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This tendency to equate evil behavior with "mental illness" is a common practice throughout the media. It is an "escape clause" for people who would otherwise be prosecuted by the criminal justice system and it justifies criminalizing "the mentally-ill". There is no longer a distinction between people who are just ruthless criminals and people who struggle with depression, schizophrenia or have post traumatic stress disorders.
The two have been conveniently grouped together for the sake of justifying forced treatment and involuntary outpatient commitment. And it's not that evil behavior has gone away or disappeared. Far from it. Evidence of rampant evil saturates the newspapers daily. It's just that nowadays we are much more likely to use convenient psychiatric "terms of absolution" like "untreated mental illness", "personality disorder", or "chemical imbalance". The minute that wicked acts are acknowledged for what they are, and the culprits held responsible if they have broken the law rather than absolved because they are so-called mentally-ill, then all those people who truly have a "mental illness" will be free from psychiatric abuse and psychiatric oppression.
That's not to say that some evil people may not genuinely have a so-called mental illness, that's to say that evil people don't commit criminal acts because they are "mentally-ill", but because they are morally-ill. In Jeremy Levens' novel, Satan, the devil laments: "Psychotherapy worries the hell out of me... it keeps turning evil into neuroses and explaining away people's behavior with drives and complexes... modern psychiatry is putting me out of business." (466)
Prior to the advent of psychiatry, societies operated within very practical guidelines on the concepts of good and evil. There was no doubt about what was right and what was wrong. And if you violated those guidelines, and in the process you broke the law, you were held accountable. An interesting point to be made here is that in the 1800's the psychiatric field of study known today as psychopathology or sociopathology was then known as moral insanity.
What psychiatrists often mistake for a "mental illness" is actually a "moral illness." And, unfortunately, there is no psychiatric solution for moral insanity because psychiatry doesn't operate within the realm of what is right and what is wrong. That's why we have jails and prisons! Experts in the field of psychiatry might be surprised to learn that the criteria used for the insanity defense is based on the 19th century McNaughten Rules which state that a person is not guilty by reason of insanity if "at the time of committing the act, he was laboring under such a defect of reason from disease of the mind as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he did not know what he was doing was wrong."
In fact, since time immemorial the rule of law and order has always been based on the concept of right and wrong. Therefore psychiatry, which denies the existence of right and wrong, is incompatible with the practice of law and order and conveniently provides violent criminals guilty of heinous crimes with a venue for eluding justice. Conversely, those who have never committed a crime, but have been diagnosed as mentally-ill are now subject to judicial inquiry as "potentially dangerous psychotics" and are brought into the framework of the criminal justice system, which, paradoxically, perpetuates the very stigma that psychiatrists claim to oppose. Just as there is a seperation between Church and state (for obvious reasons), there should also be a seperation between psychiatry and the state (for obvious reasons). Our Constitutionally guaranteed rights have been effectively usurped by psychologists and psychiatrists who have sidestepped the medical profession and have skillfully maneuvered their way into the criminal justice system where they have been deputized by the state to infringe upon our most fundamental human right, the freedom of thought!
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"Prosecution and defense psychiatrists often agree in their medical diagnosis of a defendant's mental condition and motivations. The disagreement usually occurs when psychiatrists are asked to go beyond giving and analyzing such information, and to offer their judgements of whether a defendant is 'responsible' for a criminal act or legally 'sane' when he commits it. The difficulty is that these are not really objective medical or scientific terms but moral and legal ones; in a courtroom they can be practically synonymous with innocence or guilt. 'In this area' says Dr. Karl Menninger, 'the judge and the jury are the community's representatives. It is for them to make the judgment, not us psychiatrists." (Life Magazine Editorial, May 2nd, 1969)
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"Criminals are quick to pick up on the disease concept and invoke it as a convenient rationalization. Said one man, "I'm an explosive person. I may yell at you, but not hit you. It's part of my disease." Even the most heinous of crimes may be attributed to the 'disease.' A criminal told me that it was not he who killed a man, it was his disease." ("Inside the Criminal Mind", Chapter 7, Stanton E. Samenow, Clinical Psychologist)
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Evil is a term we use when we've reached the limits of human comprehension. At times horrifying and sadistic, we cannot know evil psychologically or scientifically. Man's inhumanity to his fellow man is beyond reason and understanding. But we can know evil by it's works. We can know it philosophically, historically and emotionally. Evil is sly, bizarre and deceitful. Hitler was a vegetarian (didn't approve of killing animals for sustenence. Historian Robert G. L. Waite noted in the The Mind of Adolf Hitler that "he ordered the massacre of the innocents, but worried about the most humane way to cook lobsters"). The Reverend Jim Jones preached Jesus and love. John Wayne Gacy used to entertain children as a clown. Gacy gained singular notoriety for having been convicted of more murders than anyone else in American history. And yet in spite of the fact that he methodically killed and tortured 33 young men, his defense team psychologist insisted that Gacy suffered from borderline schizophrenia.
