If i remember correctly you can no longer diagnose someone as 'insane' because of its inability to specify the nature of a problem. Terms like psychopathy and schizophrenia have replaced them and these both mean different things. So if your reading a newspaper and it says that a killer is an insane maniac it is highly unlikely that's what he has been labelled through a psychological examination. Just to make the point, but i see where you are coming from.

Besides, this thread was meant to be about thoughts, not dictionary definitions, though they may be closer to the intended meaning. I just wanted opinions, not facts. Anyway, maybe I should go before this escalates.

Roxthesox

No, everyone is not insane. Insanity is when someone is unfit to act properly in society, meaning they can't be held responsible for their actions. Insanity and abnormality are very different things.

Yo calling me insane?

These are merely opinions, we don't always have to go by the book. After all , mountains can be discussed, to some a view of mountains may be a wonderful thing, while others prefer a city or a beach. The fact is, Albert Einstein had a different idea of insanity. "Insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Roxthesox

No, everyone is not insane. Insanity is when someone is unfit to act properly in society, meaning they can't be held responsible for their actions. Insanity and abnormality are very different things.

This make quite a lot of sense. I look at this and I find what I said was completely incorrect.

If 'normal' is considered to be paired with 'sane' then everyone wants to be insane as no one wants to be considered normal thanks to this whole idea of human uniqueness and individuality. But then at that point does it became insanity to want to be normal because that goes against the thoughts of everyone else?

(I'm just writing my thoughts as they come so again could be absolute rubbish)

I think there would always be People labeled as insane as no two People think alike, hence why this could become an interesting discussion. There are People who's thoughts stick more to what is considered the norm and those who sway frm that will always be seen as insane.

Technically, everyone is insane. EVERYONE. Being normal is insane from our perspective, but being insane, is being normal from our perspective, so really, everyone and everything is insane.


It's just that some are a little bit more than others......

The problem with a dictionary definition is it's impartiality to the subject. Also look how broad the topic spreads it leaves too much room if you were to apply everything it says, then technically everyone would be insane, so then there would be no insanity because it would become sane.

Roxthesox

I don't have thoughts on insanity, it is what it is. It's like saying what are your thoughts on mountains. Insanity is being in an unfit state of mind, being different and abnormal doesn't make you insane.

I wasn't claiming that being "abnormal" made you insane, I was merley stating that in my opinion the way people see them are similar, Now, the dictionary can say what it may, there is adifference between Definition and thoughts, at least to me. Besides which, dictionaries are no fun.

sanity and insanity is merely the way you think

usually you will be labeled insane if the way you think is far fetched, overboard, and abnormal.
to be labeled 'sane' is to think how everyone else thinks you 'should'.

so in a case, we are insane for making a definition of sane and insane, because we all know insane people never know there insane

therefore no one is ever sane

Good point. For example, the inventor of surreal art thought that the more you made paintings like he did, the closer you would become to unlocking the secrets of life. This idea actually just made him do some strange things. Today we would look back and call him insane, but back then everyone thought he was a genius.

Insanity is one of those taboo terms that is flung around way to often and something that everyone associates with a sort of psychopathic personality. However, insanity, I believe is more about how you see the world then how you outwardly react in the world. For example a 'sane' person may see the world as you or i do but an insane person may be able to read more into the environment. And what's to say then that what they are seeing is incorrect and we are the sane people, to them we would be the insane people. So i think that insanity is only a different outlook to those who are considered sane that has been that has been stereotyped through its misuse. (This is probably a load of codswallop however and i may be totally insane 0-0)