Insanity,
craziness or
madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. 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; likewise, not all acts showing indifference toward societal norms are acts of insanity. 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. 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. When discussing mental illness in general terms, "
psychopathology" is considered a preferred descriptor.
