Editing Insanity (section)

{{Short description|Abnormal mental or behavioral patterns}}
{{Other uses|Insanity (disambiguation)}}
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{{redirect-multi|2|Insane|Crazy}}
{{pp-semi-vandalism|small=yes}}
[[File:The Rake's Progress 8.jpg|thumb|300px|Engraving of the eighth print of ''[[A Rake's Progress]]'', depicting inmates at [[Bethlem Royal Hospital|Bedlam Asylum]], by [[William Hogarth]]]]
'''Insanity''', '''madness''', '''lunacy''', and '''craziness''' are [[behavior]]s caused by certain [[Abnormality (behavior)|abnormal]] mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can manifest as violations of [[Norm (sociology)|societal norms]], including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to other people. Conceptually, mental insanity also is associated with the biological phenomenon of [[Infection|contagion]] (that [[mental illness]] is infectious) as in the case of [[copycat suicide]]s. In contemporary usage, the term ''insanity'' is an informal, un-scientific term denoting "mental instability"; thus, the term [[insanity defense]] is the legal definition of mental instability. In medicine, the general term [[psychosis]] is used to include the presence of [[delusion]]s and/or [[hallucination]]s in a patient;<ref name="diag">{{cite book| last = L M Tierney, S J McPhee| first = M A Papadakis| title = Current medical Diagnosis & Treatment. International edition| publisher = Lange Medical Books/[[McGraw-Hill]]| year = 2002| pages = 1078–1086| location = New York| isbn = 0-07-137688-7}}</ref> and psychiatric illness is "[[psychopathology]]", not ''mental insanity''.<ref name=DS>[[n:Dr. Joseph Merlino on Sexuality, Insanity, Freud, Fetishes and Apathy|An interview with Dr. Joseph Merlino]], David Shankbone, ''[[Wikinews]]'', 5 October 2007.</ref>

In English, the word "sane" derives from the Latin adjective ''sanus'', meaning "healthy". [[Juvenal]]'s phrase ''[[mens sana in corpore sano]]'' is often translated to mean 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. Another Latin phrase related to our current concept of sanity is ''[[compos mentis]]'' ("sound of mind"), and a euphemistic term for insanity is ''non compos mentis''. In law, ''[[mens rea]]'' means having had criminal intent, or a guilty mind, when the act (''[[actus reus]]'') was committed.

A more informal use of the term insanity is to denote something or someone considered highly unique, passionate or extreme, including in a positive sense. The term may also be used as an attempt to discredit or criticize particular ideas, beliefs, principles, desires, personal feelings, attitudes, or their proponents, such as in politics and religion.