Mental Disorders: What Is Insanity?

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What is Insanity?

Insanity is often associated with the absurd and unreal. From the old times, it is associated with criminal intent, a violation of the norm, and now commonly seen as mental instability. One can call a serial killer insane, or maybe call someone with a wild idea insane. However, these people have different insanities. Insanity is a mental condition that can be associated with being a medical disorder, psychosis, or a connotative term.

Insanity, as a medical disorder, could refer to psychosis. It can be rephrased to “losing contact with reality.” The word “insanity” has the root word “sane” which came from the Latin word sanus which means “healthy”. It is seen in the phrase “mens sana in corpore sano”, which translates to “a healthy mind in a healthy body.” It simply means that if a person is suffering mentally, he is also suffering physically, and this concept is seen on drug users, depressed and suicidal people, and those who suffer anorexia and bulimia nervosa (eating disorders). …show more content…

Psychotic people, such as serial killers, are often delusional, have no empathy nor remorse, and have one or more personalities that no normal person exhibits. Their behaviors mirror their state of mind, such as necrophiliacs thinking that the dead are much more beautiful than the living, resulting into these people having sex with the dead. It is more on how a person thinks than being a medical