Lunatic

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Lunatic (disambiguation).
"Loony" redirects here. For the Canadian 1 dollar coin, see Loonie. For similar terms, see Looney.
From The Women's Library: Suffrage Collection; Created by the Suffrage Atelier
A suffragist postcard depicting a lunatic, symbolized by a moon

Lunatic is a term referring to a person who is seen as

crazy—conditions once attributed to "lunacy". The word derives from lunaticus meaning "of the moon" or "moonstruck".[3][4][5]

History

horoscope of a "Lunatic" according to an astrologer who describes how the positions of the planets Saturn and Mars with respect to the moon are the cause of "diseases of the mind".[6]

The term "lunatic" derives from the Latin word lunaticus, which originally referred mainly to epilepsy and madness, as diseases thought to be caused by the moon.[7][8][9][10] The King James Version of the Bible records "lunatick" in the Gospel of Matthew, which has been interpreted as a reference to epilepsy.[7] By the fourth and fifth centuries,[clarification needed] astrologers were commonly using the term to refer to neurological and psychiatric diseases.[7][11] Pliny the Elder argued that the full moon induced individuals to lunacy and epilepsy by effects on the brain analogous to the nocturnal dew.[12] Until at least 1700, it was also a common belief that the moon influenced fevers, rheumatism, episodes of epilepsy and other diseases. There is also a Greek goddess named luna.[13]

Use of the term "lunatic" in legislation

In the jurisdiction of

mental illness". "Person of unsound mind" was the term used in 1950 in the English version of the European Convention on Human Rights as one of the types of person who could be deprived of liberty by a judicial process. The 1930 Act also replaced the term "asylum" with "mental hospital". Criminal lunatics became Broadmoor patients in 1948 under the National Health Service Act 1946
.

On December 5, 2012, the US House of Representatives passed legislation approved earlier by the US Senate removing the word "lunatic" from all federal laws in the United States.[3] President Barack Obama signed the 21st Century Language Act of 2012[14] into law on December 28, 2012.[15]

"Of unsound mind" or non compos mentis are alternatives to "lunatic", the most conspicuous term used for insanity in the law in the late 19th century.[16]

Lunar distance

The term lunatic was sometimes used to describe those who sought to discover a reliable method of determining

Method of Lunar Distances, advanced by Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne). The artist William Hogarth portrayed a "longitude lunatic" in the eight scene of his 1733 work A Rake's Progress.[17] Twenty years later, though, Hogarth described John Harrison's H-1 chronometer as "one of the most exquisite movements ever made."[17]

Later, members of the

Lunar Society of Birmingham called themselves lunaticks.[18] In an age with little street lighting, the society met on or near the night of the full moon.[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ Great Britain Census Office (1902). "Census of England and Wales, 1901. (63 Vict. C.4.): Middlesex. 1902". Census of England and Wales, 1901. 33. H.M. Stationery Office: xi.
  2. ^ Vermont Commission to Revise the Statutory Laws (1933). "The Public Laws of Vermont, 1933: (proposed Revision)". The Public Laws of Vermont. Capital City Press, 1933: 424.
  3. ^
    PolitiFact
    . Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  4. PMID 3885282
    .
  5. S2CID 34308541.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  6. ISBN 9781170010471
    .
  7. ^
    S2CID 5886130
    .
  8. ^ Frey, J.; Rotton, J.; Barry, T. (1979). "The effects of the full moon on human behavior: Yet another failure to replicate". The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied. 103 (2): 159–162.
  9. S2CID 144508020
    .
  10. ISBN 9780862410315
    .
  11. PMID 28525979
    .
  12. PMID 10363673
    .
  13. S2CID 22247498
    .
  14. ^ "An act to strike the word "lunatic" from Federal law, and for other purposes". United States Statutes at Large, 112th Congress, 2nd Session. 126: 1619–1620. December 28, 2012. Public Law 112–231. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  15. National Archives
    .
  16. The American Cyclopædia
    . Vol. X. 1879.
  17. ^
    ISBN 978-0802799678
    .
  18. ^ Ian Wylie. "Coleridge and the Lunaticks". In Gravil, Richard; Lefebure, Molly (eds.). The Coleridge Connection: Essays for Thomas McFarland. 1990: Springer. pp. 25–26.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  19. ^ "Transactions and Proceedings". 22–25. Birmingham, England: Birmingham Archaeological Society. 1897: 26. Retrieved 3 February 2017. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

External links

Look up lunatic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
American Cyclopædia article Lunacy
.
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