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{{short description|Antiquated adjective epithet of one given to lunacy}}
{{other uses}}
{{redirect|Loony|the Canadian 1 dollar coin|Loonie|similar terms|Looney (disambiguation){{!}}Looney}}
[[File:What_a_Man_may_have_been,_%26_yet_not_lose_the_Vote.jpg|thumb|alt=From The Women's Library: Suffrage Collection; Created by the [[Suffrage Atelier]]|A [[Women's suffrage|suffragist]] postcard depicting a lunatic, symbolized by a [[moon]]]]
'''''Lunatic''''' is a term referring to a person who is seen as [[Mental disorder|mentally ill]], [[Risk|dangerous]], [[Foolishness|foolish]],<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Great Britain Census Office|date=1902|title=Census of England and Wales, 1901. (63 Vict. C.4.): Middlesex. 1902|journal=Census of England and Wales, 1901|publisher=H.M. Stationery Office |volume=33|pages=xi}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|author=Vermont Commission to Revise the Statutory Laws|date=1933|title=The Public Laws of Vermont, 1933: (proposed Revision).|journal=The Public Laws of Vermont|publisher=Capital City Press, 1933|pages=424}}</ref> or [[crazy]]—conditions once attributed to "lunacy". The word derives from ''lunaticus'' meaning "of the moon" or "moonstruck".<ref name="Sherman">{{cite news |first=Amy |last=Sherman |url=http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/dec/17/allen-west/allen-west-said-house-voted-remove-word-lunatic-fe/ |title=Allen West said the House voted to remove the word 'lunatic' from federal law |date=17 December 2012 |work=[[PolitiFact.com|PolitiFact]] |access-date=18 December 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=1985|title=Much ado about the full moon: A meta-analysis of lunar-lunacy research.|journal=Psychological Bulletin|volume=97|issue=2|pages=286–306|doi=10.1037/0033-2909.97.2.286|pmid=3885282|last1=Rotton|first1=James|last2=Kelly|first2=I. W.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Forbes, Lebo Jr.|first=Gordon B., George R|date=1977|title=Antisocial Behavior and Lunar Activity: A Failure to Validate the Lunacy Myth|journal=Psychological Reports|volume=40|issue=3 Pt. 2|pages=1309–1310|doi=10.2466/pr0.1977.40.3c.1309|pmid=897044|s2cid=34308541}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Horoscope 1792.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The [[Natal chart|horoscope]] of a "dumb Lunatic and Ideot" 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"<ref name="Heydon">{{cite book |last=Heydon |first=C. |title=Astrology. The wisdom of Solomon in miniature, being a new doctrine of nativities, reduced to accuracy and certainty ... Also, a curious collection of nativities, never before published. |year=1792 |publisher=printed for A. Hamilton |location=London |isbn=9781170010471 }}</ref>]]
The term "lunatic" derives from the Latin word [[wikt:lunaticus|''lunaticus'']], which originally referred mainly to [[epilepsy]] and [[wikt:madness|madness]], as diseases thought to be caused by the moon.<ref name="Riva">{{cite journal |last1=Riva |first1=M. A. |last2=Tremolizzo |first2=L. |last3=Spicci |first3=M |last4=Ferrarese |first4=C |last5=De Vito |first5=G |last6=Cesana |first6=G. C. |last7=Sironi |first7=V. A. |date=January 2011 |title=The Disease of the Moon: The Linguistic and Pathological Evolution of the English Term "Lunatic" |journal=Journal of the History of the Neurosciences |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=65–73 |doi=10.1080/0964704X.2010.481101 |pmid=21253941 |s2cid=5886130 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Frey |first1=J. |last2=Rotton |first2=J. |last3=Barry |first3=T.|date=1979|title=The effects of the full moon on human behavior: Yet another failure to replicate|url=https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1981-01480-001|journal=The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied|volume=103|issue=2|pages=159–162}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=D.E.|first=Campbell|date=1982|title=Lunar–lunacy research: When enough is enough.|journal=Environment and Behavior|volume=14|issue=4|pages=418–424|doi=10.1177/0013916582144002|s2cid=144508020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cameron |first=Joy |title=Prisons and Punishment in Scotland: From the Middle Ages to the Present |publisher=Canongate |year=1983 |isbn=9780862410315 |location=United Kingdom |pages=170}}</ref> The [[King James Version]] of the Bible records "lunatick" in the [[Gospel of Matthew]], which has been interpreted as a reference to epilepsy.<ref name="Riva"/> By the fourth and fifth centuries,{{clarify|date=November 2015}} astrologers were commonly using the term to refer to neurological and psychiatric diseases.<ref name="Riva" /><ref>{{Cite journal |date=2017|title=The association between lunar phase and intracranial aneurysm rupture: Myth or reality? Own data and systematic review|journal=BMC Neurology|volume=17|issue=99|pages=99|doi=10.1186/s12883-017-0879-1|pmid=28525979|pmc=5437543|last1=Bunevicius|first1=Adomas|last2=Gendvilaite|first2=Agne|last3=Deltuva|first3=Vytenis Pranas|last4=Tamasauskas|first4=Arimantas |doi-access=free }}</ref> [[Pliny the Elder]] argued that the full moon induced individuals to lunacy and epilepsy by effects on the brain analogous to the nocturnal [[dew]].<ref name="JAD">{{Cite journal|doi = 10.1016/S0165-0327(99)00016-6|title = The moon and madness reconsidered|year = 1999|last1 = Raison|first1 = Charles L.|last2 = Klein|first2 = Haven M.|last3 = Steckler|first3 = Morgan|journal = Journal of Affective Disorders|volume = 53|issue = 1|pages = 99–106|pmid = 10363673}}</ref> Until at least 1700, it was also a common belief that the moon influenced fevers, rheumatism, episodes of [[epilepsy]] and other diseases.<ref name="Harrison">{{cite journal |last=Harrison |first=Mark |year=2000 |title=From medical astrology to medical astronomy: sol-lunar and planetary theories of disease in British medicine, c. 1700–1850 |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=25–48 |doi=10.1017/S0007087499003854 |pmid=11624340 |s2cid=22247498 }}</ref>

