insanity

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.

Forensics 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 behaviour with concomitant danger to himself and others; insanity denotes, by extension, a degree of mental illness that negates legal responsibility for one’s actions
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]

insanity

A legal rather than a medical term, implying a disorder of the mind of such degree as to interfere with a person's ability to be legally responsible for his or her actions. The term is little used in medicine but might equate to PSYCHOSIS. A defence of insanity, in law, is governed by the McNaughten Rules. These state, in part, ‘The jurors ought to be told in all cases that every man is presumed to be sane and to possess a sufficient degree of reason to be responsible for his crimes, until the contrary be proved to their satisfaction: and that to establish a defence on the grounds of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong.’