INSANITY

(A) See criminal insanity. (B) med. jur. A continued impetuosity of thought, which, for the time being a totally unfit man for judging and acting in relation to the matter in question, with the composure requisite for the maintenance of the social relations of life.

Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition

Imbecility. A more or less advanced decay and feebleness of the Intellectual faculties ; that weakness of mind which, without depriving the person entirely of the use of his reason, leaves only the faculty of conceiving the most common and ordinary ideas and such as relate almost always to physical wants and habits. It varies in shades and degrees from merely excessive folly and eccentricity to an almost total vacuity of mind or amentia, and the test of legal capacity, in this condition, is the stage to which the weakness of mind has advanced, as measured by the degree of reason, judgment, and memory remaining. It may proceed from paresis or general paralysis, from senile decay, or from the advanced stages of any of the ordinary forms of insanity; and the term is rather descriptive of the consequences of insanity than of any particular type of the disease. Non compos mentis. Lat. Not of sound mind. A generic term applicable to all insane persons, of whatsoever specific type the insanity may be and from whatever cause arising, provided there be an entire loss of reason, as distinguished from mere weakness of mind. Delusion is sometimes loosely used as synonymous with insanity. But this is incorrect. Delusion is not the substance but the evidence of insanity. The presence of an insane delusion is a recognized test of insanity in all cases except amentia and imbecility, and where there is no frenzy or raving madness; and in this sense an insane delusion is a fixed belief in the mind of the patient of the existence of a fact which has no objective existence but is purely the figment of his imagination, and which is so extravagant that no sane person would believe it under the circumstances of the case, the belief, nevertheless, being so unchangeable that the patient is incapable of being permanently disabused by argument or proof. The characteristic which distinguishes an “insane” delusion from other mistaken beliefs is that it is not a product of the reason but of the imagination, that is, not a mistake of fact induced by deception, fraud, insufficient evidence, or erroneous reasoning, but the spontaneous conception of a perverted imagination, having no basis whatever in reason or evidence. As to the distinctions between “Delusion” and “Illusion” and “Hallucination,” see those titles. Forms and varieties of insanity. Without attempting a scientific classification of the numerous types and forms of insanity, (as to which it may be said that there is as yet no final agreement among psychologists and alienists either as to analysis or nomenclature,) definitions and explanations will here be appended of the compound and descriptive terms most commonly met with in medical jurisprudence. And, first, as to the origins or causes of the disease: Traumatic insanity is such as results from a wound or injury, particularly to the head or brain, such as fracture of the skull or concussion of the brain. Idiopathic insanity is such as results from a disease of the brain itself, lesions of the cortex, cerebral anemia, etc. Congenital insanity is that which exists from the birth of the patient, and is (in law) properly called “idiocy.” See supra. Cretinism is a form of imperfect or arrested mental development, which may amount to idiocy, with physical degeneracy or deformity or lack of development; endemic in Switzerland and some other parts of Europe, but the term is applied to similar states occurring elsewhere. Pellagrous insanity. Insanity caused by or deprived from pellagra, which is an endemic disease of southern Europe, (though not confined to that region,) characterized by erythema, digestive derangement, and nervous affections. (Cent Diet.) Polyneuritic insanity is insanity arising from an inflammation of the nerves, of the kind called “polyneuritis” or “multiple neuritis” because it involves several nerves at the same time. This is often preceded by tuberculosis and almost always by alcoholism, and is characterized specially by delusions and falsification of the memory. It is otherwise called “Korssakoff’s disease.” (Kraepelin.) Choreic insanity is insanity arising from chorea, the latter being a nervous disease, more commonly attacking children than adults, characterized by irregular and involuntary twitchings of the muscles of the limbs and face, popularly called “St. Vitus’ dance.” Puerperal insanity is mental derangement occurring in women at the time of child birth or immediately after; it is also called “eclampsia parturien tium.”Folie brightique. A French term sometimes used to designate an access of insanity resulting from nephritis or “Bright’s disease.” See In re