Calling Rod Blagojevich 'crazy' is offensive—to the mentally ill, health officials say

[BlueJessamine]

Source: Chicago Tribune

In recent days, Rod Blagojevich has been branded as sociopathic, delusional, narcissistic, grandiose and psychotic, as well as cuckoo, crazy, wacko and off his rocker. And mental health advocates are upset about it.

The language offends many and blames mental illness for alleged criminal behavior, they say.

Ann Raney, CEO for Turning Point Behavioral Health Care Center in Skokie, said the center's board members were so disturbed about the name-calling that they devoted much of a meeting last week to talking about it.

"We need to be clear that unethical or confusing or bad behavior should never be construed as mental illness," Raney said.

On the contrary, statistics show that people suffering from mental illness are more likely to be victims of crime than they are to be perpetrators, said Fran McClain, program director for the Josselyn Center for Mental Health in Northfield.

What's more, a true diagnosis should be left to a professional, said Barb Maier, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness chapter in northern Cook County.


Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-talk-blago-diagnosejan29,0,237260.story

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Our very on Soxfan has first hand experience with this when one of his political opponents launched a barrage of attacks on him:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4921648

[TwilightGardener]

1. OK--I think we're allowed to say he's crazy--or at least ACTING crazy--without

the PC police arresting anyone.

[moggie]

2. Note that last sentence

What's more, a true diagnosis should be left to a professional, said Barb Maier, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness chapter in northern Cook County.

How often do we see DUers make sub-Fristian diagnoses-at-a-distance? It's wrong when the right does it, and it's wrong when we do it.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. even if blago is a fucking delusional, self-absorbed loon?

OK.

[AllentownJake]

3. I'm Bi-Polar

Blago is crazy. What exactly his crazy is I'll leave for a mental health professional to determine. I'm not offended by the assement that the guy has squirells juggling knives in his head.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. LOL, that is the BEST comment yet. thanks!

sqwarls with knives. LOL!

[JDPriestly]

12. True. Blagojevich needs a mental health evaluation.

If Blagojevich were an ordinary criminal, he would do what his lawyer (most likely) advised him to do: lay low and say nothing in the absence of his lawyer.

Fact is, his judgment, his reason, his ability to gage the reactions of others to his behavior, his assessment of his situation -- all suggest that he is delusional, that he is living in a make-believe world. He does not see the same reality that we see. It isn't just that he cannot view his behavior critically, it is that he is oblivious to the effect that his behavior and statements are having on those around him -- and on his own life. What is more, he does not appear to be able to control his behavior. He is talking compulsively. He looks and acts "high" in the sense that people look and act "high" in an extremely manic state. He is way, way to trusting, way, way to optimistic about the chances that his crazy interviews will help him out.

I've seen people in manic states. You can't talk them down. The best newscasters, interviewers in the country have tried to talk Blagojevich down. Can't be done. He is "crazy." There may be a better, clinical word for what ails him, and he may have been in this state for quite some time, but there is definitely something wrong with his mind, with his thinking. As long as he won elections and functioned, no one cared. That is the way these things work. Blagojevich feels invulnerable just like other people in a manic state.

[AllentownJake]

13. Could also just be Denial or Bargaining

He might realize his job is gone and he's just in Denial over the fact of it...you know 5 stages of Grief.

He could also just be a jerk realize he's going down and might have decided I'm going to have a little fun while the ship sinks.

[JDPriestly]

24. Mental illness -- denial.

It's hard to know what is going on sometimes. That is why he should have a mental evaluation.

What makes me think his problem is greater than the kind of denial we all experience is that I assume his friends have tried to persuade him to just resign and accept his fate and deal with his legal problems to no avail. Surely his lawyer tried to do that. (Remember his lawyer either quit or was fired.) Blagojevich also talked to spiritual counselors of various kinds and probably talked to others who deal with people in denial quite often.

