What the hell does INSANITY mean?

How do you know if you are insane? Why Complex explains the history, philosophy and science of madness.

If you need information on dealing with specific mental health issues, the charity Mind has a number of resources: http://www.mind.org.uk/


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Sources and Further Reading:

Some useful overviews
‘Madness: A Very Short Introduction’ by Andrew Scull

Went to this exhibit a while back – gave me a head start with the research!
https://wellcomecollection.org/sites/...

Great further resources in the London Science Museum’s archives
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broug...

More detailed look at moral treatment (and its increasingly religious variants)
https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...

Abu Zayd Al-Balkhi
https://books.google.com/books?id=Q64...

Alan Pean’s Story (available in podcast and transcript form)
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radi...

Eleanor Longden on hearing voices
https://www.theguardian.com/technolog...

Eleanor’s ted Talk
   • The voices in my head | Eleanor Longden  

‘The Psychopath Test’ by Jon Ronson

Jon’s Ted talk
   • Strange answers to the psychopath tes...  

The mind and mental illness from a philosophical perspective
https://books.google.com/books?id=p0W...

'History of Astronomy' by Adam Smith

Koro and other ‘culture-bound’ conditions
https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...

Definition of “legal insanity” + interesting comparison with “non-insane” automatism defense
http://www.lawcom.gov.uk/wp-content/u...

Thomas Szasz’s controversial ‘insanity as social construct’ approach
https://books.google.com/books?id=LE5...

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Music:
Monotone – Synethesia, Nachtigall
Richard Witt Villareal - Elevator Muzak
glattax – Lock

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Research & graphics by Sarah Thewlis
Created by Tom Shennan