McKean’s Will, 31 Misc. Rep. 703, 66 N. Y. Supp. 44. Delirium tremens. A disease of the nervous system, induced by the excessive and protracted use of intoxicating liquors, and affecting the brain so as to produce incoherence and lack of continuity in the intellectual processes, a suspension or perversion of the power of volition, and delusions, particularly of a terrifying nature, but not generally prompting to violence except in the effort to escape from imaginary dangers. It is recognized in law as a form of insanity, and may be of such a nature or intensity as to render the patient legally incapable of committing a crime. In some states the insanity of alcoholic intoxication is classed as “temporary,” where induced by the voluntary recent use of ardent spirits and carried to such a degree that the person becomes incapable of judging the consequences or the moral aspect of his acts, and “settled,” where the condition is that of delirium tremens. Settled insanity, in this sense, excuses from civil or criminal responsibility; temporary insanity does not. The ground of the distinction is that the former is a remote effect of imbibing alcoholic liquors and is not voluntarily incurred, while the latter is a direct result voluntarily sought for. Syphilitic insanity is paresis or progressive imbecility resulting from the infection of syphilis. It is sometimes called as being a sequence or result of that disease “metasyphilis” or “parasyphilis.”Tabetic dementia. A form of mental derangement or insanity complicated with “tabes dorsalis” or locomotor ataxia, which generally precedes, or sometimes follows, the mental attack. As to insanity resulting from cerebral embolism, see Embolism; from epilepsy, see Epilepsy. As to chronic alcoholism as a form of insanity, see Alcoholism. General descriptive and clinical terms. Affective insanity. A modern comprehensive term descriptive of all those forms of insanity which affect or relate to the feelings and emotions and hence to the ethical and social relations of the individual. Involutional insanity. That which sometimes accompanies the “involution” of the physical structure and physiology of the individual, the reverse of their “evolution,” hence practically equivalent to the imbecility of old age or senile dementia. Maniacal depressive insanity. A form of insanity characterized by alternating periods of high maniacal excitement and of depressed and stuprous conditions in the nature of or resembling melancholia, often occurring as a series or cycle of isolated attacks, with more or less complete restoration to health in the intervals. (Kraepelin.) This is otherwise called “circular insanity” or “circular stupor. Circular insanity. Another name for maniacal depressive insanity, which see. Partial insanity, as a legal term, may mean either monomania (see infra) or an intermediate stage in the development of mental derangement. In the former sense, it does not relieve the patient from responsibility for his acts, except where instigated directly by his particular delusion or obsession. In the latter sense, it denotes a clouding or weakening of the mind, not inconsistent with some measure of memory, reason, and judgment. But the term, in this sense, does not convey any very definite meaning, since it may range from mere feeble mindedness to almost the last stages of imbecility. Recurrent insanity. Insanity which returns from time to time, hence equivalent to “lunacy” (see supra) in its common law sense, as a mental disorder broken by lucid intervals. There is no presumption that fitful and exceptional attacks of insanity are continuous. Moral insanity. A morbid perversion of the feelings, affections, or propensities, but without any illusions or derangement of the intellectual faculties; irresistible impulse or an incapacity to resist the prompting of the passions, though accompanied by the power of discerning the moral or immoral character of the act. Moral insanity is not admitted as a bar to civil or criminal responsibility for the patient’s acts, unless there is also shown to be intellectual disturbance, as manifested by insane delusions or the other recognized criteria of legal insanity. The term “emotional insanity” or mania transitoria applies to the case of one in the possession of his ordinary reasoning faculties who allows his passions to convert him into a temporary maniac. Mutual L. Ins. Co. v. Terry, 15 Wall. 580, 583, 21 L. Ed. 236. Psychonenrosis. Mental disease without recognizable anatomical lesion, and without evidence and history of preceding chronic mental degeneration. Under this head come melancholia, mania, primary acute dementia, and mania hallucinatoria. Cent. Diet. “Neurosis,” in its broadest sense, may include any disease or disorder of the mind, and hence all the forms of insanity proper. But the term “psychoneurosis” is now employed by Freud and other European specialists to describe that class of exaggerated individual peculiarities or