Yet Blagojevich insists on pursuing his self-destructive behavior. I say it is self-destructive because if he had a hope of defending himself against the accusations that have been made, he is spoiling it with his grandstanding. He acts as though he is sleep-walking. His mind is working way too fast. That doesn't look like denial to me. It looks like mania. He needs a mental evaluation and needs to follow whatever advice is given to him after the evaluation.

[treestar]

4. They are trying to educate

And I get their point. I do wish people in these positions would stop being "offended" and just inform. People do not mean to offend and it just feeds into right winger crap about always claiming to be victims.

[AllentownJake]

9. NAMI is a good organization

and I can tell you people who are working on their illnesses are no different than someone who has MS, MD, Cerebal Palsy, AIDs, Breast Cancer, etc or any other debilitating illness however, people who suffer from a mental illness don't get any fund raising walks or honors for battling our illness because of the shame that goes with it.

I understand where they are coming from...however it isn't exactly the right approach. They should spend more time spotlighting people with mental illness who have learned to manage it and be productive members of society than trying to get rid of a word. That has its own problems because convincing us to come out brings about its own difficulties.

[ElboRuum]

7. On job security.

"What's more, a true diagnosis should be left to a professional."

Maybe I should wait for a meteorologist to tell me a storm is coming and just ignore the looming cloud bank heading this way.

Sorry, I owe no psychiatrist/psychologist a job. I guess our favorite line, "batshit insane", is right out the window, too? After all, we aren't qualified to make that diagnosis.

[nolabear]

8. He's not "crazy." No one is.

I tend to agree with this, and for many reasons, but it's not cut-and-dried. First, it's absolutely right that it's dangerous and unethical to diagnose someone from a distance--but from what I see it's not mhp's that are doing it; it's the Monday-morning quarterback version done by people who think they know what they're talking about. "Crazy" isn't a diagnosis; it's a perjorative meant to shame and cull someone from any association with the shamer and so reinforce the shamer's relationship with others who share the same points of view.

Honestly, I've watched Blagojovich pretty closely, and while I see behaviors that I could attach a name to, they're behaviors, not necassarily an accurate and complex insight into his internal world. That kind of thing takes time, training, effort and trust. He says things that are dramatic, grandiose, defensive, and has a truly interesting and odd tendency to act as though whomever he is talking to at the time is an intimate who surely understands and agrees with him. He seems to be what we call "ego-syntonic," i.e., his behavior makes perfect sense to him and if others don't get it, then they have a problem, not him.

But I think he's impeachable, and that's the important thing.

[BlueJessamine]

15. 'Monday-morning quarterback version':

Here Blagojevich is diagnosed by his hair:

The headline reads: "Is Blago's hair a sign of sickness?"

It's a head of hair that a man 20 years his junior would envy -- a chestnut helmet that brazenly mocks Father Time and screams "healthy!"

Or does it?

Gov. Blagojevich's glossy locks -- perfectly sculpted in rain or snow -- may be an indication of a sickness beneath his scalp, said one local psychologist.

"It's all part of managing his image, managing his image of being without a blemish, without a flaw," said Scott Ambers, who has practiced clinical psychology in the city for more than two decades.

Several psychologists interviewed one day after the governor's arrest agreed that he might be suffering from an affliction known as narcissistic personality disorder.

"This grandiose sense of self . . . doesn't carry the implication that is a raving lunatic, crazy and out of touch with reality, but it does suggest he has a really overinflated view of his own importance," Ambers said.


http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1326323,CST-NWS-diagnose11.article

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. So, the only people we should call crazy are the truely mentally ill?

;)

[ananda]

11. Blag is truly unequivocally certfiably insane.

But he's also entertaining and that's
good for media ratings.

[Alexander]

14. If you're watching him ramble now, you realize he really is crazy.

He talked about fetching coffee, Elizabeth Taylor, the gubernatorial veto, repeated "how can you impeach a governor?" about a million times and claimed this is all about him giving people health care. :crazy:

[tanyev]

16. Are "narcissistic" and "grandiose" clinical diagnoses?

When did descriptive words become proprietary property?

