Quote:
Originally Posted by fiamme red
From what I've read here, this person doesn't seem to me just mentally ill, he seems to be a criminal. A mentally ill person might break stuff, but only a criminal would come maliciously with a hacksaw to cut carbon bike frames in half.
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Cutting (intent) is the line between mental illness and criminality? Perhaps your diametric view of this act is lacking some nuance and is not fully informed by the realities of mental illness and psychology. Just a thought; perhaps the person found the saw in the house and did not arrive with it. I am just trying to point out that things are rarely black and white and the lines are almost never clear. I think that your sentiment, highlights the gap between perceptions of mental illness and the reality. We have come a long way in our scientific and clinical understanding of neuroscience and physiology but the continued stigmatization and adherence to old myths about mental illness have show us that society has not kept up.
Think about PTSD and how it used to be considered the behaviour of cowards and now is understood for what it is. We have gone from jailing and putting solders in front of a firing squad to starting to get them the help that they need (there is still a very long way to go with this however). Sorry for the diversion here, but overwhelming evidence shows that the justice system only makes mental illness worse when it handles the people with it. This creates more costly effects on us all in terms of money and crime.