What is crazy?

Question

I'm just curious on people's opinions on insanity.

I lived three months of my life with a friend that was never there, but for three months he was as real as my mother and father. If a mind could create life so real is it really insanity?

Answer 1

This is a fairly complex question. My answer may be long...

Of course, "Crazy" isn't a word used in psychology.
"Insanity" by the way, is really a legal term nowadays that involves whether one is legally responsible for their actions due to a mental illness. e

What I think you're really getting at is a complex question better phrased, "What is abnormal" or "What is mental illness?" or "What determines whether someone is odd or if they have a form of psychopathology"

Your question is actually a great one, but the answer is complex.


Let's take some (mis)conceptions about what psychopathology is and what it's not:

"Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result" (not an exact quote) This is attributed to Albert Einstein. It's an interesting quote, but doesn't cut it. Sometimes doing something over and over WILL create a different result. (ever have trouble starting your car on a cold day, but get it eventually?) And people who are wildly psychotic are capable of learning and will show that they will try new solutions to old problems.

"Acting outside of societal norms" This puts too much power on society, and use of this standard created horrible problems in the past. Many political dissidents were sent to mental asylums centuries ago based on this. Homosexuality is another example. It's outside of the norm, but it's explicitly NOT considered a mental illness. The final nail in the coffin of this standard is this: I could be "crazy" in Texas, but if I get on a plane and fly to Switzerland, they might call me "normal", but if I go back to Texas I'm crazy again. But *I* never changed!

Another definition that some sometimes offer is "if it causes you emotional distress, then it's a mental illness." It's easy to see why this one doesn't work. The happy guy who believes that he's Elvis back from a flight to Alpha Centauri is certainly "crazy"... even though he feels great.

We can't define psychopathology by a presumed etiology (cause). All we end up with is tautology. If I say that mental disorder is a chemical imbalance, then it becomes impossible to ever study whether chemical imbalances are actually a cause of disorder. Think about it. How do we know you are crazy? You have an imbalance! How do we know you have an imbalance? Because you're crazy! (and round and round). PS: contrary to popular belief, there are no blood tests for 99% of psychological disorders.

The closest to the modern definition of mental disorder that someone offered involved "maladaptive behavior" but even that doesn't work in all cases. We end up just re-defining the lexical problem: Now, what is "maladaptive"? If I want to live in the woods in a 1-room cabin and never speak to another human being, is that "maladaptive"? Who says? Why? We're back to where we started.

Oh, another option is to say "nothing is crazy" aka, there is no such thing as mental illness.
With all due respect, no person who has ever seen the inside of an inpatient psychiatric unit would EVER say this. Once you have ever seen the devastating effects of serious mental illness, you'd never question again that it exists.



so how do we define mental illness/psychopathology/"crazy"/abnormal?

We actually use a little of all these definitions, and we qualify the definition a great deal to avoid misuse. Granted, the following definition is wordy, cumbersome, and in great need of being revised, but it's what we have.

the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (The book listing all mental disorders and their symptoms) offers this definition:

…a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and that is associated with present distress or disability or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom. In addition, this syndrome must not merely be an expectable and culturally sanctioned response to a particular event, for example, death of a loved one. Whatever its original cause, it must be considered a manifestation of a behavioral, psychological, or biological dysfunction in the individual. Neither deviant behavior (e.g., political, religious, sexual) nor conflicts that are primarily between the individual and society are mental disorders unless the deviance or conflict is a symptom of a dysfunction in the individual...


How's that for being long-winded?

;)

Answer 2

Sometimes its a chemical imbalance
Sometimes its a behaviour that is not necessary
Sometimes its a worry that becomes irrational.
Sometimes its an emptiness.
Sometimes its a feeling of inadequacy, a disproportionate veiw of oneself or others.
Sometimes its a feeling of paranoia that won't go away.

But mostly, it happens when you feel that you can no longer cope.

No one's really crazy. They're just those things I mentioned. Probably a few more if I think about it longer. I think in the old days, when people were bit by rabid animals, that was the penultimate definition of crazy or insane.

Answer 3

sure! The universe (and its homes) is rather wonderful. I guess in case you repost your question on the Physics communicate board, you're able to get solutions that placed your questions greater into attitude. i think of the physicists have actual theories to respond to questions alongside with "whilst the airborne dirt and mud and planets and all that ends does the universe? or does the blackness only shop goin on and on?" As for, "Why is there a Universe?" you will could desire to regulate this question slightly; in any different case, the physics human beings will clarify the "huge Bang concept," which, i'm assuming (undesirable undesirable undesirable), isn't the respond you like. So, you're able to ask, "Is there decrease to the universe? And if it extends infinitely, is there a factor the place atomic count/capability ceases to exist? or some thing to that consequence. As for G/god, there isn't any necessity for G/god to exist and for there to be a Universe. G/god, in accordance to a pair, created the universe. yet this concept is only sufficient for the respond 'Why is there a Universe?'--no longer mandatory; yet, no person, as of recent, has given a compulsory answer to the question 'Why is there a Universe?' perhaps sooner or later you will provide us this answer.

Answer 4

Some say that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results and that sanity is the ability to take reasonable risks.

Answer 5

Crazy is a matter of opinion. It is about perspective, culture, and environment.
If you want to call a person crazy ask them there story then they may not seem so crazy.

Answer 6

Here's what is crazy. You are dreaming that you are awake and don't realize it so you never make an effort to wake yourself. What about this for crazy......we have all passed away and are living in our heaven or hell. Better wake up.

Answer 7

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Think about it

Answer 8

I guess it would be something along the lines of being unable to operate within the norms of society.

Answer 9

I agree, engaging in the same behavior and expecting a different result.

Answer 10

Outside of the social norms.