Let me put it this way: Not every mental illness is indicative of insanity, but all insanity is indicative of mental illness.

Lots of people have mental illnesses, but they never set foot in a nut house - remember, things like depression, anxiety, autism, and phobias are forms of mental illness, but having them does not mean the patient is crazy.

I think a person becomes insane when they become a danger to others or they are beyond rehabilitation; sociopaths, I feel, are insane, because they fit perfectly into both of the aforementioned categories. Sociopaths can kill people and feel no remorse, and they absolutely cannot be 'healed' because their ability to manipulate and twist things is beyond what any medicine or therapy could reverse.

I wouldn't say bipolar disorder qualifies a person as being insane because BPD is more of the person being a danger to themselves than to others...and frankly, I don't care if a person wants to shoot up, never sleep and then end the day with killing themselves.

Some people may have numerous mental illnesses, and the combination of those conditions may turn them into someone who is dangerous all-around or who will never be able to function outside of a mental hospital. I would also consider that to be insanity as well.

"Insanity" is a symptom of a mental illness.

The DSM IV TR, which are the guidelines for diagnosing mental illnesses, does not use the term "insanity" but it clearly defines what "insanity" is- and there are many different types of "insanity".

Therefore, bipolar individuals are not "insane" - they have bipolar disorder.

"Insanity" is not a medical term, it's a legal one. Insanity means nothing to a doctor.

Legal insanity is when a person doesn't know what they are doing so they can't be held legally responsible for their actions, and very few individuals with mental illnesses are considered legally insane.

I think that today we completely ignore what is truly insane, inequality, injustice, cruelty, pride, vanity, money, war, unknowing. I don't think somebody so called "acting weird" is insane(especially when you don't know why they act the way that they do)(like somebody talking to themselves), coming from the majority of people the word insane is meaningless and their definition of it should be ignored. I think that everybody is a little more insane than they would like to admit and we would all be surprised to learn just how insane everything is.

I've been doing a lot of reading about people who hear voices recently. They aren't mentally ill at all, and there are a lot of them, up to 15% of all people hear voices at some point. Here is a neat theory about it:


http://www.julianjaynes.org/bicameralmind. php

futureshock, that was very interesting. thanks.

what if the voices are telling them to do bad things? you know, my dog told me to kill jodie foster......or........whatever.....

What about it? I guess I don't understand your question. I'm not saying that there are no mental illnesses in which people hear voices, if that's where you're going with this question.

There is an entire scientific theory that postulates that everyone heard voices a few thousand years ago, and people that hear voices today are vestiges from that time. It's fascinating. See my link in a previous post to read more.

You are very welcome.

killbill, like the night stalker who had the barking dog telling him to kill, or the Jodie Foster case,or the guy that killed John Lennon,good examples of someone who if mentally ill and I think that is a completely different scenario. People who hear voices telling them to kill are mentally ill and schizophrenic I would think.

Well I'm a bit of a skeptic I guess. I didn't buy that article at all.

I'm with you, Georgia.