What is insane?

Insanity.

en.wikipedia.org...

Insanity.

What constitutes insane? Certainly many of the beliefs posted on these forums could considered insane...at the same time some are discovered true.

Before the documentation that was nearly destroyed was discovered...belief in say Mkultra could be considered insane.

en.wikipedia.org...

Certainly people harmful of others or themselves without reason are insane...but where do we draw the line? At what point is it pathological?

I have always believed that insanity is just a difference in knowledge. In fact we are all probably mentally ill to some degree, but that is the pessimistic way to view it. I say, we are all mentally diverse. And I hate it when people have a closed mind towards others, to me those are the people who are ignorant, because they think they know the truth, they think they are right and the other person is wrong, but really it is all speculation and opinion. If you try hard enough you can understand why most people believe what they believe even if it isn't what you believe. No one really has the authority to say this person isn't thinking in the correct way, because what is the correct way? However, there are people who are a threat to others, so they get locked up because they can't control their actions. That's my view of it.

Pathologically speaking insane people hurt others without feeling any degree of sympathy. But alot of people have insane thoughts.

What is insane? People who are insane are said to have issues. They want you to believe that anyone who is insane is mentally imbalanced. But... then again aren't we all in some shape or way or form ?

Who knows what isn't insane...

Insane is isolation. Living, breathing, feeling, communicating in isolation. They are irrelevant to reality. They will most likely lack any sort of compassion. There are degrees of sanity and some people could be considered slightly insane by a matter of oppinion, but the difference is that the truely insane are unable to obtain any connection from reality and are unable to reconnect to it.

You can be smart and insane because intelligence can function without a connection from reality.

[edit on 11-1-2009 by Wisen Heimer]

reply to post by Wisen Heimer


What is a connection to reality? How do you define who is connected to reality and who isn't? What gives you the right to talk about whether someone is insane or not insane?

I have been in the system for 6 years, got there cause on drugs stressed out and they said I was schizophrenic and bi-polar. How you talk about what happened and what appears as symptoms is how doctors judge this they cant look in your head and find illness, spoken and behaviors. Everyones case is unique and are fitted into these vague classifications where there can be 20 or more things considered symptoms. You wind up on a psych floor for whatever reason you are mentally ill with with something and they take away your right to buy a gun. Mentally ill and insane are probaly 2 different things though, severe mental illness could lead to insanity. There is a definition a general knowledge of what that word means and probably a different definition a 100 years or 50 ago. Mental illness and insanity is usually considered by the rest of society as ill or odd or strange behaviors or actions or speech or completely lost touch with reality.

Let's not forget temporary insanity used in court........or used to be? idk

I personally think that many things people do are insane. But I suppose a person might than also be capable of faking insanity.(still insane?) I think it's a tough call. Saying someone has remorse is than considered to be sane? WTH?

People who are or do insane things that are illegal are than criminally insane, but put in prison with others who may not be? Prisons are apparently now the new and the worst of all insane asylums.

Our present system and culture creates many of these situations for people in some form or another. So, what is 'insane' is the denial that this is actually the case.

[edit on 11-1-2009 by aleon1018]

reply to post by P. O. W.


Are you sure you were insane or were you like me and were you driven insane by situations you were in?

I used to be temporarily insane myself. I had a time when I had a lot of drama in my life and then when that drama ended my life calmed down.

But honestly... I think insanity is just more of a label. Sometimes even when you're insane you're more saner than the people who are sane.

The insanity scale slides, just like the laws of the local and state governments statutes for crime and punishments.
One poster has stated that it is with in all of us as a species, which is absolutely correct. To avoid the effects of insane thoughts, just don't act on them, but if someone is constantly trapped in the negative thinking pattern, they are more prone to act on it, err go, corrective thinking.
If one does venture through such thought process, and are aware of the consequences of the thought and act upon it "That's insane."
For one to know that they could have thwarted disaster or creating a negative ripple effect on surrounding people, then not only is it a "insane act" it becomes a "Judged Insane act" by either the people around them or by the court of law, which by the way is one hell of a way to get out of some very legal tight positions!!

