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I think the key question of the article is finally asked explicitly near the end: > Why are we the way we are? Is Kenneth Eng a schizophrenic whose illness fin
by maxander 9y ago
I think the key question of the article is finally asked explicitly near the end:
> Why are we the way we are? Is Kenneth Eng a schizophrenic whose illness finds expression through florid racism? Or is he a racist asshole who is also schizophrenic?
In psychology there's the assumption that mood disorders and antisocial delusions can be distinguished from non-pathological "being an asshole." I'm not nearly well enough informed about psychiatry to say how this is done clinically, or how quantitative these methods are. But cases like Eng show that as a society we barely even try to make the distinction, or that our ability to do so is profoundly lacking.
There's thousands of homeless people who are on the streets because they're incapable of getting along socially or holding a real job. And a substantial portion of humanity is prepared to leave it at that; they didn't do anything to earn money or companionship, and they don't have what they didn't earn, so all is well. But when you can quite clearly see that one of these people is where they are because of an illness that, in better conditions, would be treated and leave them a productive and happy member of society, that rings hollow. The fact of the matter is that an amount of what we call "motivation," "agreeableness" or even "talent" come down to the functioning of relatively simple, purely mechanistic biochemical processes, which can be subject to incidental malfunction just as you can dislocate a joint or get an ingrown toenail. If you want to assign blame the individual for one and not the other, you have a lot of philosophical explaining to do.
- GuiA 9y agoThis essay touches on mental illness and potential neurological/philosophical implications; it's an interesting read. https://www.meltingasphalt.com/neurons-gone-wild/ https://www.meltingasphalt.com/neurons-gone-wild/
- exelius 9y agoOr what do you do about the millions of “functioning” mentally ill like Kenneth Eng? He’s not so far gone that he needs to be restrained 24/7, but he has no realistic chance of meaningful “recovery”. He’s always going to be a delusional, borderline dangerous individual even with treatment. Do we as a society simply wait until this person explodes? At what point do we take action? I don’t have the answers, but I have a feeling it’s just easier for everyone to ignore the situation.
- tensor_rank_0 9y ago> In psychology there's the assumption that mood disorders and antisocial delusions can be distinguished from non-pathological "being an asshole." really? is this an explicit assumption or is it more of implicit fallacy kind of thing? I'd love to see a psychologist try to formally draw the line between some sort of moral failing where a person just acts like an asshole to people, and someone who has a mental condition that causes him to be an asshole to people.
- jdietrich 9y ago>In psychology there's the assumption that mood disorders and antisocial delusions can be distinguished from non-pathological "being an asshole." Any decent psychiatrist readily accepts that nearly all psychological diagnoses are based on quite arbitrary criteria. The problems you describe arise from how the rest of society engages with psychiatry. Clinically, a diagnosis is a crude but useful shorthand for reasoning about how best to help someone who is experiencing distress or functional impairment. Socially, that same diagnosis is a credential - something that might entitle you to time off work, a welfare check or legal clemency. Moral decisions about who deserves compassion and support have been delegated to clinicians. This isn't something that psychiatry can fix.