idiosyncrasies of thought towards special objects or topics which are absent from the perfectly normal mind, and which yet have so little influence upon the patient’s conduct or his general modes of thought that they cannot properly be described as “insanity” or as any form of “mania,” especially because ordinarily unaccompanied by any kind of delusions. At most, they lie on the debatable border land between sanity and insanity. These idiosyncrasies or obsessions may arise from superstition, from a real incident in the patient’s past history upon which he has brooded until it has assumed an unreal importance or significance, or from general neurasthenic conditions. Such, for example, are a terrified shrinking from certain kinds of animals, unreasonable dread of being shut up in some enclosed place or of being alone in a crowd, excessive fear of being poisoned, groundless conviction of irredeemable sinfulness, and countless other prepossessions, which may range from mere weak minded superstition to actual monomania. Katatonia. A form of insanity distinguished by periods of acute mania and melancholia and especially by cataleptic states or conditions ; the “insanity of rigidity.” (Kahlbaum.) A type of insanity characterized particularly by “stereotypism, an instinctive inclination to purposeless repetition of the same expressions of the will, and “negativism,” a senseless resistance against every outward influence. (Kraepelin.) Folie cirenlaire. The French name for circular insanity or maniacal depressive insanity. General paralysis. Dementia paralytica or paresis. Amentia, dementia, and mania. The way to a more scientific nomenclature, based chiefly on the origin or cause of the disease tag the particular patient and its clinical history. -These terms, however, are still occasionally en-; countered in medical jurisprudence, and the names of some of their subdivisions are in constant use. Amentia. A total lack of intelligence, reason, or mental capacity. Sometimes so used as to cover imbecility or dotage, or even as applicable to all forms of insanity; but properly restricted to a lack of mental capacity due to original defective organization of the brain (idiocy) or arrested cerebral development, as distinguished from the degeneration of intellectual faculties which once were normal. Dementia. A form of insanity resulting’ from degeneration or disorder of the brain (ideopathic or traumatic, but not congenital) and characterized by general mental weakness and decrepitude, forgetfulness, loss of coherence, and total inability to reason, but not accompanied by delusions or uncontrollable impulses. By some writers dementia is classed as a terminal stage of various forms of insanity, and hence may follow mania, for example, as its final condition. Among the sub divisions of dementia should be noticed the following: After primary dementia is a form of temporary dementia, though often extreme in its intensity, and occurring in young people or adolescents, accompanied by general physical debility or exhaustion and induced by conditions likely to produce that state, as malnutrition, overwork, dissipation, or too rapid growth. Dementia par ralytioa is a progressive form of insanity, beginning with slight degeneration of the physical, intellectual, and moral powers, and leading to complete loss of mentality, or imbecility, with general paralysis. Also called paresis, paretic dementia, or cirrhosis of the brain, or (popularly) “softening of the brain.” Dementia praeox. A term applicable either to the early stages of dementia or to the dementia of adolescence, but more commonly applied to the latter. It is often (but not invariably) attributable to onanism or self abuse, and is characterized by mental and moral stupidity, absence of any strong feeling of the impressions of life or interest in its events, blunting or obscuration of the moral sense, weakness of judgment, flightiness of thought, senseless laughter without mirth, automatic obedience, and apathetic despondency. (Kraepelin.) Senile dementia Dementia occurring in persons of advanced age, and characterized by slowness and weakness of the mental processes and general physical degeneration, verging on or passing into imbecility, indicating the breaking down of the mental powers in advance of bodily decay. Toxic dementia. Weakness of mind or feeble cerebral activity, approaching imbecility, resulting from continued administration or use of slow poisons or of the mere active poisons in repeated small doses, as in cases of lead poisoning and in some cases of addiction to such drugs as opium or alcohol. Mania. That form of insanity in which the patient is subject to hallucinations and illusions, accompanied by a high state of general mental excitement, sometimes amounting to fury. See Hall v. Unger, 2 Abb. U. S. 510, 11 Fed. Cas. 261; People v. Lake, 2 Parker Cr. R. (N. Y.) 218; Smith v. Smith, 47 Miss. 211; In re Gannon’s Will, 2 Misc. Rep. 329, 21 N. Y. Supp. 