane" has this connotation to it of theatrics, darkly illuminating and insidious. The State mental hospital is just down the street from me, and let me tell you, its nothing like that, its sad and depressing.