Bats in One's Belfry

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Idiom Meaning: "To Have Bats in One's Belfry"
On a metaphorical note, someone who has "Bats in the Belfry" is crazy or eccentric. This phrase is responsible for the use of "bats" for "crazy" . -Are you completely bats? and the occasional use of "belfry" for "head". -He's not quite right in the belfry. "To have bats in the Belfry" means: to be silly and slightly crazy and behave in a confused way. THESAURUS Around the bend, battle-scarred, disturbed, (as) mad as a hatter/ March hare, basket case, be besinde yourself, be losing it, be not (quite) right in the mind, be of sound/unsound mind, be off your head, be out to lunch, be/go round the twist, certifiable, deranged, dysfunctional, insanity, identity crisis, institutionalization, irrational, like a man/woman possessed, loony, lunacy, off your rocker, off your trolley, psychopath, soft in the head, take leave of your senses, touched, unbalanced, unhinged, wreck.
According to wordhistories.net, The phrase "To Have Bats in One's Belfry" and its variants mean to be crazy or eccentric. B.A Phythian explained in "A Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" (London, 1993), The comparison is between the head and the upper part of a church: the belfry is the brain; the bats clutter it up or flutter around when disturbed by the bell, like confused thoughts in a disordered mind. The equivalent French expression is "Avoir une araignee au plafond", literally "to have a spider at the ceiling". Of American-English origin, "To have Bats in One's Belfry" seems to date back to the late 19th century. The earliest instances found are from 1897. For example, the following is from "The Paducan Daily Sun": CHARGED WITH LUNACY Jane Jones seems to have bats in her belfry. Constables Patton and Futrell have a time taking her. The adjectives bats and batty, of the same meaning, probably derive from the phrase "to have bats in the belfry". -Don't get batty. -I' ll get just as batty as you are.
References 1. https://wordhistories.net/2017/06/14/origin-bats-in-belfry/. 2. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/topics/psychology-psychiatry-and-psychoanalysis/of-unsound-mind/

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