"Not that I would know that first hand though..."

Originally posted by Frankidealist35
reply to post by Wisen Heimer

 

What is a connection to reality? How do you define who is connected to reality and who isn't? What gives you the right to talk about whether someone is insane or not insane?

A connection with reality would be being immersed in your environment. Being non physically connected in some way to the people you meet and the world you walk in. An insane person would not comunicate with someone affectionately. He might make himself appear to be or try to sound as if he is, but his feelings for another are not present, not shared, and theirs is not felt by him. I believe that is why many insane people are very good at manipulation. Because they do not have social instincts or emotions. They do it in a strategic sort of fashion. They study it and then they try to mimic it. Whether it be emotions or body language, they are consciously acting them out. Not because they feel as such, but to get an intended reaction.

They are isolated. He could kill someone by accident because he thought it was a game or something like that. Their connection with things outside themselvs are lost. If someone is already like that than I could see how they could become increasingly insane just by their own thoughts. Whether you believe this or not our minds are subconsciously guided in one form or another. An insane person does not have that connection. He could trick himself into believing that he truly was God himself and no one else. Whats to stop him?

Insane people seem to contain a sort of brilliance depending on how far they have gone within their heads. I think that is because they are sort of like a robot. Operating on pure intellect.

But this is just my oppinion and it makes sense to me.

[edit on 11-1-2009 by Wisen Heimer]

Originally posted by Wisen Heimer
An insane person would not comunicate with someone affectionately. He might make himself appear to be or try to sound as if he is, but his feelings for another are not present, not shared, and theirs is not felt by him. I believe that is why many insane people are very good at manipulation. Because they do not have social instincts or emotions. They do it in a strategic sort of fashion. They study it and then they try to mimic it. Whether it be emotions or body language, they are consciously acting them out. Not because they feel as such, but to get an intended reaction.

So basically politicians.

Yeah while I was typing I was sort of like, "This pretty much sounds like your average asshole." But I think even assholes have some sort of half way intimate relationship with someone. Even if it is the experession of hate.

[edit on 11-1-2009 by Wisen Heimer]

I was really stressed out by years of politics and on drugs and did something stupid. I was trying to sort of say with anxiety or depression or stress or a number of things can take you to a place where you are not youre usual healthy self. There are millions of people mentally ill and some might be slightly and some might be considered insane at times all with maybe a different set of experiences. What sanity and insanity is is usually judged by the masses norm I know a lot of mentally ill people and they seem like other people but might have episodes at times where they are considered insane. Its usually triggered by something in life and I have heard of just people being (brain) ill with hallucinations ( If I wasnt on my meds I woulod totally think I am part of this chair like acid joking). If someone was considered insane probably couldnt function in society problems or kills without thinking (Michael Myers) or seriously disturbed as not to be on the same wave lenths with everyone else.

I think the real difference is that those who have no feelings for others, but are what we would usually call sane, are just selfish. Those who are actually insane who act this way are beyond selfishness, they are paranoid for their selves. They are made insane by the paralysis of fear. Like when something terrible happens (say an economic depression or a personal depression) some people "go crazy" because they are so wrapped up in the fear of what's gonna happen, then they do things that are for their own safety with disregard to the lives of anyone else. Like when some horrible act takes place in public, no one ever does anything because they temporarily "go crazy" only thinking what if I die today, and they are controlled by that fear. So there is a rational and irrational selfishness, but I agree that they use their intelligence to do whatever it takes to make sure of their personal safety. And like you said hate can still have some minuscule form relationship, but fear on the other hand does not. The opposite of love is not hate, but fear.

Albert Einstein's definition of "INSANITY" was "doing the same thing but expecting different results." A lot of us are guilty of that to a degree....