3 ms·
Madness is the rule rather than the exception
- zeveb 10y agoInteresting enough article, but: > I was so horrified at the way in which [after Shipman was convicted], even in the world of so-called mental health, you suddenly had people coming out with all this quasi religious stuff. They talked about "pure evil". I wondered what had generated this kind of reaction, what problems there were in thinking about the case. Dr. Shipman murdered at least 218 patients, most of them elderly woman in relatively good health (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shipman); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shipman); he's the most-prolific serial killer in history. I wonder what problem of thinking there is which doesn't identify this behaviour as evil.
- kafkaesq 10y agoI guess it would come down to: "OK, what he did what horrific and terrifying. But is it really helpful to label it with this notion of 'evil'? What does 'evil' really mean, anyway? The past is the past and it can't be changed, after all." Or something along those lines.