Passion

First define what you mean by the words "belief" and "passionate".

no they are a sign of normal desire. everyone wants more to world and themselves that to see them totally insignifigant. its true that insanity can lead to those passionate beliefs, but its not necissarily the case in my opinion.

Do you think that your passionate beliefs in quasi-delusional ideas (no need to seperate out religion here) are symptoms of insanity?

Doobah,

:)There is in the world a match, a fulfilment for every natural impluse, desire or need, accept one, the need for security, which is then fulfilled through the finding or creation of a life sustaining truth. You might say, that though this is not true on an individual level, it is the one common idea of all mankind, a higher power, the great spirit, god or a divine father figure. Doobah, you cannot have them all committed, there are just to many of them, and as the majority, they will redefine crazy to mean disagreement with them-- watch your back!!


On life's vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale.
Alexander Pope




Poets' Corner - Alexander Pope - Essay on Man




a

How are you so sure there's such thing as insanity?

Be careful with how you just throw that word out there, because more often than not the word focuses on a deviation from the norm, not even necessarily a problem with the individual.

In my opinion, no, having passionate beliefs and ideas are not a problem. We all choose where we want to stop consideration of any idea or belief, otherwise there would never be meaning to life applied - we would all just keep considering, and never even realize a passion, let alone purpose, or reason to keep living. Ideas and beliefs are part of our reasoning and can pave way to beautiful things. Sure, I like to advocate enlightening others, and I've mentioned on more than one occasion that I preach an open-minded philosophy, but it doesn't mean there is necessarily anything wrong with the people doing the believing (passionately, or not). To immediately say they are being blinded, delusional, or insane by believing in a God, or having faith in an belief, is making a grave mistake.

Any quasi-delusional idea you can you conjure doesn't seem so delusional if you actually believe. Have faith, or don't, but try not to immediately judge another's character when you don't know how they've even come to the conclusion (or stopping point). Instead, if you see something that you feel they may not be considering, give the knowledge, but don't give the push.

I think I see where this question is coming from. On the surface, I'd have to answer 'no', but to expound on the idea....

... Passion, as I see it, is that feeling of craving need, intense desire or driving enthusiasm about something. Does the sheer amount of craving, level of intensity or the ends driven terminate at such a point as to qualify as "insanity"? Perhaps, in some cases. On its surface, and as a statement standing on its own, I'd have to say 'no'.

Question of degrees; perhaps, or amount of neurosis/disfunction wherein that point of passion becomes 'insanity', I'd say. Interesting teaser

Well, even though the word "insanity" isn't really used medically, the concept applies to people for whom these deviations interfere with their ability to function safely and/or normally. So there's a degree of functionality we need to have in order to live (let alone thrive).

Yes, there is, and I wasn't denying that. I suggested to steer clear from using the word as a means to express a deviation from the norm. I often see the word "insanity" thrown around daily, and yes, even in the medical field (psychiatric nursing). Instead of acknowledging that one may just not have the understanding to figure another, they label the person "insane". Though there are times this is warranted, in my experience there are many more times when this word is too liberally used.

It's the difficulty with colloquial use of a word that was once clinical. If you work in psychiatric nursing you probably know that moron, imbecile, and idiot were once medical words, but they migrated from clinical to colloquial and finally pejorative. Retarded is on its way there. Insane / insanity is very nonspecific and also now pejorative, and you probably won't find it in the DSM-V -- you certainly won't find it in the ICD-9 book of medical codes. Dementia is a legitimate word because it means something specific -- but "demented" is a tricky one to use.

I know as a clinician myself that it's hard to be too exacting about terminology in this kind of setting, because most laypeople can't distinguish clinical from non-clinical words, even if referring to the same thing in the end.

I'd rather be insane then out of sane

though its nice to peak my head out and look around

there is something beyond logic and rationality that make up existence

I think we should be encouraged to explore it. Words like insanity make us want to either cower away or snip our umbilical cord that connects usto mother earth and go floating into the stars.

I love to snip my umbilical cord and float among the stars, and in fact, I do it daily.

However, many don't find it as such a positive experience. For instance, I brought up some abstract concepts to a girl I was interested in today. Ten minutes into the conversation she said, "I'm sorry, but I think you're crazy. Your ideas are just annoying to me".

In my experience, the word insanity tends to make people cower, not the opposite, and that's why I don't like when it's just thrown out there with little validation. There's much beyond logic and rationality, but it seems I have to explore it alone during much of my existence. Which is why I'm here, on this forum