Right now I am pondering an idea that Insanity and Mental Illness are different.
My tentative working thoughts:
Mental Illness has some link to brain damage (physical, or chemical induced, perhaps some traumatic stress.)
Insanity is “Not in their right mind”, that is, not accepting Truth and logic.
Vets could need help with their Mental Illness. That would be Mental Health care. They are not insane.
Shiff is insane. Just for one example.
And bureaucracy would also be insane.
If you’ve never looked at Thomas Szasz’s book “The Myth of Mental illness”, you might find it interesting. I believe Szasz specified the definition a little differently, but he made the case that most “mental illness” is just people thinking in a way which society does not like or which messes up the person’s life. It’s not a real illness. It’s just a pejorative label placed on people who are different.
That being said, if society itself is crazy, then the label becomes backwards — Social Justice Warriors who reject truth and logic are “good people” in the eyes of the media. But dangerous rednecks who own guns and don’t support Hillary are rightwing Nazis — you know: nutjobs.”
Of course, people with schizophrenia or major depression have a medical condition. But a lot of “mental illness” is really just people thinking in a way that displeases the standards of others.
We are dealing now with a generation raised on Ritalin and Adderall and other drugs.
They join a generation that came of age after the liberals succeeded in getting the nation’s mental hospitals shuttered for “humanitarian” reasons in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
We have a VERY real “mental health” crisis on our hands. We all see it, every day.