4 ms·

What an incredibly odd story. I wonder if the man suffered from mental illness.

by matt-attack 6y ago

jmercouris 6y ago
I am very certain he did, whether we have a name for it or not.
- cbanek 6y ago
  While you're probably right, I always find it oddly weird sometimes how logical these things can be. Like copying tattoos and mannerisms. On one hand, it doesn't make sense to pretend to be someone else, but if you look past that, the steps were frighteningly logical. And this is where I think it dovetails into other scams. I'm not sure if the scammer is above it, a part of it, or unaware of it sometimes, but what they present and what you see isn't really the whole story.
  - jshmrsn 6y ago
    Actually, I’m confused by the logic of that. If you were plagiarizing someone, wouldn’t you want to be look different from the original author so you don’t remind people of them and get caught? His hand tattoos meant that anyone who know the original author and encountered the copycat would immediately be suspicious even if they weren’t familiar with the subject matter.
- ironmagma 6y ago
  But the only definition we have for mental illness is whether your situation falls under some category that we have a name for. It’s a slippery (and fuzzy) enough slope having designations for illnesses that encompass a huge portion of the human condition (see Rosenhan). Much worse if we also include things that don’t have entries in the DSM. It would be trivial enough to say that anyone you have even mild distaste for has a mental illness.
  - Sebb767 6y ago
    > But the only definition we have for mental illness is whether your situation falls under some category that we have a name for. The one I heard was a variation of "does the person suffer due to the condition or cause harm to other people". That was a side course in university. I actually like that one a lot, since there's really not a clear line between an illness and just being different.
    - ironmagma 6y ago
      It also doesn’t make a meaningful distinction from non-mental illness though, like chronic pain or even poverty.
    - getlawgdon 6y ago
      That doesn't make sense. Define harm. Carelessness can cause injury and isn't mental illness, etc.
  - lazyasciiart 6y ago
    Even DSM-IV had "otherwise unspecified mental disorder" as a diagnosis. https://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.dsm20 https://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.books.9780...
  - mannykannot 6y ago
    We don't have to go down that slippery slope. It is not plausible that the specific issue here is something that encompasses a huge portion of the human condition. Alternatively, if it is a manifestation of something that is, but at a much lower level than with this individual, there are prominent things in the DSM for which this is also the case.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

What an incredibly odd story. I wonder if the man suffered from mental illness.

jmercouris 6y ago

I am very certain he did, whether we have a name for it or not.

cbanek 6y ago
While you're probably right, I always find it oddly weird sometimes how logical these things can be. Like copying tattoos and mannerisms. On one hand, it doesn't make sense to pretend to be someone else, but if you look past that, the steps were frighteningly logical. And this is where I think it dovetails into other scams. I'm not sure if the scammer is above it, a part of it, or unaware of it sometimes, but what they present and what you see isn't really the whole story.
- jshmrsn 6y ago
  Actually, I’m confused by the logic of that. If you were plagiarizing someone, wouldn’t you want to be look different from the original author so you don’t remind people of them and get caught? His hand tattoos meant that anyone who know the original author and encountered the copycat would immediately be suspicious even if they weren’t familiar with the subject matter.
ironmagma 6y ago
But the only definition we have for mental illness is whether your situation falls under some category that we have a name for. It’s a slippery (and fuzzy) enough slope having designations for illnesses that encompass a huge portion of the human condition (see Rosenhan). Much worse if we also include things that don’t have entries in the DSM. It would be trivial enough to say that anyone you have even mild distaste for has a mental illness.
- Sebb767 6y ago
  > But the only definition we have for mental illness is whether your situation falls under some category that we have a name for. The one I heard was a variation of "does the person suffer due to the condition or cause harm to other people". That was a side course in university. I actually like that one a lot, since there's really not a clear line between an illness and just being different.
  - ironmagma 6y ago
    It also doesn’t make a meaningful distinction from non-mental illness though, like chronic pain or even poverty.
  - getlawgdon 6y ago
    That doesn't make sense. Define harm. Carelessness can cause injury and isn't mental illness, etc.
- lazyasciiart 6y ago
  Even DSM-IV had "otherwise unspecified mental disorder" as a diagnosis. https://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.dsm20 https://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.books.9780...
- mannykannot 6y ago
  We don't have to go down that slippery slope. It is not plausible that the specific issue here is something that encompasses a huge portion of the human condition. Alternatively, if it is a manifestation of something that is, but at a much lower level than with this individual, there are prominent things in the DSM for which this is also the case.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]