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Thank you for pointing this out. People shouldn't be 'blamed' for taking their lives. However, I always feel this uneasiness around people when, like you said,
by sanoli 13y ago
Thank you for pointing this out. People shouldn't be 'blamed' for taking their lives. However, I always feel this uneasiness around people when, like you said, the fact that suicide is a symptom of mental illness is brought up. It's as if people associate having mental illness with being some sort of 'good person club' outcast, or having some character flaw.
- MarkTee 13y agoTechnically, mental illness is a character flaw ("a limitation, imperfection, problem, phobia, or deficiency present in a character who may be otherwise very functional"[0]). [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_flaw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_flaw
- sanoli 13y agoNo, it's not. it's an illness. Your quote is about 'character flaw' as a literary critique concept. I was going to say in my post (the grandparent) that it could be argued, though not technically. Technically, it's not a character flaw.
- MarkTee 13y agoFair enough; I wasn't aware that there was a difference. I've always thought that a person's "character" is "the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing"[0], but it looks like the most common usage only refers to concern moral/ethical characteristics. To be clear, I'm not singling out people with mental illnesses; as a person with a physical illness, I would have considered it to be one of my "character flaws". [0]: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/character http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/character