‘Lunacy’ survives, but only in metaphorical and often jocular usage to use it literally as a synonym for insanity would, at the very least, be considered impolite. Today it is widely accepted that ‘lunatic’ is an obsolete term that is not used any more to refer to persons suffering from mental illness. Indeed, the word “lunatic” appeared in British laws – and therefore Indian ones – well into the 20th century, and it was only in 2012 that the US House of Representatives passed legislation (approved earlier by the Senate) removing the word ‘lunatic’ from all federal laws in the US.
Lawyers used it to refer to unsoundness of mind that might make a person incapable of managing their affairs or concluding civil transactions. The idea that lunacy involves acts of madness or folly persisted, even though the correlation between sanity and the phases of the moon stopped being taken seriously in modern times.
Perhaps this was because a full moon brought light into the night, thereby confusing animals – and some human beings – with brightness when they were accustomed to darkness, and thus throwing their minds into confusion. In those days people thought that mental illness, neurological disorders and even epilepsy were related to the waxing and waning of the moon.
This came in turn from the Old French lunatique, meaning insane, which was derived from the Late Latin lunaticus, or ‘moon-struck’ (luna is Latin for moon). The moon, in most Indian languages, is a romantic object, associated with love and dreams, and often applied to rare and exceptional individuals – “chaudhvin ka chand”, “Id ka chand” are always compliments, and popular names like Chand, Chandran and Shashi all derive from that celestial orb.īut in medieval English, lunacy referred to intermittent periods of insanity, believed to be triggered by the moon’s cycle, rather as animals were said to bay madly on full-moon nights. Suggested Usage: This was an act of sheer lunacy on his part what he said and did made no sense and can only be blamed on a bout of insanity. From this perspective, insanity can be considered as poor health of the mind, not necessarily of the brain as an organ, but rather refers to defective function of mental processes such as reasoning.Lunacy, (noun): the condition of being a lunatic mental unsoundness. The phrase "mens sana in corpore sano" is often translated to mean a "healthy mind in a healthy body". In English, the word "sane" derives from the Latin adjective sanus meaning "healthy". When discussing mental illness in general terms, "psychopathology" is considered a preferred descriptor.
In the medical profession the term is now avoided in favor of diagnoses of specific mental disorders the presence of delusions or hallucinations is broadly referred to as psychosis. Lunatic: mad, having the imagination influenced by the moon. Ague: malarial infection characterised by.
In modern usage, insanity is most commonly encountered as an informal unscientific term denoting mental instability, or in the narrow legal context of the insanity defense. Synonyms: Morbus addisonii, bronzed skin disease. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person becoming a danger to themselves or others, though not all such acts are considered insanity. Insanity Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns.