Insanity

Mr. Williams’s Insanity Case According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, out of the estimated 2,220,300 people locked up in jails and detention facilities in the US only 17% of the inmates that need mental help receive it. Therefore, there is a remainder of 83% of inmates that need mental help but don't receive it. This is an issue because all of these inmates could be considered legally insane. This matters because with just being able to prove that the inmate is insane they could…

Recent studies show that 1 in 5 Americans live with a mental illness, this includes depression. Last year, almost 44 million adults experienced a mental illness. Mental illness is a medical condition which disrupts the individual’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to other people and their daily functioning. People with mental illnesses, most of the time, cannot understand what is right and what is wrong. Therefore, I feel that mentally ill offenders should not be held responsible for…

of an individual either being convicted or not convicted of a crime due to insanity. Levin describes how American jurors shy away from finding someone guilty or not guilty by reason of insanity. Levin argues many jurors (as well as the public) have the misunderstanding that finding someone guilty or not guilty by reason of insanity will release the individual into public. Levin argues most convicted by reason of insanity are imprisoned just as long as an offender convicted without a severe…

whaling ship captain, Captain Ahab; seeks revenge on the whale who took his leg: Moby Dick. Captain Ahab is tormented to insanity and will go to great lengths to satiate his deep need for vengeance on this whale he has come to see as the epitome of evil. Melville exemplifies many common characteristics of the dark side of Romanticism in Moby-Dick, such as remote locations, insanity, and fascination with evil and the power of darkness. In his novel Moby-Dick, Herman Melville reveals the power of…

In our society, whether it be modern or past times, Insanity has always been a behavior that has been looked upon in a negative light. If a person behaves in a way that does not follow what society considers normal, usually, they are ostracized. However, we cannot confuse insanity with irrationality. Throughout this film, Tom engages in many immoral acts that can be perceived as acts of insanity: Murder, fraud, and deception, all on a grand scale. But, when taking into consideration how…

her not to be in the right state of mind and she was deemed insane by the court and sent to a hospital for help. I do believe in the insanity plea as well as mental illness. When someone is mentally ill and not aware of the actions in which they are doing, I feel that they are not control and should not be held responsible. I do not completely agree that the insanity plea should have been acceptable when it came to Andrea Yates because I do not feel like she completely fits the requirements of…

The idea of sanity, insanity, and madness have different meanings to different people. Many will argue what creates madness, how one can break free from madness, or if it is even possible. Nikos Kazantzakis once said “A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.” Kazantzakis is metaphorically stating that a person needs a little insanity in order to free themselves. This displays a relevance towards the novel Ordinary People, written by Judith Guest, the…

to be deemed insane, there are many things to be considered. For one, the person must have the “inability to distinguish fantasy from reality”, they also must be free from mental derangement; having a sound, healthy mind. The traditional test of insanity in criminal cases is whether the accused knows the difference between right and wrong following the “M’Naghten Rule” from 19th Century England. Hamlet is a sane man throughout the entirety of the play. It was his consistent cleverness that is…

brings the narrator to the brink of insanity. Through specific gothic elements such as emotions and the eerie, mysterious setting, and the supernatural, Poe successfully achieves a suspenseful mood within his short story. At the end of The Fall of the House of Usher, when the house sinks and falls, it is because of his insanity and his belief that his sister died when, in fact, she did not die and she came back and destroyed the “House of Usher” out of anger. The insanity of Usher leads to the…

offenders. (Peterson et al. 441) Legal definitions vary from breadth and specificity due to minor or large discrepancies between definitions. It might be difficult to gage one way or another with offenders who claim to have a mental illness or plead insanity defense. Three examples of slightly different definitions include the M’Naughten rule, the American Law Institute’s definition, and the Durham test. (Peterson et al. 440) Mental illness in…