Mentally Ill? Maybe the killer was just evil.

[Pointgold]

This is what I've been thinking. This nutjob had the coherence to destroy his hard drive and plan the shooting -- it isn't an illness, it's just plain evil.

Adam Lanza: the medicalisation of evil

In the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings, why are we so quick to assume that to commit such a crime Lanza must be 'sick'?

Anyone who has been watching the news over the past few days will have heard the gunman, Adam Lanza, described as "sick," "disturbed" and "defective". The perpetrator may indeed have suffered from mental conditions that led to his homicidal attack, but even before anything was known about Lanza (including his name), many people in the media assumed a crime of this magnitude could only be committed by a mentally unstable individual. Very little discussion – if any – was given to the role of personal responsibility in this tragic event.

It is an age-old question: what is evil? The answer, of course, is subjective. Many scholars have argued that our concepts of deviant behaviour have changed over time, first being seen as a sin, then a crime and now a medical problem.

snip

As time progresses, we will learn more and more about the man who is responsible for the terrible slaying of so many innocent people. Undoubtedly, there will be further discussions about his alleged mental state. Was he a lonely individual? Did he show signs of depression? Was he autistic? What antisocial behaviours did he exhibit?

An answer "yes" to any one of those questions obviously does not make a person homicidal. While I do believe it is important to determine what factors may have led Lanza to open fire on Sandy Hook Elementary School – and whether this tragic event could have been prevented – I want to remind the US and the world of one thing: evil is about choice. Sickness is about the absence of choice.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/dec/17/adam-lanza-medicalisation-evil

 

[wanderingbear]

Evil is just another one of those biblical myths.

 

[Cancel 2018. 3]

Evil is just another one of those biblical myths.

do you believe in good?

most religions, not just 'biblical' religions believe in evil.

 

[Pointgold]

Evil is just another one of those biblical myths.

Call it whatever you will -- evil, meanness just don't call it illness. It is what it is and sometimes some people do things knowing and intending to do just exactly that.

 

[Timshel]

Call it whatever you will -- evil, meanness just don't call it illness. It is what it is and sometimes some people do things knowing and intending to do just exactly that.

Why can't we call it mental ILLNESS. The argument that that eliminates choice is unsupported and invalid.

 

[tinfoil]

the kid was mentally damaged. His mother coddled him in the hopes that he would turn out OK, but he didn't. He was an asperger sydrome kid. They are highly functioning but the lack feeling in both sensation, and emotion. The lack of emotional aptitude leads to social isolation.

He knew what he was doing.
Hours of video games desensitised his already emotionally lacking perspective.

And it's likely he was on sertonin reuptake inhibitors. Probably lived his life in a dream-like state.

 

[Pointgold]

Why can't we call it mental ILLNESS. The argument that that eliminates choice is unsupported and invalid.

Because there is no evidence that is why he shot them. It's saying 'he didn't know what he was doing'. I believe he did.

 

[Rocketman]

I bet it comes out that she was fucking her own son

 

[wanderingbear]

do you believe in good?

most religions, not just 'biblical' religions believe in evil.

I don’t believe in any of those religious myths.

 

[NOVA]

I don’t believe in any of those religious myths.

Good and Evil are religious myths ?......wow....

Another pinhead goes over the edge......lmao

 

[wanderingbear]

Good and Evil are religious myths ?

There are some things that are positive and some things are negative.But the concept of" good and evil" The powers of Light vs the powers of darkness is wholly a religious superstition .

 

[Timshel]

Because there is no evidence that is why he shot them. It's saying 'he didn't know what he was doing'. I believe he did.

No, it doesn't say that.

 

[Pointgold]

No, it doesn't say that.

That is the implication by calling it mental illness.

 

[Timshel]

That is the implication by calling it mental illness.

Says who? That is non sequitur.

You appear to be confusing mental illness with criminally insane. He is not going to get the opportunity to make the case that he was criminally insane.

 

[wanderingbear]

Says who? That is non sequitur.

You appear to be confusing mental illness with criminally insane. He is not going to get the opportunity to make the case that he was criminally insane.

"Criminally insane" it a negative term for mental illness.The use of this term should be banned in the law books. The mentally ill should not be criminalized for an illness they have no control over.

 

[Pointgold]

Says who? That is non sequitur.

You appear to be confusing mental illness with criminally insane. He is not going to get the opportunity to make the case that he was criminally insane.

No, I'm not.

He didn't shoot those kids because he was mentally ill. He knew exactly what he was doing evidenced by his destruction of the hard drive.

Calling piss lemonade doesn't make it lemonade.

 

[wanderingbear]

No, I'm not.

He didn't shoot those kids because he was mentally ill. He knew exactly what he was doing evidenced by his destruction of the hard drive.

Calling piss lemonade doesn't make it lemonade.

you obviously don’t know much about psychology.The fact that it looks all planned out is part of the delusion he is suffering from.

 

[Phantasmal]

Because there is no evidence that is why he shot them. It's saying 'he didn't know what he was doing'. I believe he did.

What do you think makes people just evil?

 

[Timshel]

No, I'm not.

He didn't shoot those kids because he was mentally ill. He knew exactly what he was doing evidenced by his destruction of the hard drive.

Calling piss lemonade doesn't make it lemonade.

Yeah again, the point that he was mentally ill and that he knew what he was doing are not mutually exclusive.

 

[Phantasmal]

No, I'm not.

He didn't shoot those kids because he was mentally ill. He knew exactly what he was doing evidenced by his destruction of the hard drive.

Calling piss lemonade doesn't make it lemonade.

There is a legal distinctions between a mentally ill person and a criminally insane person.