[AllentownJake]

19. Sociopath would fit

[Iggo]

17. That dude's nuts.

[HopeHoops]

18. I'm with him on that. Blago isn't crazy - he's a flaming asshole.

[Jefferson23]

20. He behaves more desperate than crazy imo.

[Abq_Sarah]

21. Crazy like a fox

[Baby Snooks]

22. Sociopathy

That is the "mental illness" most of our public officials seem to suffer from. It means lack of conscience. Which explains the corruption. Sociopaths simply do not know the difference between right and wrong.

It is really not treatable. But it shouldn't be excused and shouldn't be tolerated. But for the most part, it is tolerated.

We live in a sociopathic society. So some will always defend themselves and others. Or attack someone else to divert attention from themselves.

And then you have "partisanship" which the American people have found to be a very slippery, and in a way sociopathic, slope.

Reality is that to some Republicans, Democrats commit crimes while Republicans commit technicalities. And to some Democrats, Republicans commit crimes while Democrats commit technicalities.

[Piewhacket]

23. Whacko, crazy, nutcase, tootleoons, batshit, fruitloops,

are NOT medical diagnoses... they are SOCIAL diagnoses.

such diagnoses are better left to the judgment of professionals.
US.

And speaking of diagnoses:
More than a few mental health "professionals" seem to need
far more help than the "inmates" of the institutions they
have filled.

[damntexdem]

25. Call him a sociopath.

And don't worry that this might upset sociopaths -- if they say it does, we can't believe them anyway. ;-)

[Ms. Toad]

26. While, in general, I am sympathetic to this concern

and do try to avoid using the term "crazy" as a generally derogative term.

I have used it with respect to Blagojevich. I don't know the precise basis for whatever it is that is causing him to be so far out of touch with reality - but he clearly is. I'm happy to leave the precise diagnosis up to the professionals, but when I say I believe he is crazy it has NOTHING to do with the crimes he has apparently committed - nor do I think it is the cause of those crimes (although it might certainly have contributed to his apparent belief that even though he knew his conversations were being taped he could get away with offering to sell Obama's senate seat).

[eilen]

27. He just equivocated that his situation is like the many people getting

laid off around the country. "I'm just like them." This is after asking the press if they will still come when he calls.

[Ms. Toad]

28. Like I said

completely out of touch with reality - some sort of underlying mental health issue. I'll leave the specific diagnosis up the experts, but he really seems to believe the fantasy land he is describing.

[murielm99]

29. He doesn't allow too many people to get close to him.

He has isolated himself.

Allegedly, he has conducted most of his meetings by speaker phone. This has been going on for the past couple of years. He does not go into the same room with legislators or members of his administration. Look at all the people who say that they have not spoken to him in a year or more.

Several people who are close to him have described him as having some variety of mental illness. They speak anonymously.

Of course, he could be laying the groundwork for some sort of insanity defense. Remember, he may have been impeached and removed from office, but he has not been found guilty of any crime yet.

Look at how many people he bamboozled in the Burris situation. He could be crazy like a fox.

[Ms. Toad]

30. Legal insanity is very different

from medical insanity. Many people who who are mentally ill are perfectly competent to stand trial.

(Not making any judgment as to whether that is right or not - but it is the system we have.)

[murielm99]

31. He could know the difference. He is a lawyer.

He is an embarrassment to my state and to my party, but he is a smart politician. I wonder if he will ever serve a day in jail.

[Ms. Toad]

33. Not a very smart lawyer,

based on his recent behavior.

[Hannah Bell]

32. all the armchair psychiatrists here, wanting to send someone for "evaluation"

because he compares himself to gandhi.

bfd.

wtf is wrong with people? having a big ego isn't mental illness.

some folks make with the labels at the slightest excuse.

it's damaging.

he's been prosecutor, rep, & governor - in politics & the public eye for something like 30 years - but somehow, no one ever noticed he was "insane", & suddenly it's now so clear y'all can diagnose it over the tv.

right.

[Phoonzang]

34. I think it's offensive to the mentally ill to set aside the term "crazy" as a clinical term. nt