== Use of the term "lunatic" in legislation ==
In the jurisdiction of [[England and Wales]], the [[Madhouses Act 1774]] originated what later became Metropolitan [[Commissioners in Lunacy]], under the Madhouses Act 1828. The Lunacy Acts 1890–1922 referred to "lunatics", but the [[Mental Treatment Act 1930]] changed the legal term to "person of unsound mind", an expression which was replaced under the [[Mental Health Act 1959]] by "[[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 [[Lunatic asylum|"asylum"]] with [[Psychiatric hospital|"mental hospital"]]. Criminal lunatics became [[Broadmoor Hospital|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.<ref name="Sherman" /> President [[Barack Obama]] signed the [[21st Century Language Act of 2012]]<ref>{{cite journal |title=An act to strike the word "lunatic" from Federal law, and for other purposes |journal=United States Statutes at Large, 112th Congress, 2nd Session |date=December 28, 2012 |volume=126 |pages=1619–1620 |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-126/html/STATUTE-126-Pg1619.htm |access-date=March 11, 2020 |id=Public Law 112–231}}</ref> into law on December 28, 2012.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/12/28/statement-press-secretary-hj-res-122-hr-3477-hr-3783-hr-3870-hr-3912-hr- |title=Statement by the Press Secretary on H.J. Res. 122, H.R. 3477, H.R. 3783, H.R. 3870, H.R. 3912, H.R. 5738, H.R. 5837, H.R. 5954, H.R. 6116, H.R. 6223, S. 285, S. 1379, S. 2170, S. 2367, S. 3193, S. 3311, S. 3315, S. 3564, and S. 3642 |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=December 28, 2012 |via=[[NARA|National Archives]] |work=[[whitehouse.gov]] |access-date=27 October 2013}}</ref>

"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.<ref>{{Cite AmCyc |wstitle= Lunacy |volume=X |short=1 }}</ref>

==Lunar distance==
The term ''lunatic'' was sometimes used to describe those who sought to discover a reliable method of determining [[longitude]] (before [[John Harrison]] developed the [[marine chronometer]] method of determining [[longitude]], the main theory was the [[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]]''.<ref name="sobel">{{cite book|last1=Sobel|first1=Dava|title=Longitude|date=2010|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|isbn=978-0802799678|page=87|edition=10th anniversary}}</ref> Twenty years later, though, Hogarth described John Harrison's [[John Harrison#The first three marine timekeepers|H-1 chronometer]] as "one of the most exquisite movements ever made."<ref name="sobel" />

Later, members of the [[Lunar Society]] of [[Birmingham]] called themselves ''lunaticks''.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Ian Wylie|editor1-last=Gravil|editor1-first=Richard|editor2-last=Lefebure|editor2-first=Molly|title=The Coleridge Connection: Essays for Thomas McFarland|publisher=Springer|location=1990|pages=25–26|chapter=Coleridge and the Lunaticks}}</ref> In an age with little street lighting, the society met on or near the night of the full moon.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Transactions and Proceedings|date=1897|publisher=Birmingham Archaeological Society|location=Birmingham, England|volume=22–25|page=26|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lrZCAQAAMAAJ&q=lunar+society+of+birmingham&pg=PA26|access-date=3 February 2017}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Bethlem Royal Hospital|Bedlam]]
* [[Lunar effect]]
* [[History of psychiatry]]
* [[History of psychiatric institutions]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary}}
{{AmCyc Poster|Lunacy}}
* [https://archive.today/20060320034351/http://www.mhsource.com/expert/exp1010504e.html Does the full moon have any effects on mood?] (cites research studies: 2 negative, 1 positive)
* [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/6723911.stm Crackdown on lunar-fuelled crime] – [[BBC News]], 5 June 2007

<!-- Please respect alphabetical order -->

[[Category:Obsolete medical terms]]
[[Category:Pejorative terms for people with disabilities]]
[[Category:Obsolete terms for mental disorders]]
[[Category:Insanity in law]]
[[Category:Full moon]]
[[Category:Moon in culture]]