Other so-called experts who testified on behalf of the defense gave similar testimony, stating that Gacy was schizophrenic, suffered from multiple personality disorder and that his mental illness impaired his ability to understand the magnitude of his criminal acts. The need of these "experts" to find a diagnosis which would account for Gacy's vile, sadistic and inhuman behavior, is merely their own inability to accept the fact that some people are just plain wicked, or in the words of Dr. Loomis "an incarnation of evil!" It is much more consoling to lay the blame on an identifiable illness, than to accept the fact that such depravity could exist within the depths of any human being. Countless writers and philosophers have insisted that evil's greatest strength lies in it's ability to convince intellectuals that it doesn't exist. Consider the possibility that modern-day psychiatry is merely a secular form of behaviorial theology which seeks to explain the behaviors of man without using such words as, good and evil, or God and the devil, and is therefore compelled to equate unjustified acts of violence with mental illness. These acts cannot be identified as wicked or evil because to do so would imply a belief in God and the devil. In the award-winning film "Silence of the Lambs," Officer Starling is admonished by the murderous psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter who sternly insists: "Nothing happened to me, Officer Starling. I happened! You can't reduce me to a set of influences. You've given up good and evil for behaviorism, Officer Starling. You've got everybody in moral dignity pants, nothing is ever anybody's fault. Look at me Officer Starling. Can you stand to say I'm evil?"
The illogical belief that no one is evil, is it's obvious conclusion... that no one is good. Every human being, whether "mentally-ill" or "mentally-well", carries within them the seeds of good and evil. Similar to the ancient Chinese concept of Yin and Yang, the dualistic forces of good and evil are constantly at odds within every human being. Mental illness is not an indicator of moral deficiency. Nor is mental wellness an indicator of moral integrity. In other words, people who have no legitimate mental illness whatsoever, and who are mentally sound, competent, "normal" individuals, can be morally insane. A classic example of moral insanity was the mild-mannered, soft-spoken, highly educated, infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, who was not deemed mentally-ill until after the fact. The implications are obvious.
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Is it mental illness or moral insanity?
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Moral: Mor"al, a. [F., fr. It. moralis, fr. mos, moris, manner, custom, habit, way of life, conduct.]
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1. Relating to duty or obligation; pertaining to those intentions and actions of which right and wrong, virtue and vice, are predicated, or to the rules by which such intentions and actions ought to be directed; relating to the practice, manners, or conduct of men as social beings in relation to each other, as respects right and wrong, so far as they are properly subject to rules. Keep at the least within the compass of moral actions, which have in them vice or virtue. (Hooker)
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2. Conformed to accepted rules of right; acting in conformity with such rules; virtuous; just; as, a moral man. Used sometimes in distinction from religious; as, a moral rather than a religious life.
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3. Capable of right and wrong action or of being governed by a sense of right; subject to the law of duty.
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4. Acting upon or through one's moral nature or sense of right, or suited to act in such a manner; as, a moral arguments; moral considerations. Sometimes opposed to material and physical; as, moral pressure or support.
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5. Supported by reason or probability; practically sufficient; -- opposed to legal or demonstrable; as, a moral evidence; a moral certainty.
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6. Serving to teach or convey a moral; as, a moral lesson; moral tales. A moral agent is a being capable of those actions which have a moral quality and which are universally recognized as right or wrong in a moral sense.
Excerpts from "Inside the Criminal Mind"
Journey through the dark and twisted mind of the criminal with clinical psychologist Stanton E. Samenow, Ph.d., in the revised and updated edition of his renowned classic "Inside the Criminal Mind."
