Lunacy

The term ‘lunacy’ once denoted severe mental disturbances or outright insanity and was thought to be influenced by the phases of the moon, which explains the root ‘luna.’ In the historical period of psychology and medicine, lunacy was used as a general term to describe individuals undergoing extreme irrationality, psychosis, or behaving in otherwise unpredictable manners. Over time, lunacy was replaced by more specific and accurate terms as the field of psychiatry and psychology progressed. In contemporary contexts, lunacy is classified as a term no longer used, informal, and even pejorative; although, if nothing else, it illustrates the lack of understanding of mental health concepts and the propensity to theorize about shadowy and even cosmic causes. For instance, individuals suffering from delusions and even hallucinations would be ‘diagnosed’ as ‘lunatics’ without any consideration of the possibility of schizophrenia. The term lunacy illustrates how the understanding of mental health has evolved.