Dictionary:

insanity

  (ĭn-săn'ĭ-tē)

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1. Mental illness or derangement. No longer in scientific use.
2. Law.
   1. Unsoundness of mind sufficient in the judgment of a civil court to render a person unfit to maintain a contractual or other legal relationship or to warrant commitment to a mental health facility.
   2. In most criminal jurisdictions, a degree of mental malfunctioning sufficient to relieve the accused of legal responsibility for the act committed.
3. 1. Extreme foolishness; folly.
   2. Something that is extremely foolish.

SYNONYMS  insanity, lunacy, madness, mania, dementia. These nouns denote conditions of serious mental disability. Insanity is a grave, often prolonged condition that prevents a person from being held legally responsible for his or her actions: was judged not guilty for reasons of insanity. Lunacy often denotes derangement relieved intermittently by periods of clear-mindedness: yelled wildly in a moment of utter lunacy. Madness often stresses the violent aspect of mental illness: a story about obsession and madness. Mania refers principally to the excited, or manic, phase of bipolar disorder: prescribed drugs to control the patient's periods of mania. Dementia implies mental deterioration brought on by an organic brain disorder: underwent progressive stages of dementia.

noun

1. Serious mental illness or disorder impairing a person's capacity to function normally and safely: brainsickness, craziness, dementia, derangement, disturbance, insaneness, lunacy, madness, mental illness, psychopathy, unbalance. Psychiatry mania. Psychology aberration, alienation. See sane/insane.
2. Foolish behavior: absurdity, folly, foolery, foolishness, idiocy, imbecility, lunacy, madness, nonsense, preposterousness, senselessness, silliness, tomfoolery, zaniness. Informal craziness. See ability/inability.

Definition: mental illness; foolishness
Antonyms: balance, sanity, sense, soundness, wellness

For more information on insanity, visit Britannica.com.

Not mentally responsible, to some degree (the degree depending on the legal transaction in relation to which it is employed). 232 F. Supp. 255, 257. The term may be used to signify lack of criminal responsibility, need for commitment to a mental institution, inability to transact business, inability to stand trial (i.e., unable to assist in one's own defense). See 214 A. 2d 393, 405. "In criminal law, ‘insanity,' by whatever test it may be ascertained, may be said to be that degree or quantity of mental disorder which relieves one of the criminal responsibility for his actions." 316 P. 2d 917, 919. It is a legal, not medical, standard. Compare incompetence. See also diminished capacity; non compos mentis; not guilty [not guilty by reason of insanity].

There are three main tests governing insanity defenses:

The m'naghten rule was the common law test of criminal responsibility. 8 Eng. Rep. 718. A person was not responsible for criminal acts if as a result of a mental disease or defect he or she did not understand what he or she did or that it was wrong, or was under a delusion (but not otherwise insane) which, if true, would have provided a good defense. The person is unable to distinguish right from wrong. See M'Naghten rule.

The first major modification of the M'Naghten Rule was the durham rule which states that "an accused is not criminally responsible if his unlawful act was the product of mental disease or defect." 214 F. 2d 862, 874-75. See Durham rule.

Some jurisdictions employ an irresistible impulse test, sometimes referred to as an uncontrollable impulse test or emotional insanity. It applies when a defendant understands the nature and consequences of his or her act and understands that it is wrong but is unable to resist the impulse to commit the act because of mental disease or defect.

Most federal courts and many state courts and legislatures have adopted the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code §4.01(1) (1962) test which combines many of the elements of the M'Naghten and Durham tests. The ali test (which is synonymous with the model penal code test or the substantial capacity test) states that "A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality [or alternatively, wrongfulness] of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law." The ali test further provides that the "terms ‘mental disease or defect' do not include an abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or otherwise anti-social conduct." Id. At §4.01(2). This language is designed to exclude the sociopathic or psychopathic criminal.

Since a person found to be insane at the time of the commission of the criminal act could not have the necessary mental state to commit a crime, the finding of insanity is a complete acquittal to the charge. Moreover, since such a finding is based on the defendant's state at the time of the crime, the finding does not necessarily relate to the defendant's mental state at the time of trial and therefore does not logically lead to the conclusion that the defendant is sufficiently incompetent to be involuntarily committed in a mental institution.

Further, insanity provides a ground for rescinding a contract or will when it is shown that the contracting party did not understand the nature of his or her act or the extent of his or her property.

The insanity defense must be distinguished from the concept of "capacity to stand trial," which is based on the defendant's ability to assist in his defense and his understanding of the charges against him. See Beran & Toomey, Mentally Ill Offenders and the Criminal Justice System 11 (1979). While the insanity defense affects a person's culpability, lack of capacity to stand trial does not bar a subsequent trial for the charges against him when and if the condition ceases. See capacity, competent.

