Sanity and Insanity

People have different views on insanity and sanity. Some see insane people as abominations. They think that such people belong to mental hospitals and other facilities. Also, most people believe that they are not insane. They think that they have a clear view about the things around them. Why is that so? We must understand what is sanity first before understanding insanity. Sanity is defined as the “healthy state” of mind. A person having good social skills, clear understanding and good comprehension of things around him is considered sane. It also refers to the rationality of the thinking of the person. If there is sanity, there is insanity. What is insanity? Insanity can be defined in many ways and is caused by a lot of things. The legal definition of insanity is a mental condition in which a person can’t bear legal responsibility because the person is unaware or can’t understand them. The physiological definition of insanity is when the brain chemistry is altered using drugs or by physical trauma, usually during pregnancy. The last definition is the psychological definition of insanity which is the state of mind in which the person often changes their behavior, thinking and feelings and sometimes they don't have control over them, they also can’t separate fantasy from reality, subjected to psychosis and has uncontrollable obsessive behavior due to physical or psychological trauma. Clinically insane people are often irrational and unpredictable.

The terms sanity and insanity is based on what the society the person is into accepts and rejects. If a person does something in his society that is unusual or not wanted, they are called insane. According to Erich Fromm, in his book “The Sane Society”, most people share a certain set of values and ideologies and that sharing “confirms” the validity and sanity of those values and ideologies. It is called consensual validation. Fromm also argues that entire societies are “lacking in sanity”. He proves this by saying