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Insanity Quotient

You're crazy, but just how crazy are you?
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I'm sure that they have tests to determine whether or not someone is insane. I want to apply a numerical rating.

The rating, much like an IQ rating, is based on normality.

100 is the average insanity quotient. Anything below, you are saner than normal. Anything higher, and you are crazier than normal.

The funny thing is, it has the same initials as intelligence quotient.

DesertFox, Apr 08 2005

Two Cats Mad Classic [DesertFox, Apr 08 2005]

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       Don't scream baked.   

       I want to apply a numerical, repeat, numerical rating to insanity. Like the Richter scale, or more like IQ.
DesertFox, Apr 08 2005
  

       Exactly.
DesertFox, Apr 08 2005
  

       I'm going to spin the relativist line that crazy should be defined as the unsuitability of one's cognitive processes in relation to the environment they find themselves in.   

       Acts comitted and thought processes held by someone in the midst of jungle combat might be entirely appropriate; until they are transplanted to civvy street for example.   

       As such, since crazy is a relationship, it's going to be difficlut to quantify, except perhaps as some kind of 'Hamming Distance' type value.
zen_tom, Apr 08 2005
  

       I suppose so - there ought to be a generally acceptable standard environment that could be applied - it would need to be updated as things changed. i.e. Someone from the Middle Ages might be considered a bit mad by his 21st Century contemporaries (and vice versa) - but then again, perhaps not - there still ought to be some fundamentally sound/unsound things you could measure on.
zen_tom, Apr 08 2005
  

       Intelligence quotient is a ratio of the indicitive age you perform at, and your real age. apparent/real*100.   

       So, a direct analogy would presuppose that at any point in time, your insanity parallels the insanity of a person of a certian age. Insanity fluctuates with time, up and down, not just up, the way intelligence generally varies (say generally, cause old people are pretty slow). Ergo, no such ratio is really all that possible.   

       However, it may be interesting to compose a test, multiple choice, what would you do type questions, maybe some shapes and shit. and see if there isn't a meaningful correlation that develops between age and responce. maybe the more insane options are given a higher number, so that there isn't necessarily a right or wrong answer, but an index. Obviously teenagers will jump all over the hasty options, adults less so. Then, attempt to correlate the range of scores with average age for each interval, take any given score to find the apparent age and find your quotient accordingly. I suspect no real correlations forming, but maybe the testing setup needs to be more vietnamish, who knows.
daseva, Apr 08 2005
  

       You are going to be quite a baker, Romulux. You remind me of Vernon.
DesertFox, Apr 08 2005
  

       Sans rambling, I hope... but, I'm flattered, and only hope to retain my welcome long enough to sift that golden nugget that lies around here somewhere... and BS with some freakishly inventive people.
daseva, Apr 08 2005
  

       Four words: Global Assessment of Function. +   

       That said, I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it. I used to have a handle on life, but it broke. Ever stop to think, and forget to start again? I smile because I don't know what the hell is going on. Don't be jealous because the voices only talk to me, and don't take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.
reensure, Apr 08 2005
  

       hahaha!
DesertFox, Apr 08 2005
  

       What about seemingly sane people who believe crazy things? Do they get a high IQ rating?   

       For instance if you think the end of the world is nigh, the holocaust/moon landing was fake, etc you're pretty crazy, but dont fall into any DSMIV category.
lowbot, Apr 09 2005
  

       It's not that I'm off the chart.
They've just got to make the charts bigger.
  

       What [2 fry] said.   

       [lowbot] Do you mean like those people who killed themselves coz they wanted to hitch a ride on some comet's shadow thing, but it turned out it was a mistake of printing?   

       I'm mad enough to join a website where people create crazy ideas and I believe they lead normal, sane lives with wives/ husbands/ kids/ cats/ custard/ ninjas outside this site.
froglet, Apr 09 2005
  

       <The funny thing is, it has the same initials as intelligence quotient.>   

       Yes indeed and I think the similarities don't end there. Say that in between IQ 95 and 120 we need this idea to establish the insanity Q. But the more you rate below 95, the higher your insanity Q. And also the higher you rate above 120 the higher your Insanity Q.
zeno, Apr 10 2005
  

       It could be an insanity/sanity quotient, and go in two directions, like the pH scale.
whippinggas, Apr 10 2005
  

       I've known quite a few people who are saner than normal. If you say something to them that isn't either "hello" or "how are you", they look at you funny and draw out a long 'okaaay'.
spiritualized, Apr 11 2005
  

       They are probably just covering up severe personality flaws.
zen_tom, Apr 11 2005
  

       sanity is a successful voice in your head saying: the world is not alive, the world is not alive, the world is not alive...
daseva, Apr 11 2005
  

       Why do I suspect that there would be quite competitive to see which halfbaker was the most insane?
hidden truths, Apr 11 2005
  

       Probably because of the often cited notion: there is a fine line between insanity and genius. (something like that)... That I would suffer my demise to some worthy opponent in this competition is fine. All the more reason to eat their brains with a nice bottle of chianti!!!! AAHAHAHAHAHHHHH!
daseva, Apr 11 2005
  

       What [zeno] said, except that you neglect the fundamental "bigger they are; harder they fall" factor.   

       As a quotable co-worker says, "Say you want to know I'm crazy --- just ask me."
reensure, Apr 12 2005
  

       <aside>I'm, often amused by the diagnosis 'borderline personality disorder'; it sounds rather innocuous, almost normal but approaching the edge, whereas it really indicates the borderline between having a simple personality disorder and being utterly barking mad.</aside>
angel, Apr 12 2005
  

       Just as the unit of beauty is the milli-helen (the amount of beauty required to launch a single ship), I propose the unit of insanity should be called the "spike", in honour of Spike Milligan, and should be equal to the degree of genius required to write "On the NIng-Nang-Nong", or propose leaping stones
AbsintheWithoutLeave, Apr 12 2005
  

       In the ning nang nong,
Where the cows go 'bong!'
And the monkeys all say 'boo!'
In the nong ning nang,
Where the trees go 'bang!'
And the treetops jibber jabber joo!
It's the ning nang ning nang ning nang nong
It's the ning nang ning nang nong!
  

       Shows how sane I am!
froglet, Apr 12 2005
  

       When addressing the issue how quantified various facets of intelligence may be, consider the power of raw sanity. Arrayed linearly by magnitude, it may truly be said of you that "you're as sane as the next guy" if you are referring to the downspike immediately beside you.
reensure, Apr 13 2005
  

       Iron Maiden said it best:   

       "There's a thin line drawn between/ Being a genius and insane" (Iron Maiden, "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate")   

       BTW, this is half baked -- I read a short story in high school about sanity quotients. Problem was they created such a high stress environment that everyone eventually wound up in the asylums (21st century hippie communes, methinks) and the white house receptionist wound up running the country as the last 'sane' person from the White House.
Chrontius, Apr 13 2005
  

       I'm not convinced that line's original to Iron Maiden...
david_scothern, Apr 13 2005
  

       [ds] Pretenders? Different song.
I looked again at some of Milligan's work, and decided that on the Great McGonagle scale, poor Spike barely registers.
AbsintheWithoutLeave, Apr 13 2005
  

       A good line (attributed, as I heard it, to A. Einstein): The difference between genius and insanity is, genius has its limits.   

       I think sanity should be measured by how many unique action tenses a person can generate when referring to her state of being ... for instance, "I'm levering my time" doesn't qualify because that's just one of a zillion ways of saying "I'm allergic to work".
reensure, Apr 13 2005
  
      
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