insanity
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insanity
[in-san´ĭ-te]a medically obsolete term for mental derangement or disorder. Insanity is now a purely legal term, denoting a condition due to which a person lacks criminal responsibility for a crime and therefore cannot be convicted of it. adj., insane´.
in·san·i·ty
(in-san'i-tē), This is a legal term denoting mental incompetence and moral irresponsibility but having no specific medical meaning.1. An outmoded term referring to severe mental illness or psychosis.
2. In law, the degree of mental illness that negates the patient's legal responsibility or capacity.
[L. in- neg. + sanus, sound]
insanity
/in·san·i·ty/ (in-san´it-e) a legal term for mental illness of such degree that the individual is not responsible for his or her acts.insane´insanity
[insan′itē]
Etymology: L, in, not, sanus, sound
Usage notes: (informal)
a term used more in legal and social than in medical terminology. It refers to those mental illnesses that are of such a serious or debilitating nature as to interfere with one's capability of functioning within the legal limits of society and performing the normal activities of daily living.
Psychiatry A vague obsolete term for psychosis
insanity
Forensic medicine A legal and social term for a condition that renders the affected person unfit to enjoy liberty of action, because of the unreliability of his behavior with concomitant danger to himself and others; insanity denotes, by extension, a degree of mental illness that negates legal responsibility for one's actions. See Psychosis, Temporary insanity Psychiatry A vague obsolete term for psychosis.in·san·i·ty
(in-san'i-tē)1. A nonmedical term referring to severe mental illness or psychosis.
2. law That degree of mental illness that negates the person's legal responsibility or capacity.
[L. in- neg. + sanus, sound]