Insanity Definition Essay

673 Words3 Pages

Hearing the word insane when I was younger always made me think of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland when the Cheshire Cat says, “We 're all mad here. I’m mad. You 're mad”. To be insane is to be mentally deranged but I used it to describe friends or peers who acted enthusiastically or unreservedly. Insanity is a mental illness so severe that a person is unable to tell fantasy apart from reality, unable to handle their affairs due to psychosis, or is likely to show uncontrollable impulsive behavior. However, insanity can also mean foolish or senseless. People interpret this word differently depending on the situation. As I grew up, my friends began using insanity to describe people who acted crazy or impulsively. I perceive …show more content…

Extreme foolishness is a common way in which insanity might be defined. In a social situation amongst friends one might act “insane” when they are “in the heat of the moment.” They might be extremely angry or excited without stopping to think. I use the personal definition of insanity more than the dictionary definition to describe one of my friends when they act impulsively or excitedly. Most young people use the word insanity freely to describe someone’s actions as extreme or overwhelming without giving thought to why someone acts a certain way or says certain things. Cultural background plays a huge role in how people perceive the world. Someone might think a person’s thoughts or actions are insane while they are considered completely normal in a different …show more content…

There are many definitions for insanity but I generally use its dictionary definition as well as my personal understanding of the word. Insanity can be used in a strictly legal sense, used to describe a mental illness, or foolishness. Someone who is suffering from clinical insanity is not rational or sensible, still, there is no restricted way for using insanity because life experiences, cultures, influential people, and society shape how one perceives words. Like beauty, insanity is in the eye of the