I am no Pollyanna, everyone who knows me knows that . I am the master of thinking of and fearing the worst possible scenario in my head, I am a nervous worrier and I often experience hideous anxiety. Especially when I watch the news. Or listen to people talk about the world.
Because of this lovely, sunny natural disposition of mine I have had to build up a few defence mechanism – ignoring people, changing the subject, crying to my husband and er, swallowing pills. Perhaps the way I perceive the world is another one of these defence mechanisms.
For instance when I hear that someone has done something heinous I assume (and I believe rightly) that they are mentally ill. Not in a “depressed” or “anxious” way but in a “completely out of touch with reality” way.
I never thought of it as a defence mechanism until I really spoke about it in some detail with Kerri.
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Take a look – Kerri feels very differently to me. For a change. Please watch the video so that you can see I REALLY don’t believe everyone with a mental illness commits evil acts (in fact I know that not to be true).
What do you think? Can people be evil or is it a mental illness?
I don’t believe it’s a defense mechanism… Because I don’t believe people do bad things simply because they are “bad” or “evil”.
But I also think it’s wrong to assign bad behaviour to mental illness – people with mental illness are neither good or evil – and people without mental illness are neither good or evil…
However, I don’t believe bad behaviour is normal behaviour – and while it’s wrong to attribute bad behaviour to mental illness, and do believe that people who behave badly do so not simply because they are bad people, but because there is something in their life or upbringing that has gone wrong in some way – but to link that to mental illness by default is wrong..
Aha BUSTED for not watching the video! 🙂
I get what you say – I say it in the video
Pffft… I never watch the video! 😉
I think perhaps the more important question to ask is, is a mental illness a pass for indulging in these behaviours? Because there are many people who struggle with mental illness and never commit evil acts ( I’d suggest the vast majority), surely mental illness should not ameliorate any part of the evil act or we are totally discrediting the work that the majority of people with mental illness do to manage their mental illness and risk insultingly lumping them in with those who commit evil acts and use illness as leverage for sympathy.
I think as a society we’ve become uncomfortable with the concept of evil viewing it as a simplistic explanation for acts, but I am more than comfortable describing my ex-husband as evil (he was and continues to be just a wife beater) rather than giving any credit for his actions to mental illness. Some become become bad and enjoy hurting others, I don’t think we need to explain that away by crediting chemical imbalances. I do wonder if people’s discomfort with using evil as an explanation or label has anything to do with the growing discomfort with religion and evil being a term inherently tied to religion?
I think I agree with you completely – and I address it in the video. I hope. (I mean I hope I made it abundantly clear that mental illness is not synonymous with evil)
Oh yes you definitely made it clear, I didn’t think you meant that, just letting my own thoughts tumble out!
Hi Lana,
I think I have a similar thinking to you on this. Whenever I hear about people committing ‘evil’ crimes I always wonder, Why? I believe good people can do bad things, but I also believe there are a number of sociopaths who will commit crimes because of this. They are the truly evil ones.
When talking about crimes like murder, rape etc… I think it is probably a mixed bag of evil people and people who have endured trauma or mental injury themselves. More often than not people who are abusive, violent etc.. are continuing a cycle or battling there own demons and if we addressed the root cause of these problems a lot of crime could be prevented. For this to happen we need a major overhaul of the mental health system though… a focus on rehabilitation and prevention.
I have a family member who is an alcoholic, abusive person and recently had a mental breakdown/psychotic break. He has done some truly horrendous things recently. However I don’t think of him as evil. I think he is a product of his upbringing, addiction and environment. The family wants to help him but his wife is in denial/a co-dependent relationship/scared.
There should still be consequences for people like this but I do agree that most of the time people are just evil, they are deeply troubled and in need of help themselves.
I am right with you there Brooke! If we addressed mental health and improved the system in Australia there would be a lot less people battling their demons and each other.
*Sorry I stuffed up my last sentence. Should be- ‘There should still be consequences for people like this but I do agree that most of the time people are NOT just evil, they are deeply troubled and in need of help themselves.’