Grade school girls can't say No when asked to dance

[LastPoet]

[Shell B]

? I think you might have popped for no reason. CD and I are on good terms, to my knowledge. If I conveyed anything to make anyone think that I was bickering with him, rather than respectfully conversing, let me clear that up now. I might have dry delivery, but I'm just chatting with him.

[Jackalope]

Yes, it was addressing what you said. I related it to the topic of the thread because it's the topic of the thread, but I wasn't saying you thought mental illness was an excuse for him. I was just adding my thoughts as it pertained to this situation.

As in, she said mental illness isn't an excuse. You said, the mental health professionals you know would disagree (paraphrasing). I said, it's a reason for some people, but it's not an excuse. It follows from your comment. The rest of my post was just applying that opinion to the situation we're discussing.

As I said in my post, the bolded portion was in reference to her latter statement, not to her statement that it wasn't an excuse.

[Catholic_Lady]

Yes, it was addressing what you said. I related it to the topic of the thread because it's the topic of the thread, but I wasn't saying you thought mental illness was an excuse for him. I was just adding my thoughts as it pertained to this situation.

As in, she said mental illness isn't an excuse. You said, the mental health professionals you know would disagree (paraphrasing). I said, it's a reason for some people, but it's not an excuse. It follows from your comment. The rest of my post was just applying that opinion to the situation we're discussing.

As I said in my post, the bolded portion was in reference to her latter statement, not to her statement that it wasn't an excuse.

The 2 go together though. If you say a person raped and killed someone because they are simply mentally ill but not a bad person, you are using mental illness as an excuse for the atrocity they commited.

[Jackalope]

As I said in my post, the bolded portion was in reference to her latter statement, not to her statement that it wasn't an excuse.

The 2 go together though. If you say a person raped and killed someone because they are simply mentally ill but not a bad person, you are using mental illness as an excuse for the atrocity they commited.

Do they? I don't think so.

We still prosecute, convict, and incarcerate (or alternatively institutionalize) such individuals. It doesn't justify their behavior. It doesn't release them from accountability.

In what way are we excusing them, again?

[brewer]

The 2 go together though. If you say a person raped and killed someone because they are simply mentally ill but not a bad person, you are using mental illness as an excuse for the atrocity they commited.

You should probably spend some quality time with them before you call mental illness an excuse.

[Amarok]

As a person who has treated  mental patients whole have committed everything for murder to rape . I can say the person and their illness are not the same .

[Shell B]

As I said in my post, the bolded portion was in reference to her latter statement, not to her statement that it wasn't an excuse.

True dat. My misunderstanding.

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The 2 go together though. If you say a person raped and killed someone because they are simply mentally ill but not a bad person, you are using mental illness as an excuse for the atrocity they commited.

You should probably spend some quality time with them before you call mental illness an excuse.

She said it’s not an excuse.

[Thumpalumpacus]

As I said in my post, the bolded portion was in reference to her latter statement, not to her statement that it wasn't an excuse.

The 2 go together though. If you say a person raped and killed someone because they are simply mentally ill but not a bad person, you are using mental illness as an excuse for the atrocity they commited.

There's a difference between excusing and explaining. The former is distasteful at best and positively harmful at worst. The latter is necessary for understanding and, hopefully, preventing future occurrences.

[GrandizerII]

As I said in my post, the bolded portion was in reference to her latter statement, not to her statement that it wasn't an excuse.

The 2 go together though. If you say a person raped and killed someone because they are simply mentally ill but not a bad person, you are using mental illness as an excuse for the atrocity they commited.

I haven't looked up the science for what I'm about to say, but it seems intuitive at least that one would have to be mentally ill to, at least in many/most cases, do such atrocious things as to rape or murder. When I think "evil" with reference to people, a lot of the times, I'm thinking "fucked in the head". I think it's rare that someone could be evil and yet be quite sane.

And as others have said, it doesn't mean we're using mental illness as an excuse. Rather, it's important to acknowledge that mental illness can play a contributing factor in leading to "evil" behaviour. We shouldn't ignore this possibility just because it doesn't make some people feel good about it.