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An aside (and trying not to be snide with it) but you can certainly be indoctrinated into Insanity (or perhaps Brainwashed might be a better term). Just look a

by rasur 11y ago

An aside (and trying not to be snide with it) but you can certainly be indoctrinated into Insanity (or perhaps Brainwashed might be a better term). Just look at Religion and/or Cults. To be sure, not the same cause, but debatably a variant on the theme of 'insanity'

DanBC 11y ago
Insanity is an outdated term that usually refers to psychosis type illnesses. When a person has a conversation with their God figure this happens in (roughly) one of two ways. 1) they say a prayer and spend some introspective time thinking 2) they have an actual conversation with a real voice. Is someone in the room with you? Ask them to say something. An auditory hallucination voice is as real as that voice; it just happens to come from something that isn't there. EDIT {this second one is what we would call"insane" or "ill" or "pathalogical". But the vast majority of religious people do not experience this, ever, no matter how religious they are.} Describing religious behaviour as insanity isn't helpful. It shows a lack of understanding of mental illness. It's not an effective attack on the harms that some forms of religion can do.
- Crito 11y ago
  Whether you want to call it mental illness or insanity (I am neither a doctor nor a lawyer, do I don't have any preference for either term..), I cannot fathom how the second possibility that you list does not qualify. People who are experiencing auditory hallucinations while fully awake and rested should seek professional help. The first possibility would not be so worrying if people were not attributing their own introspective thoughts to a flawless perfect benevolent supernatural being. Nobody should ever be that confident of their own ideas. I think the attribution of the introspective thought to a supernatural being (not the introspective thought itself) can reasonably be thought of as "crazy". I'm not saying it is in DSM, that there is some sort of recognized illness that it can be attributed to, but it certainly isn't rational thinking.
  - DanBC 11y ago
    Yes! Sorry, i hadn't finished. You're quite right, the second one is insanity. But most religious people don't have that experience. I'll edit my comment.

by rasur 11y ago

DanBC 11y ago

Insanity is an outdated term that usually refers to psychosis type illnesses. When a person has a conversation with their God figure this happens in (roughly) one of two ways. 1) they say a prayer and spend some introspective time thinking 2) they have an actual conversation with a real voice. Is someone in the room with you? Ask them to say something. An auditory hallucination voice is as real as that voice; it just happens to come from something that isn't there. EDIT {this second one is what we would call"insane" or "ill" or "pathalogical". But the vast majority of religious people do not experience this, ever, no matter how religious they are.} Describing religious behaviour as insanity isn't helpful. It shows a lack of understanding of mental illness. It's not an effective attack on the harms that some forms of religion can do.

Crito 11y ago
Whether you want to call it mental illness or insanity (I am neither a doctor nor a lawyer, do I don't have any preference for either term..), I cannot fathom how the second possibility that you list does not qualify. People who are experiencing auditory hallucinations while fully awake and rested should seek professional help. The first possibility would not be so worrying if people were not attributing their own introspective thoughts to a flawless perfect benevolent supernatural being. Nobody should ever be that confident of their own ideas. I think the attribution of the introspective thought to a supernatural being (not the introspective thought itself) can reasonably be thought of as "crazy". I'm not saying it is in DSM, that there is some sort of recognized illness that it can be attributed to, but it certainly isn't rational thinking.
- DanBC 11y ago
  Yes! Sorry, i hadn't finished. You're quite right, the second one is insanity. But most religious people don't have that experience. I'll edit my comment.