Does Mental Illness Resemble Evil?

[jayem]

I was just wondering if it's true that mental illness is genuinely evil, and I'm not talking about the poor people who suffer from these illnesses beyond any control of their own, but rather the disease itself.

For instance, I've never heard of a schizophrenic person hearing voices that tell him to do good rational things. Instead, I hear stories about voices telling people to do self-harm, or dysfunctional behavior. So why do we never hear stories about people who love these voices, as they tend to offer helpful, and Holy advice?

With turrets syndrome, the homeless woman across the street always yells profanity. She's always in conflict. And I've never heard of anyone with turrets shouting about love, happiness or anything positive in general.

...Could it actually be true that there is a scientifically provable relationship between mental illness and evil? Assuming we can properly identify evil in terms all can agree on?

I doubt that many patients suffering from any neurological or psychiatric
disorder which can affect personality—i.e., Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases, strokes, late stage ALS, frontal lobe tumors, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, just to name a few—will exhibit much positivity.

BTW, I’m not trying to be pedantic. Just for the sake of accuracy, the correct name is Tourette’s Syndrome.

 

[The happy Objectivist]

I was just wondering if it's true that mental illness is genuinely evil, and I'm not talking about the poor people who suffer from these illnesses beyond any control of their own, but rather the disease itself.

For instance, I've never heard of a schizophrenic person hearing voices that tell him to do good rational things. Instead, I hear stories about voices telling people to do self-harm, or dysfunctional behavior. So why do we never hear stories about people who love these voices, as they tend to offer helpful, and Holy advice?

With turrets syndrome, the homeless woman across the street always yells profanity. She's always in conflict. And I've never heard of anyone with turrets shouting about love, happiness or anything positive in general.

...Could it actually be true that there is a scientifically provable relationship between mental illness and evil? Assuming we can properly identify evil in terms all can agree on?

You can't judge what someone has no control over as immoral or evil. Morality is about the chosen. I have Tourette's Syndrome and I am not evil because of it. When I was in the 6th grade, my most prevalent tick was tapping someone on the arm and saying I loved them. I'm talking every minute or so. Imagine being in class and tapping the boy next to you over and over all class long and saying "I love you". Yes, I was teased unmercifully.

I also have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and one of my main compulsions is that I'll accidentally harm someone. So I'm extremely mindful of my actions. I once had a job building scaffolding. I had to quit because I found myself driving back to the job site, again and again, to double and triple-check to make sure everything was right. As soon as I would leave, I'd start thinking that I'd missed something and the next day the scaffolding would collapse and kill or seriously injure people. I also couldn't throw away trash because I felt that the trash was sad that it was being tossed out. I used to go at night and retrieve everything.

I don't think I could live with it if I hurt someone. Let me tell you, you want someone like me working on your jet before you take off, only you'd never get off the ground because I'd never be done checking everything and then I'd be glued to the TV looking for reports that the plane had crashed. I couldn't do it. I couldn't be a cop or a doctor or an EMT or any job like that.

My Tourette's first manifested a few days before Christmas when I was 7. I was in church saying I hate you God and God da%$%^ under my breath during the whole sermon. I was terrified that I was going to hell. Had it been a few decades earlier I'd have been locked away and punished for something I had absolutely no control over.

We've gotten past the time when people were thought to be evil because of mental illness, so don't start that up again.

Edit: I see that I didn't read your original post closely enough. I see now that you aren't calling people with mental illness evil, but the illness itself.

 

[Landon Caeli]

My Tourette's first manifested a few days before Christmas when I was 7. I was in church saying I hate you God and God da%$%^ under my breath during the whole sermon.

Did you think I was saying people who suffer from mental illnesses were somehow evil? Of course it's not true. I made it clear in the OP.

...But it still seems odd that your first tourette's episode happened in church, as the sermon was being said, and the reaction was to blaspheme. Again, NOT your fault, but don't you think that's a little uncanny?

We're all sinners. But I think the devil targets the kindest hearts the most fiercely.

 

[The happy Objectivist]

Did you think I was saying people who suffer from mental illnesses were somehow evil? Of course it's not true. I made it clear in the OP.

...But it still seems odd that your first tourette's episode happened in church, as the sermon was being said, and the reaction was to blaspheme. Again, NOT your fault, but don't you think that's a little uncanny?

We're all sinners. But I think the devil targets the best the most fiercely.

Yes, I saw that after I had posted, Landon. I started reading and I saw the words Tourette Syndrome and just skipped down and shouldn't have done that. My fault and I corrected it.

 

[childeye 2]

I was just wondering if it's true that mental illness is genuinely evil, and I'm not talking about the poor people who suffer from these illnesses beyond any control of their own, but rather the disease itself.

For instance, I've never heard of a schizophrenic person hearing voices that tell him to do good rational things. Instead, I hear stories about voices telling people to do self-harm, or dysfunctional behavior. So why do we never hear stories about people who love these voices, as they tend to offer helpful, and Holy advice?

With turrets syndrome, the homeless woman across the street always yells profanity. She's always in conflict. And I've never heard of anyone with turrets shouting about love, happiness or anything positive in general.

...Could it actually be true that there is a scientifically provable relationship between mental illness and evil? Assuming we can properly identify evil in terms all can agree on?

The definition of evil in scripture seems to mean in general that it's destructive rather than productive. Can we agree as to what is what is destructive or productive? We tend to always end up arguing semantics and being divided through misunderstandings.

 

[The happy Objectivist]

Yes, I saw that after I had posted, Landon. I started reading and I saw the words Tourette Syndrome and just skipped down and shouldn't have done that. My fault and I corrected it.

Oh, it didn't happen in Church. It actually happened when I was playing up in the attic at my grandmother's house. It was a few days later when I was in church. It had been going on for several days. It probably happened for about a month so 4 or 5 times in church. Cursing or Coprolalia is relatively rare. The "I love you" thing lasted about 2 months. The cursing might have had something to do with me being forbidden by my parents and I was a kid who was super, super worried about breaking rules and doing things wrong so there was already a lot of anxiety about cursing and doing inappropriate things. I used to get caught in a loop going up the stairs because I hadn't gone up the right side and so I'd go back down and go up the other side only to repeat again and again.

 

[St. Helens]

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