960. In the case first above cited, the following description is given by Justice Field: “Mania is that form of insanity where the mental derangement is accompanied with more or less of excitement. Sometimes the excitement amounts to a fury. The individual in such cases is subject to hallucinations and illusions. He is impressed with the reality of events which have never occurred, and of things which do not exist, and acts more or less in conformity with his belief in these particulars. The mania may be general, and affect all or most of the operations of the mind; or it may be partial, and be confined to particular subjects. In the^ latter case it is generally termed “monomania.'” In a more popular but less scientific sense, “mania” denotes a morbid or unnatural or excessive craving, issuing in impulses of such fixity and intensity that they cannot be resisted by the patient in the enfeebled state of the will and blurred moral concepts which accompany the disease. It is used in this sense in such compounds as “homicidal mania,” “dipsomania,” and the like Hypomania. A mild or slightly developed form or type of mania Monomania. A perversion or derangement of the reason or understanding with reference to a single subject or small class of subjects, with considerable mental excitement and delusions, while, as to all matters outside the range of the peculiar infirmity, the intellectual faculties remain unimpaired and function normally. Paranoia. Monomania in general, or the obsession of a delusion or system of delusions which dominate without destroying the mental capacity, leaving the patient sane as to all matters outside their particular range, though subject to perverted ideas, false beliefs, and uncontrollable impulses within that range; and particularly, the form of monomania where the delusion is as to wrongs, injuries, or persecution inflicted upon the patient and his consequently justifiable resentment or revenge. Paranoia is called by Kraepelin “progressive systematized insanity,” because the delusions of being wronged or of persecution and of excessive self esteem develop quite slowly, without independent disturbances of emotional life or of the will becoming prominent, and because there occurs regularly a mental working up of the delusion to form a delusionary view of the world, in fact, a system, leading to a derangement of the stand point which the patient takes up towards the events of life. Homicidal mania. A form of mania in which the morbid state of the mind manifests itself in an irresistible inclination or impulse to commit homicide, prompted usually by an insane delusion either as to the necessity of self defense or the avenging of injuries, or as to the patient being the appointed instrument of a superhuman justice. Com. v. Sayre, 5 Wkly. Notes Cas. (Pa.) 425; Com. v. Mosler, 4 Pa. 266.Methomania. An irresistible craving for alcoholic or other intoxicating liquors, manifested by the periodical recurrence of drunken debauches. State v. Savage, 89 Ala. 1, 7 South. 183, 7L. R. A. 426 Dipsomania. Practically the same thing as methomania, except that the irresistible impulse to intoxication is extended by some writers to include the use of such drugs as opium or cocaine as well as alcohol. Mania a potn. Delirium tremens, or a species of temporary insanity resulting as a secondary effect produced by the excessive and protracted indulgence in intoxicating liquors. See Toxicomania. An excessive addiction to the use of toxic or poisonous drugs or other substances; a form of mania or affective insanity characterized by an irresistible impulse to indulgence in opium cocaine, chloral, alcohol, etc. Mania fanatica. A form of insanity characterized by a morbid state of religious feeling. Sebastoma nia. Religious insanity; demonomania. Megalomania. The so called “delirium of grandeur” or “folie de grandeur;” a form of mania in which the besetting delusion of the patient is that he is some person of great celebrity or exalted rank, historical or contemporary. Kleptomania. A species (or symptom) of mania, consisting in an irresistible propensity to steal. Pyromania. Incendiarism; a form of affective insanity in which the mania takes the form of an irresistible impulse to burn or set fire to things. Oikei mania, a form of insanity manifesting itself in a morbid state of the domestic affections, as an unreasonable dislike of wife or child without cause or provocation. Nymphomania. A form of mania characterized by a morbid, excessive, and uncontrollable craving for sexual intercourse. This term is applied only to women. The term for a corresponding mania in men is “satyriasis.”Erotomania. A form of mania similar to nymphomania, except that the present term is applied to patients of both sexes, and that (according to some authorities) it is applicable to all cases of excessive sexual craving irrespective of origin; while nymphomania is restricted to cases where the disease is caused by a local