Posted by pontormo on October 7, 2015, at 13:44:12
In reply to Re: Shooters and Psychiatry, posted by baseball55 on October 6, 2015, at 21:04:14
The statistics about violent crime are not terribly relevant to the question of mass shootings, which are a small category within that huge dataset. The thing that draws attention about mass shootings is that one person in a relatively brief outburst of violence stalks and kills a lot of people who have no relationship to him (or her).
The real common factor in these crimes is not the psychopathology of the shooters, although I'm sure they're disturbed people -- although in different ways in different cases-- but the availability and use of guns, in society and in the family of the killer.
Generally, this person has amassed an arsenal of weapons, and been suffering from resentment and a desire for revenge for real or imagined wrongs for a long time. Some of the killers have taken psychiatric drugs and even been known to therapists who've tried to report their threats to authorities. But generally, they lapse from their meds as in this case, where the killers mother said she only had trouble with him when he stopped his medication. Which unfortunately he had a tendency to do. Others seem not to have had much contact with the social service sector, or to have a medication regimen.
They all also seem to have different types of mental illuness. More importantly, there are millions of people with mental illnesses, on and off their medications, who have no propensity to commit violent.acts. There's no evidence basically that mental illness predisposes one to commit these crimes.
The point is that such crimes are very rare-- and the number of mentally ill people who are not violent far far outnumbers those who commit crimes.
If there's any correlation, it's between the gun culture and the rise of these crimes. It's not just the availability of guns and ease of getting them-- it's the glamorizing of gun ownership and the feeling of pride and being "strong" that comes with having a gun (eg I'm no a wimp--- or as this killers mother referred to "lame people" who didn't keep their home guns full of ammunition at all times)--
There's been a huge push to spread guns into every home-- and to defeat any limits on possessing and carrying a gun-- even into bars, and on campuses. Even elementary school teachers should have a gun at all times-- some people argue-- to defend the children in the case of an attack. (again, a very very rare occurrence-- while people, including young children, accidentally or purposefully shooting one another is anything but rare, when guns are present).
So maybe we shouldn't expect better psychiatric care to solve these problems. And maybe we shouldn't blame mental illness for these actions--
poster:pontormo
thread:1083163
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20150929/msgs/1083306.html