It’s been a long day, and I chose to drink… so I’ll bite. There’s definitely been what seems an increase in public awareness of narcissism and manipulation, but the “general public”, to me, has taken free reign on what exactly that means. I see a lot of accurate and also complete misinformation regarding those two topics within social media.
It feels all the rage these days, but maybe I’m just getting old. “Opinions are like @$$holes, everyone has one” was a good mantra growing up that I try to apply to most facets of life.
No, what there has been is an increase in an already prevalent phenomenon (see: mass shooters) of blaming mental illness and/or personality disorders for abusive, violent, and flat out fascistic actions, when they don't actually cause those, it's just so much easier to do than to think more deeply and/or critically about the systems and structures that don't only enable, but encourage such behaviour, especially in those with privilege and power (because actually mentally ill people are much more likely to be victims of violence and other abuse, than perpetrate it).
Using diagnosable conditions as shorthand for "abusive" or "toxic" or "harmful" or "violent" or "racist" or whatever else, is ableism. It deepens already existing and harmful stigmas, prevents people from seeking help and support and being open about their struggles, and actually puts them at greater risk of further abuse just for being diagnosed the way they are, even if they've never hurt a fly.
In short:
“Are you saying that murderers are right in the head??”
No there’s definitely something wrong with someone’s way of thinking if they can justify killing innocent people, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that they have a mental illness.
Extremist beliefs isn’t a mental illness.
Bigotry isn’t a mental illness.
Entitlement isn’t a mental illness.
Hate isn’t a mental illness.
Having a dysfunctional moral compass isn’t a mental illness.
We need to stop categorizing all these things as some undefinable “mental illness” and start looking at what we do as a society to develop and justify these things to a degree where people use them to justify killing.
Yes!
Dehumanization is something you Have to look for. If the murderer doesn’t see the person they killed as a person, then mental illness is probably not the main factor there.
Plenty of people murder women, poc, lgbt people, people of other religions etc. because they don’t see them as people.
Think about genocides - they aren’t perpetrated by big group of people/a government who all got mentally ill together the same way at the same time somehow, they just didn’t consider what they did murder because they didn’t see the victims as people.
In more depth:
https://www.zillennialmag.com/post/when-narcissism-becomes-an-ableist-way-of-discussing-toxicity
I fell for that trap once. The statistics show people with a diagnosed mental illness are actually less likely to participate in violent crimes than the general population. Thats not to say mass murderers don't have underlying mental illnesses but it's easy to just assume that they do. Yet, as we already know, a person who has no mental illness is perfectly capable of violent crime.
If you try to inject this conversation into normal discourse you might be surprised how fast you discover some people's prejudices against mental illness.
If you try to inject this conversation into normal discourse you might be surprised how fast you discover some people’s prejudices against mental illness.
Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised at all, I've been making these points for years and have had some truly toxic reactions.. The irony would be delicious if it wasn't so harmful..
I will never agree with you. Knowledge should be wide spread and accessible.
Now, there are people who may need to be taught or spoon fed but that is a failing of our education system. I will be the first to say we need better education across the board.