this question was brought about by a poem i read that began:
“I think I’m insane
But what is insanity to the insane?
It makes no sense
You can never tell
That is the mark of the truly insane.”
and it made me think about this question at legnth. what is insanity to the insane? it’s been said that the insane can create in their minds, other realities, people, etc. so how do you know that what you’re used to is real? how do you know your friends exist or your house is real?
makes you think.
I’m currently in a Foucault class. The book Madness and Civilization is a great resource in this matter.
I think insanity is constituted by dominance of Reason and this domination is maintained by the Power of normalization.
Hi Creation Imperfect,
It’s a big question, and I have only a little answer. Sanity is peace of mind.
Cheers, 
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.”
Sanity is defined by the mod at which the average human being operates, and sonsidering that all people are included in this mean, the average would be sound. So as to measure yourself at a functioning IQ of 80-120 is to be socially sane. By this definition, those with incapabilities of viewing on the plane of reality at which all others see is to be considered insane. If you are to contemplate if you are insane than you are not, people who claim which are stupid.
this is a great topic i never really thought about it until you brought it up and now that it has been pointed out to my attention i believe that isanity is just another intelligence just another labled group by society. (stupid goverment labeling) i say insanity is another intelligence lets put it this way one example of insanity seeing things that dont exist. What if our minds our to small to realize that something is really there or maybe that person has gone through so much that they see part of themselfs dead as a ghost. I believe that “insane” people are actually smarter than you could ever imagine there a selected few that are crazy like people who cant even spell there own name correctly. In conclusion this was a great topic i hope this is just another entry that expands your thoughts.
Here’s my current working definition of sane/insane:
An accurate and dependable perception of reality and worldview that consistently matches with and predicts the real world is sane.
Any worldview that doesn’t consistently predict or account for reality, or any lack of ability to accurately percieve reality is insane.
Dictionary Definition: a deranged state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder (as schizophrenia) and usually excluding such states as mental retardation, psychoneurosis, and various character disorders
Insanity isn’t just being different from the norm. People aren’t generally just insane. That’s a vague term. People who are insane have shizophrenia, bi-polar disorder or other diseases that can be helped( but usually not cured) with medication. These people are not more intelligent or a different kind of intelligence. If you ever met someone with schizophrenia you would know right away that they don’t contain any secret to the universe.
schizophrenia.com/family/sz.overview.htm
go there to learn more about schizophrenia.
what is sanity?
Just bought that book : ) … not got round to reading it yet tho, but looking forward to it.
My job is a psychiatric nurse and from that and talking to patients about it, i think that insanity or sanity are terms we apply according to whether we determine our own or other peoples thoughts and behaviour to be ‘logical or reasonable’ according to what we believe is logical or reasonable in our own minds. I think if we cannot apply these to peoples thoughts and behaviour then we tend to think theyre insane. For those people that have been labelled mentally ill, it appears insane to them that we cannot believe they are totally rational and logical, that it is us that has the problem for not getting it. I assume its like me being asked where i live, and after replying being told, no actutally miss brookes you are completely wrong, you do not live there, you never have, you just believe you have. That would make me think they were insane for telling me i was wrong… and if thats what i believed would that really make me insane anyway if that was my reality whether someone else believed me or not?
Thats cool 
Do the insane really not know they are insane. I have trouble with this, as i have met people with schizophrenia who KNOW they have Schizophrenia. And know in hindsight they were dillusions. So I wonder if at the time of there dillusions they inleast had doubts about it.
I have a friend with Schizophrenia. He is ok as long as he takes his medicine.
He tried to explain one way of viewing it. Imagine that you have a nasty head cold. No matter how clearly you attempt to speak, its going to come out sounding funny. It takes great effort to push through your distortions.
When you are suffering from delusions (distorted input) part of you suspects that they are delusions and with great discipline you can perceive reality clearly through them. Yet it takes effort. If you stop trying it all becomes garbled and confused, you cannot distinguish between the real and the delusional.
The intensity of the delusions and your ability to single them out varies with your anxiety levels. The more stress you are under the stronger the delusions become and the lower your ability to distinguish them as delusions.
By ok do you mean 100% normal?
I think thats a really good explanation of how it feels for people based on what people suffering have been able to tell me. It does still seem to be dependant on level of insight and it appears that this person had some insight and was able to question his perceptions… Ive met people tho who no matter what is explained, no matter what medication they have taken, have ‘fixed and persistant beliefs’ … at the hospital i worked at we had a man who believed he was a suspension brige which continued to be a fixed belief no matter what we did or said and it persisted in his mind as undoubtable for the whole time i knew him which was 12 years or so… Ive met many people who have believed without doubt that they are Jesus and many that they are the devil one of whom in particular comes to mind as i remember finding him on the ward having bitten off some of his own fingers because he was convinced to such an extreme that he would do harm to others that he felt he had to destroy himself. I met another man who believed he was ‘Father Time’ believing he was greater than God, because God existed within time and could provide a very convincing argument with points that were hard to dispute… hes ben on television and was in the process of writting a book to ‘prove’ who he was. He has believed this since he was a teenager and is now about 50. We considered him to be ill, because we could not believe who he believed himself to be and regarded him as insane because of this. Some people cannot ‘break thru’ their delusions, to some we are the insane ones
Oh no. He is anything but normal. But he can function, remember appointments, go to college that sort of thing. He has hopes of being a doctor. Mainly because he admires Dr. Doom.
But then again, what is normal? 
Sanity is an illusion.
If you look back through history, those who made great impacts on our society proved to have commited some level of “madness.” It is called madness simply because it does not conform to the rest of the societal norm.
If you want to say sanity exists, then it exists only when applied to those with chemical imbalances. Unfortunately for the world, we’re all a little imbalanced.
Hehehehe… >:)
Put simply, insanity is thinking irrationally. Reason is sanity.
He who’s sane is fully human; he who’s insane is less.
You are assuming that people who are insane are less than human. I know people who suffer from insanity, but they aren’t less human for that. Reason does not define humanity, that’s my opinion. That’s an archaic view point that you’re proposing by the way.
" know people who suffer from insanity, but they aren’t less human for that."
Explain or else.