Editing Sanity (section)

==Psychiatry and psychology==
[[Alfred Korzybski]] proposed a theory of sanity in his [[general semantics]]. He believed sanity was tied to the logical reasoning about and comprehension of what is going on in the world. He imposed this notion in a [[Map/territory relation|map-territory analogy]]: "A [[map]] ''is not'' the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a 'similar structure' to the territory, which accounts for its [[usefulness]]."<ref>[http://www.doyletics.com/art/sciencea.htm Science and Sanity] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230091326/http://www.doyletics.com/art/sciencea.htm |date=2010-12-30 }} by Alfred Korzybski</ref> Given that science continually seeks to adjust its theories structurally to fit the facts, i.e., improves its maps to fit the territory, and thus advances more rapidly than any other field, he believed that the key to understanding sanity would be found in the study of the methods of science (and the study of structure as revealed by science). The adoption of a scientific outlook and attitude of continual adjustment by the individual toward their assumptions was the way, so he claimed. In other words, there were "factors of sanity to be found in the physico-mathematical [[scientific method|methods of science]]." He also stressed that sanity requires the awareness that "whatever you say a thing is, it is not"<ref>Korzybski, A. 2010. ''Selections from Science and Sanity''. The New Non-Aristotelian Library, p. VIII.</ref> because anything expressed through language is not the reality it refers to: language is like a map, and the map is not the territory. The territory, or reality, remains unnamable, unspeakable, and mysterious. Hence, the widespread assumption that we can grasp reality through language involves a degree of insanity.

Psychiatrist [[Philip S. Graven]] suggested the term "un-sane" to describe a condition that is not exactly ''insane'', but not quite ''sane'' either.<ref>[http://www.neurosemantics.com/nlp-critiques/when-ecology-does-not-count When Ecology Does Not Count: Checking the Ecology of The Ecology Check] by L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.</ref>

In ''The Sane Society'', [[1955 in literature|published in 1955]], psychologist [[Erich Fromm]] proposed that not just individuals, but entire societies "may be lacking in sanity." Fromm argued that one of the most deceptive features of social life involves "consensual validation":<ref>[http://www.vault-co.com/index.php?p=826_consensual_validation Consensual validation] at vault-co.com {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
<blockquote>It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas or feelings proves the validity of these ideas and feelings. Nothing is further from the truth... Just as there is a ''[[folie à deux]]'' there is a ''folie à millions''. The fact that millions of people share the same [[vice]]s does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane.<ref>Fromm, Erich. ''The Sane Society'', Routledge, 1955, pp.14–15.</ref></blockquote>