“Mental Disorders and Accountability: Is Everyone a Victim?” Comments, Page 1
Just click to return to the article “Mental Disorders and Accountability: Is Everyone a Victim?”.
7 Comments (3 Discussion Threads) on “Mental Disorders and Accountability: Is Everyone a Victim?”
Leave a Reply
In accordance with our Privacy Policy, your email address will not be published with your comment or shared in any other way. Please do not SPAM. Comments which solicit personal advice, are rude or inflammatory, are not about this specific post, or are otherwise not in keeping with our Terms of Use may be deleted at our discretion. If you would like to make a comment or ask a question about something other than the subject matter of this post, please do get in touch directly.
As a social worker, I have to say that you are so absolutely, completely correct here.
Thank you, Marti. I appreciate the validation.
Just because some people take advantage of it doesn’t mean that mental illness is not a valid reason for some people’s actions (or inaction). Most times, it is and we cannot pass judgement on people who are affected by psychiatric illness. The criminal justice system will rule out mental illness if it is or can not be supported by the assessment and testimony of health care professionals and physician. I found this article incredibly ableist and condescending at times, particularly the line “character is and has always been key to responsible social functioning”. Depression causes people to lose interest, become withdrawn and isolated not because they do not care to interact with others or have simply lost interest. With the reasoning that you have presented in this article, will you go on to blame people who commit suicide/have suicidal thinking for “lack of character and strength”? While “character”, support and the right therapy can affect various lifestyle and health outcomes for those living with mental illness, more often than not, mental illness is a very pervasive phenomenon. For those living with mental illness who are not being treated for it, feel ashamed for it or do not recognize they have it, the sort of world that you are advertising does not help with this. This article was very shame and blame, and this is from the perspective of a person who works in mental health/justice and one living with a “personality disorder” (which you seem to try to invalidate).
I’m sorry that you drew some of the inferences you did from this piece. Hopefully, you’ll view this article within the context of the hundreds of other articles I’ve written on this and other sites, as well as my other writings, many of which address the pressing mental health issues of our time and testify to my full perspecitive. Suffice it to say, I would not have endured the ordeal of rigorous training and entered the field if I weren’t acutely aware of the need for and importance of mental health care, and the roles mental conditions often play in social problems. And I know most of the hundreds of individuals to whom I’ve provided services to be persons of decent character who, through no fault of their own, were struggling with various conditions causing both them and others pain and who both needed and relished caring, mindful intervention to help reclaim their lives. That’s partly what makes it so egregious that a person whose pathology is so on balance overwhelmingly characterological would dare to claim victim status due to some purported sickness while simultaneously re-victimizing and degrading the real victims of his crime with his insulting statements. If there’s shame cast for that in my article, it is, in my humble opinion, both earnestly earned and well-deserved. As for my statement that character is and always has been key to person’s responsible social functioning, I stand by it unwaveringly. Even in the absence of a mental condition impairing their ability to function at their best, a person without character does and always has pose a threat to a healthy self, family, and society.
I agree with Scott Peck who said that depression is frequently just frustrated narcissism. People are depressed when they feel entitled to a lifestyle they didn’t earn. It’s time to hold people accountable for their behavior. Aggressive persons aren’t being helped by this bleeding heart mentality, LF, it’s just enabling them. Time for some Tough Love.
Peck had a good point, although although I don’t think he had it quite right. The big disappointments that inevitably follow inflated and unrealistic expectations are not the stuff of real depression, although a dyed-in-the-wool narcissist can exhibit some behaviors that look depression-related when reality shatters their grandiose visions. It’s more like a narcissistic “insult” than a true depressive episode that ensues when that kind of thing happens.
My mother is a paranoid psychotic who has spent the last 20 years emotionally abusing me. She accuses me of spying on her and trying to poison her. To what extent is she responsible for her behaviour? I would say 100%. Mental illness is a myth. There is no proof of chemical imbalance in the brain. Thomas Szasz was right.