[Nell]

It's difficult to read these labels, especially when so many of them have negative connotations. And conditions like "manic depression" are now called "bipolar disorder" etc to get away from negative stereotyping.

I read somewhere that a "cretin" was someone with an over or under active thyroid and the official definition of "idiot" was someone of an IQ lower than a number I can't remember.

But lunatic implies insanity, whereas idiot implies low intelligence. Not the same thing at all.

I have the same prob with my William Mealing of Broadmoor, who was at his trial described as "homicidal maniac" and suffering from "religious monomania". In the Broadmoor quarterly registers he is described as "feeble minded" for several years and then "weak minded". But none of these terms really helps to define what was wrong with him.