Is "by the book" a form of mental illness?

That's it:
When people act, and think "by the book" is that a form of mental illness?

 

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It is more to do about conformity than any mental illness.

 

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Consider the alternative:
When people act and think "controversially", just for the sake of it, is that a form of mental illness?

 

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Government officials frequently have to act "by the book" because they are constrained by various laws and applicable statements of policy (i.e. "the book") in how much freedom of action they are allowed to exhibit.

How can one said to think "by the book" ?

 

What I was considering was a form of mental rigidity.
An inability, or unwillingness to extrapolate from "rules" to people, and the current situation.

Does it really matter if the "book" is "the book"(bible), or a set of regulations or guidelines(as for teaching modern math), or procedures?
Would most of us consider obstinate young earthers to be mentally ill?
Why?

 

The expression "by the book" has nothing to do with the bible: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/by the book

You can see from this that it relates to strict compliance with a rule book, i.e. regulations or laws. The bible is not a rule book.
Going by the book is generally a very laudable thing when it comes to those areas in which regulations or procedures are important, such as law enforcement, medicine, quality assurance or industrial safety. It is far from "mental illness".

 

By the book as opposed to thinking outside the box. I think it depends on which contemporary norms are in place (The Book). My favorite teacher taught outside the boundaries of any official guideline, making his class much more interesting than any other.

 

Maybe, depending on the subject (I would be doubtful if my son's maths teacher did a ot of that!)

But ignoring the rule book is also the way that aeroplanes crash.

 

Mine was an English teacher. The guy taught everything but English. I imagine that a math teacher might find a way to approach the subject in a creative manner, if he/she was so enlightened.

But often the rule book can give the wrong answer to a question/problem; thereby causing the crash.

 

Horses for courses...a teacher told my niece rainbows in the sky are caused by fine oil blown-up there by the wind. That teacher wasn't a science teacher.

So, are you saying everyone should just teach their self to drive or fly, because any use of a rule book may cause accidents. Or, use a rule book and just pick and mix the rules you personally like?

 

Is not going by the book a surrender of decision making to an often unknown authority?
The authority that you cited was free dictionary.com
............

 

Mine was a purveyor of life's experiences. Yeah, he gave us a couple books to read, but otherwise he was telling us stories. He had everyone's attention during his class. A unique individual, for sure.

I think a driving manual is a good place to start, but eventually you need put it down and start driving. How much of our daily activities are guided by a user's manual? I believe everyone has their own internal rule book that's written by life's experiences. Contemporary views might serve as part of those guiding rules, or they might not. As far as picking and mixing the rules, maybe that depends on the rule book? We haven't really established which rule book we are referencing.

 

Would we agree that "The Book" is an ever changing system of beliefs? Society doesn't stand still, or so not Western society.

 

Well if that's your attitude I hope you are not a judge or a policeman.

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I think you're extrapolating here.

By-the-book simply means 'to follow established protocol'.There's nothing in there about having to.

Doing something by following established protocol is - like anything else - subject to the particular person's ability or inability to perform. As the example has already been made, it is just as valid to say someone has "the inability or unwillingness" to learn from those that went before him (i.e. follow the guidelines laid down by others).

The illness, if any, lies in the inability or unwillingness to go against one's tendencies.

The logic though is, similar to 'often, braking can cause a crash, so it might be better off to get in the habit of not braking, just in case'.

It's fun to concentrate on the edge-cases of scenarios - it makes us feel smart. But its not smart to flout a rule that works 99.9% of the time for the .1% of the time it doesn't. If you can't tell ahead of time, the smart money's on the lion's share of probability.

 

I would submit that by-the-book is metaphorical for the general case of following tried-and-true protocol, as opposed to re-inventing the wheel each time a process is attempted.

 

There are certain mental illnesses that might show themselves through a personal need to adhere to strict patterns of behaviour - OCD, Asperger's etc - where the patient gets distressed if those rules/patterns aren't followed.
But otherwise, in general, the OP is nonsense: a simple answer of "no" would suffice - unless one considers police officers mentally ill for having to perform "by the book" so as to ensure a possible conviction is not overturned on a technicality. etc.

 

I'd a friend who was a lawyer and became a judge, and he absolutely hated "mandatory minimum sentencing".
He had thought that, being a judge, He should actually have the authority to judge the person, and not just the crime.
Going "by the book" was repugnant to him.

 

But there is an advantage to being able to adapt in any situation. Certainly we can generalize with a set of rules, but can never anticipate every possibility that might happen on the path. Also, those who push the boundaries often discover new and interesting avenues that would never be seen by following the established rules.

 

Yes. But two separate goals here.

One goal is to complete a known task.
The other is to explore.

BTB is normally used to accomplish a task that has a strong desired goal.

Imagine re-assembling a car engine by-the-book, versus by the seat of your pants. It is certainly going to be better to do it BTB, as it is virtually guaranteed to work, even if it takes longer. Only if something presents itself as beyond the book, does one have to adapt. One does not really want to be rebuilding an engine BtSoYP.

Police work is another very good example.

So is scientific testing. You don't want to "wing it" by substituting your petri dishes for your bedpans.