"A man abducts, rapes, and murders a little girl. We, the public, may be so revolted by the gruesomeness of the crime that we conclude only a sick person could be capable of such an act. But our personal gut reaction shows no insight into, or understanding of, what really went on in this individual's mind as he planned and executed the crime. True, what the perpetrator inflicted upon this child is not 'normal' behavior. But what does 'sick' really mean? A detailed and lengthy examination of the mind of a criminal will reveal that, no matter how bizarre or repugnant the crime, he is rational, calculating, and deliberate in his actions - not mentally-ill... Psychology always has a clever theory about any bit of behavior, and offers an explanation, but only after the fact." (Chapter 1: Basic Myths About Criminals)
"What is habitual is not necessarily compulsive and beyond one's control. To say that a person has a habit of doing something does not mean he lacks responsibility for his actions. Just as a person can adapt his driving to icy pavements, so a thief adapts his pilfering to current conditions - what kind of surveillance he thinks there is, the accessibility of the merchandise, the location of the exits, the number of people between him and the closest exit. This type of thinking is calculating, not compulsive. If the thief is apprehended, he may claim that he was compelled by an irresistible inner force to steal. By throwing the case into the bailiwick of the psychiatrist, he hopes to be evaluated as not responsible... Attempts to fake mental illness range from the subtle to the bizarre, depending on what the criminal surmises will be convincing. He may claim that he hears the voice of the devil commanding him to do evil. He may proclaim that he acted as a messenger of God. He may feign delusions of persecution, asserting that people are plotting to do him in, or that poison is being added to his food. He may pretend to be confused and disoriented. All this malingering is designed to demonstrate that he is irrational and out of control with reality and thus not responsible for his crime." (Chapter 8)
Consider if you will a child who has been thrust into the locked wards of our city and state institutions. He has been told all of his life that he "suffers" from a "mental illness." Whenever he turns on the TV or listens to the radio all he hears is that "the mentally-ill" are violent and dangerous. Whenever he reads the papers he sees front page headlines like "Get the Violent Crazies Off Our Streets!" Movies like "Halloween" reassure him that he will forever need to be vigilant of his violent tendencies and must make every effort to subdue his anti-social behavior. He must never forget to take the medications that will save him from himself. Newspapers that demand forced hospitalization and incarceration make him tremble with fear. "How" he wonders, "can I escape this mass hysteria?" This is a sure recipe for disaster and would make the perfect plot for a movie about how people can become what they are constantly told that they are. David @ mentalhealthstigma.com
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RECOMMENDED VIEWING:
King of Hearts (1966): A World War I Scottish infantryman enters a deserted French town that has been abandoned by everyone but the "inmates of an insane asylum." French film with English subtitles, this anti-war satire has become a cult classic.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975): This gut-wrenching film is a triumph of the human spirit as a feisty rebel enters an insane asylum and inspires his fellow patients to assert themselves... to the chagrin of the administration. Great cast and visionary direction capture the poignant, rebellious feel of Ken Kesey's novel. A must-see film!
Beyond Reason (1977): I "accidentally" came across this powerful psycho-drama while at a video discount store. What caught my attention was the realistic portrayal of the patients in the psychiatric ward, and the thin line that seperates sanity from insanity. Definitely a sleeper. Should have received critical acclaim. Strongly recommended!
Frances (1982): Biography of 1930's movie starlet Frances Farmer who wound up in an insane asylum. Although movie director Howard Hawks called her "the best actress I've ever worked with," Frances was never allowed to reign as a star for snubbing the male Hollywood power structure and finally pays a horrifying price for doing so.
Man Facing Southeast (1986): Both an eerie and compelling film about a patient who claims to be an alien, and who does, in fact, seem to possess supernatural powers. Rich in Christian symbolism, this movie leaves the viewer wondering who is really sick, society, or those whom society labels mentally-ill! Spanish with English subtitles.
A Beautiful Mind (2001): One of the most inspirational movies I've ever seen!!! It seems that the only people who were upset by this movie were members of the psychiatric profession who were outraged that such a recovery could take place without their intervention. Wrote one psychologist from Virginia: "The plot - in which the patient relapses, then improves after stopping his medications - is just a horrible message." I believe that this statement says a whole lot more about the psychiatric profession then it does about this movie.
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Fact or Fiction Links: Cinema Psychiatry - A Brilliant Madness
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