"The problem is that mental illness is a confirmed medical condition"
It is, indeed.
"'white supremacy' and 'toxic masculinity' are labels that you left-wingers love to apply to those who disagree with you"
I politically disagree with a lot of people, but I haven't called too many of them white supremacists. That wasn't a label I ever saw applied to the Bushes, McCain, and Romney.
" everyone agrees that mass shooters are completely batshit crazy. "
As opposed to suicide bombers, paragons of totally sane eviltude who are wrapped in layers of ideology?
"If you don't think they are mentally ill".
We've been told by professionals that Trump is mentally ill, but are the shooters?
"by any definition whatsoever, you are in denial."
"By any definition" covers a lot of ground, but is not necessarily medically accurate.
a much-cited 2016 review by forensic psychiatrists James L. Knoll IV, MD, and George D. Annas, MD, MPH, of SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse New York.
In their review, Knoll and Annas acknowledged that the public and the media find the question hard to resist. As they put it rhetorically, "After all, who but a madman would execute innocent people in broad daylight, while planning to commit suicide or be killed by police?" But they then went on to cite research indicating that, in fact, only a minority of mass shootings (however defined) have been perpetrated by individuals with recognized mental disorders.
"Few perpetrators of mass shootings have had verified histories of being in psychiatric treatment for serious mental illness," they wrote. Although post hoc analyses indicate that they are full of rage and may harbor "fantasies of violent revenge" for real or imagined offenses against them, these may lie entirely beneath the surface until they put the fantasies into action.
"Such individuals function (perhaps marginally) in society and do not typically seek out mental health treatment," Knoll and Annas wrote. "Thus, in most cases, it cannot fairly be said that a perpetrator 'fell through the cracks' of the mental health system. Rather, these individuals typically plan their actions well outside the awareness of mental health professionals."
Although mass shooters may not meet DSM-5 criteria for a recognized disorder, "they do have an ill-defined trouble of the mind for which the mental health field has no immediate, quick-acting 'treatment,'" Knoll and Annas acknowledged.
medpagetoday.com |