disorder of the sexual organs reacting on the brain. And it is to be observed that the term “erotomania” is now often used, especially by French writers, to describe a morbid propensity for “falling in love” or an exaggerated and excited condition of amativeness or love sickness, which may affect the general physical health, but is not necessarily correlated with any sexual craving, and which, though it may unnaturally color the imagination and distort the subject’s view of life and affairs, does not at all amount to insanity, and should not be so considered when it leads to crimes of violence, as in the too common case of a rejected lover who kills his mistress. Necrophilism. A form of affective insanity manifesting itself in an unnatural and revolting fondness for corpses, the patient desiring to be in their presence, to caress them, to exhume them, or sometimes to mutilate them, and even (in a form of sexual perversion) to violate them, Melancholia. Melancholia is a form of insanity the characteristics of which are extreme mental depression, associated with delusions and hallucinations, the latter relating especially to the financial or social position of the patient or to impending or threatened dangers to his person, property, or reputation, or issuing in distorted conceptions of his relations to society or his family or of his rights and duties in general. Hypochondria or hypochondriasis. A form of melancholia in which the patient has exaggerated or causeless fears concerning his health or suffers from imaginary disease. Toxiphobia. Morbid dread of being poisoned; a form of insanity manifesting itself by an excessive and unfounded apprehension of death by poison. Specific definitions and applications in law. There are numerous legal proceedings where insanity may be shown, and the rule for establishing mental capacity or the want of it varies according to the object or purpose of the proceeding. Among these may be enumerated the following: A criminal prosecution where insanity is alleged as a defense; a proceeding to defeat a will on the ground of the insanity of the testator; a suit to avoid a contract (including that of marriage) for similar reasons; a proceeding to secure the commitment of a person alleged to be insane to an asylum; a proceeding to appoint a guardian or conservator for an alleged lunatic; a plea or proceeding to avoid the effect of the statute of limitations on account of insanity. What might be regarded as insanity in one of such cases would not necessarily be so regarded in another. No definite rule can be laid down which would apply to all cases alike. But the following rules or tests for specific cases have been generally accepted and approved: In criminal law and as a defense to an accusation of crime, insanity means such a perverted and deranged condition of the mental and moral faculties as to render the person incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong, or to render him at the time unconscious of the nature of the act he is committing, or such that, though he may be conscious of it and also of its normal quality, so as to know that the act in question is wrong, yet his will or volition has been (otherwise than voluntarily) so completely destroyed that his actions are not subject to it but are beyond his control. Or, as otherwise stated, insanity is such a state of mental derangement that the subject is incompetent of having a criminal intent, or incapable of so controlling his will as to avoid doing the act in question. Testamentary capacity includes an intelligent understanding of the testator’s property, its extent and items, and of the nature of the act he is about to perform, together with a clear understanding and purpose as to the manner of its distribution and the persons who are to receive it. Lacking these, he is not mentally competent The presence of insane delusions is not inconsistent with testamentary capacity, if they are of such a nature that they cannot reasonably be supposed to have affected the dispositions made by the will; and the same Is true of the various forms of monomania and of all kinds of eccentricity and personal idiosyncrasy. But imbecility, senile dementia, and all forms of systematized mania which affect the understanding and judgment generally disable the patient from making a valid will. As a ground for avoiding or annulling a contract or conveyance, insanity does not mean a total deprivation of reason, but an inability, from defect of perception, memory, and judgment, to do the act in question or to understand its nature and consequences. Frazer v. Frazer, 2 Del. Ch. 260. The insanity must have entered into and induced the particular contract or conveyance; it must appear that it was not the act of the free and untrammeled mind, and that on account of the diseased condition of the mind the person entered into a contract or made a conveyance which he would not have made If he had been in the possession of his reason.