He doesn't have to.  Most people who are insane to the point of
needing help don't act insane most of the time.  They have a single
flaw in their mental make-up that makes them unable to function in
society.  So for sake of argument we'll assume you mean: Does Kodachi
need help?  I say yes.

  Good. My conclusion was that she's more eccentric than crazy (as the 
wealthy are wont to be). 

 In the story-line that introduced her, she hunted-down and
assaulted the members of an opposing team.  She did not see anything
wrong or dishonorable in hunting down and beating people to achieve
her own ends.  That's sociopathic behavior.

  Actually, she saw nothing wrong with beating her opponents before the 
actual match; that's her "fighter's code" (as opposed to the other 
fighters; ie Kuno wouldn't do something like that because he follows a 
different code than Kodachi). There's no other time in the manga where 
she'd hunt down anybody for no good reason (in fact, I think her intro 
was the ONLY time she ran around and attacked people like that). 

There are arguments for serious mental illness in many of the Ranma
characters.

Kuno:
   Kuno is delusional. The man is very close to a complete psychotic
   break.
   He still has some grasp on the reality around him, but he has
   slipped very far into his own samurai fantasies.

  Delusional <> serious mental illness 
  It's not so far as 'samurai fantasies' as the way he prefers to live. 
Just because he lives differently than most other people doesn't make 
him crazy (at most, eccentric). 

Ukyou:
    Ukyou is obsessive.  She reminds me of a star-stalker.  She was
    attempting to hunt sown and kill Ranma for an imagined slight.
    Ranma had no knowledge of the crime is father had committed.
    The crime he DID commit hardly warranted homicide.

  Well, no. She's not particularly-obsessive, if you think about it. She 
gave up 'hunting' Ranma as soon as he started being nice to her (and 
after she figured she still had the chance to fulfill the old promise of 
marriage-- a BIG plus). Heck, why did she wait ten years to 'hunt' down 
Ranma in the first place (eg, why not sooner)? 
  You don't seem to grasp how much honor influences the Japanese; since 
Ranma and his dad broke their word and pulled a fast one on Ukyo she 
lost face in front of her peers (and ruined her for marriage, because 
her fiance ran-off on her; who'd want to marry her after that?). Some 
people might have commited suicide by then (can't bear the shame). 
Leaving her behind made Ukyo a social outcast, in effect, so she did 
have a legitimate reason to go after Ranma. 
  Whether Ranma knew about the arrangement or not didn't matter; the 
harm had been done. 

Ryouga:
     Same as Ukyou, but with severe self-esteem problems.

  Same as Ukyo?! 

Ranma:
    Ranma's fear of cats is so extreme that it causes a complete
    psychotic break.  Until he is calmed down he thinks he's a cat.
    If that ain't mental illness I'll eat my hat.

  It's a severe phobia. VERY severe. 

"That's my story and I'm sticking to it."--JMS, creator of Babylon 5. 
"If you go to Z'ha'dum, you will die."--Kosh, Babylon 5.
"Understanding is a three-edged sword."--Kosh, Babylon 5. 
"Never show your hand until the end."--me, being profound. 

--Razorclaw X

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