Question on mental health assumptions

[dmallind]

NOTE: I AM TAKING NO POSITION ON THE NATURE OF MENTAL HEALTH OR HOW MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE BEHAVE. THIS IS ENTIRELY A QUESTION ON WHAT PEOPLE CLOSER TO THE ISSUE THAN I AM FEEL WHEN MENTAL HEALTH IS DISCUSSED IN SPECIFIC WAYS.

OK here's the question. How do people who know about mental illness, even deal with it personally, react (and trust me I am sure there is not just ONE answer here), when a person who acts horrendously is assumed to be mentally ill? Here I'm referring to the common response that people who go on killing sprees or mistreat their own children etc must automatically be mentally ill, and that this is a primary cause of their evil acts.

I could see it being taken in a variety of ways really - positive concern that mental illness should be treated before such things occur even though they are very rare; neutral opinion that the guilty party should be assessed before punishment/treatment, or negative bias that mental illness leads to evil acts.

Again, while no expert I'm well aware that the mentally ill are more likely to be victims of crimes than perpetrators, and that few indeed are at risk for violence. I'm asking about the reaction to evil acts leading to assumptions of mental illness, not the other way round.

Thanks!

[dmallind]

1. Some folks have kindly answered by DU mail. I welcome more

I understand that this is a sensitive issue that many may be uncomfortable discussing, especially when asked by a group newcomer.

I assure you there is no gotcha, no responses will be shared even anonymously, and that I personally am not trying to link mental illness and the worst criminal excesses. If anything quite the opposite - my own view is that they are often reflexively linked wrongly.

I have very little knowing ineraction with mental illness. One friend/coworker a few years back had a well-controlled bipolar condition. We've lost touch since then so I can't ask him now. My uncle shot and grievously injured his girlfriend while suffering from schizophrenia (as far as the newspapers said) but this was in 1974, I've never even communicated with or met him and he lives in Australia, so it's not that I have any emotional link there either. Just an entirely dispassionate curiosity is my only motivation.

Thanks all!

[EFerrari]

2. I think in broader society, that reaction is a lot less "common" than you seem to believe.

The mentally ill in this country are more likely to get jail time than care. The police are the front lines of mental health intervention and prisons are our biggest "treatment" providers.

The idea that as a group, we react to violent crimes by offering a pass for potential mental illness doesn't seem in line with what we actually do.

[Tobin S.]

3. I'm reading a very good book right now called "The Science of Evil" by Simon Baron-Cohen

I'm only about half through it, but so far I would highly recommend it for people trying to understand why some people do very bad things. It may turn out that it's all biologically determined by abnormalities in the brain, which is what also causes mental illnesses or, more accurately, brain disorders.

It seems to be much easier to feel empathy for a person who is suffering from any other disease than a brain disease. Most people still don't understand that mental illnesses are biological in nature. They don't understand that a person who is in the throes of a brain disorder has no choice but to behave strangely and every once in a while criminally. People think that there is some kind of choice involved when you have a brain illness; that it's just a matter will power to overcome it. That's like telling someone with heart disease to think their way out of the illness. See how ridiculous that sounds?

Because of this ignorance, I do not find fault with most people who are biased against mentally ill people and respond the way that you described in your OP. I know that most of them just don't know any better and this group we are posting in is also a place where people can come to be informed. It's just a matter of getting the word out.