Quotes:

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked." - Allen Ginsberg

"Man disavows, and Deity disowns me: hell might afford my miseries a shelter; therefore hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all bolted against me." - William Cowper

"I teach that all men are mad." - Horace

"Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties and obscurities now." - Mark Twain

"Insanity destroys reason, but not wit." - Nathaniel Emmons

"Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

See more famous quotes about Insanity

"Madmen" redirects here. For the TV show, see Mad Men.

Inmates at Bedlam Asylum, as portrayed by William Hogarth

Insanity, or madness, is a general popular and legal term defining behaviour influenced by mental instability. It is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as a deranged state of the mind or lack of understanding. Today it is most commonly encountered as an informal term or in the narrow legal context of the insanity defense, and in the medical profession, the term is now avoided in favour of specific diagnoses of mental illness as schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.^[1]

Linguistic roots

In English, the word "sane" derives from the Latin adjective sanus meaning healthy. The phrase "mens sana in corpore sano" means a "healthy mind in a healthy body". From this perspective, insanity can be considered as poor health of the mind, not necessarily of the brain as an organ (although that can affect mental health), but rather refers to defective function of mental processes such as reasoning. A Latin phrase for "sane" is "compos mentis" (lit. "of composed mind"), and a euphemistic term for insanity is "non compos mentis".

In Medicine

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Dr. Joseph Merlino on sexuality, insanity, Freud, fetishes and apathy

Insanity as a diagnosis is now considered to be outdated. The disorders formerly encompassed by the term are schizophrenic and other psychotic disorders. These are characterized by social withdrawal, deterioration of personal care, inability to perceive oneself as a separate entity, rapid shifting of thought and topic, autistic absorption, hallucinatory symptoms, delusions and often depersonalization. Symptoms can be singular or combined with a wide variation among sufferers. Motor activity is generally reduced and appearance become bizarre while perceptual and conversational distortions are evident.

Medical disorders as thyroid dysfunction, adrenal or pituitary disorders may contribute to the above symptoms and must be ruled out before a psychiatric diagnosis is made. Medical treatment includes hospitalization and antipsychotic medication. Prognosis is usually excellent in alleviation of symptoms but the disorder may be recurrent when medication is halted.^[1]

Historical treatment

During the 18th century, the French and English introduced humane treatment of the clinically insane, though the criteria for diagnosis and placement in an asylum were considerably looser than today, often including such conditions 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 bound with rope or chains, often to beds or walls, or restrained in straitjackets.

Legal use of the term

Main article: Insanity defense

While in criminal law, insanity may serve as a defense to criminal acts, in most U.S. states, jurisdictions differ in their definition of insanity. All jurisdictions require a sanity evaluation to address the question first of whether or not the defendant has a mental illness. Most courts accept a major mental illness such as psychosis but will not accept the diagnosis of a personality disorder for the purposes of an insanity defense. The second question is whether the mental illness interfered with the defendant's ability to distinguish right from wrong. That is, did the defendant know that the alleged behavior was against the law at the time the offense was committed. Additionally, some jurisdictions add the question of whether or not the defendant was in control of his behavior at the time of the offense. For example, if the defendant compelled by some aspect of his mental illness to commit the illegal act, the defendant could be evaluated as not in control of his behavior at the time of the offense. The forensic mental health specialists submit their evaluations to the court. Since the question of sanity or insanity is a legal question and not a medical one, the judge and or jury will make the final decision regarding the defendant's status regarding an insanity defense.^[2][3]

In most jurisdictions within the United States, if the insanity plea is accepted, the defendant is committed to a psychiatric institution for at least 60 days for further evaluation, and then reevaluated at least yearly after that.

Mitigating factor

The United States Supreme Court in Penry v. Lynaugh and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Bigby v. Dretke have been clear in their decisions that jury instructions in death penalty cases that do not ask about mitigating factors regarding the defendant's mental health violate the defendant's Eighth Amendment rights, saying that the jury is to be instructed to consider mitigating factors when answering unrelated questions. This ruling suggests specific explanations to jury is necessary to weigh mitigating factors.

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:

Many, no doubt, are well disposed, but sluggish by constitution and by habit, and they cannot conceive of a man who is actuated by higher motives than they are, accordingly they pronounce this man insane, for they know that they could never act as he does, as long as they are themselves.

In this sense, "insanity" is not implied to be an actual disorder, let alone severe.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} L M Tierney, S J McPhee, M A Papadakis (2002). Current medical Diagnosis & Treatment. International edition. New York: Lange Medical Books/McGraw-Hill, 1078-1086. ISBN 0-07-137688-7. 
2. ^ Shapiro, David L. (1991). Forensic Psychological Assessment: An Integrative Approach. Needham Heights, MA: Simon & Schuster, 70–72. ISBN 0-205-12521-2. 
3. ^ Gary, Melton (1997). Psychological Evaluations for the Courts: A Handbook for Mental Health Professionals and Lawyers, 2nd, New York: The Guilford Press, 186–248. ISBN 1-57230-236-4. 

External links

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

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