Judging the Mentally ill:
I'm Personally Responsible
There is a wide variety of distinct
human behaviors, a subset of which are considered by societies or individuals
unacceptable.
Judging a person's behavior is
reasonable, but passing those judgements onto that person may not be.
The
laws of a society decide what behaviors are
required,
accepted, and
prohibited for its citizens. In the United States, the act of murder is criminal, but mental illness is a legally recognized
defense. Actions aren't hard to
objectively judge because their effects can be measured and described, but objectively
judging people is difficult because an individual's
motivations lie in the
mind, a place which defies simplistic understanding.
Psychology is the study of the mind and human behavior, and
experimentation is its core method. Suppose you took two children who had never seen a large body of water; A and B. You repeatedly place A into a wading pool with other children who are all having fun and enjoying themselves. You repeatedly place B into the rushing water of a river and
force his head underneath the waves, causing him to
feel the
instinctual terror of drowning. After 10 repetitions with each child over 2 months, you
blindfold both children and take them to the shallow end of a swimming pool, then you take off the blindfolds and dump them in the water. One child is fine with it but the other is screaming and terrified. He screams because he
associates being in water with being
assaulted. We can say it is unreasonable for
a child to scream when placed in a swimming pool easily enough, but the way in which he learned that behavior is a product of the natural and
normal functioning of his mind.
Motivation is not exclusively
volitional, nor is it exclusively
predisposed by mental illness, its
identity lies in a
mixture of these and other
factors. Relating to the mentally ill can be like
befriending a
porcupine. Do not blame the porcupine for having
sharp quills, but do not
impale yourself on them either. Recognize the separation between his
intentions and his
effects, try to be a little more accepting, but judge actions in their own right. If you do pass judgements on
people, know they are predicated by your level of understanding and
lifetimes are not easily understood.