Why am I hearing so much about mental health re James Holmes

[malaise]

Aren't all terrorists suffering from mental health issues?

Is he any more crazy than the psychiatrist at Fort Hood? Then I heard religion.

[MADem]

1. Orange hair? nt

[malaise]

2. Not good enough

I know lots of young folks with hair of all colors

[MADem]

13. Orange hair, a booby trapped apartment, he murdered a dozen people and wounded dozens more? nt

[FarLeftFist]

3. Because he's white.

[malaise]

6. and educated???

Shakes head.

[backscatter712]

10. Truth to that.

If he was black, he'd be a "thug".
If he was Muslim, he'd be a "terrorist".
But since he's white, he's "mentally ill".

[MADem]

15. I think he's a terrorist. I also think he's crazy, AND he committed an act of terrorism. nt

[malaise]

16. I think you have a point there

[HiPointDem]

19. good point. white & middle to upper middle class, well-educated. must be crazy. same with the

unabomber.

[CTyankee]

4. It's a subterfuge to keep us distracted from focusing on gun control.

I heard the gov. of CO jabbering mental health double talk on MOrning Joe today...he looked nervous...

[pnwmom]

7. I think this guy probably did have a mental health issue but I also believe in gun control.

I especially think more should be done to keep guns out of the hands of crazy people.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

14. Yea, let's not be distracted by the dispair and isolation felt by the Timothy McVeigh types.

Let's push on with a wedge issue to separate the more-sensible-than-thou anti-gun DU posters from gun-owning independent voters and gun-owning Democrats.

Let's not be distracted by any connecting of the dots between the Timothy McVeigh types with mental health problems and the economic/social injustice caused by the super-rich.

Let's talk about gun control instead of talking about controlling the super-rich and the conditions of dispair and isolation which they have created.

[CTyankee]

22. don't try that on me, buddy. just don't waste your typing...I'm so done with that argument...

[pnwmom]

5. I don't think all terrorists are suffering from mental health issues.

They're not all deluded. Some, such as the IRA, deliberately choose terrorism methods vs. outright rebellion that they probably can't win.

[pinto]

8. Mental health issues and gun purchasing issues are both relevant in this, imo.

Possibly connected, from this layman's point of view. Yet worth discussing.

[cali]

9. perhaps because until a few months ago he'd

followed a path toward becoming a scientist- attending top schools, phi beta, golden key, camp counselor, blah, blah, blah. He was apparently non-political, not driven by religion, etc. In other words, there is nothing that we know of that would indicate anything like what he did.

And I think tagging him as a terrorist is silly. Mass murderer for sure, but I don't think he was employing terror to alter the political or religious or whatever culture of anything.

[malaise]

18. And that psychiatrist at Fort Hood

was not merely a scientist, he was a doctor. Many young bright men commit acts of terror and lots of them have mental issues so why do we paint them differently.
If someone had opened that apartment door, what would make that act of terror different from other terrorist acts?

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. Because terrorism involves "employing terror to alter the political or religious or whatever culture

as cali said. There does not appear to be anything that Holmes was trying to get people to alter, by inducing terror in them. The psychiatrist seems to have seen himself as a martyr for militant jihad, and so may have wanted US policy to change as a result of his and other actions like them:

He referenced Hasan Akbar, the U.S. soldier on death row for killing two soldiers while stationed in Kuwait. "Would you consider someone like Hasan Akbar or other soldiers that have committed such acts with the goal of helping Muslims/Islam (Let's just assume this for now) fighting Jihad and if they did die, would you consider them shaheeds (martyrs)?" he wrote.

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=68043

[cali]

27. first of all Nidal Hasan was not a young man-

at least not in the sense that Holmes is. He was 39 or 40 when he committed the crime he committed, some 15 years older than Holmes is.

Secondly, he did have a political/religious trail/motivation. Thirdly, there was considerable evidence that he was deranged and I hold the Army Medical Corps and his co-workers/supervisors, partially responsible:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nidal_Malik_Hasan

[HereSince1628]

11. Because we need to grok this in a way that makes him not one of "us"

Or more likely because anyone who wears tactical black kevlar to a movie premier is way way past just having bad taste.

[malaise]

21. LOL

[JoePhilly]

12. Mental illness is not a single, simple, thing.

One can suffer from a mental illness and be completely aware of the consequences of their actions, and conversely, one can suffer from a mental illness and be completely UNAWARE of the consequences of their actions.

Think of it like the difference between a cold, the flu, and the plague. And even that is far too simplistic.

Once when I was a kid, I had a fever that reached 104. I became delusional. A saw things happening in my room that were not happening.

If you get sick and have a fever of 100, you usually don't become delusional, if it hits 104, you might become delusional.

Mental illness is like that, but even far more complicated.

You take a depressed person, mix in some bi-polar disorder (manic depressive), some OCD, some paranoia, and you have a dangerous mix.

To that you mix in some extreme religious views ... or just some difficult life situations ... a bad relationship with a significant other .... and you have some one who's view of the world can become very "delusional".

There is no clear line. The simple answer is to say "only a crazy person would do this" ... but that description ignores the underlying complexity.

[John Caelan]

17. Mostly, we are terrified of terror without cause.

It's difficult to offer a non-polarizing opinion and have it heard...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021006852

Ironically, or perhaps not, Holmes did the Joker character justice. The Joker had no motivation—he just wanted to affect something. If there is any lesson to take from this, it is that in a culture of dependency, some people might just find that chaos is their only outlet for a sense of purpose and presence. Even that hypothesis should be cautiously examined. Mostly, we are terrified of terror without cause. It feeds no agenda, it supports no doctrine, its takes no side. The pitiful attempt to assign it purpose reveals our darkest fears—that sometimes evil has no design. Sometimes, it has no rhyme or reason.

[HereSince1628]

20. Particularly a cause from which we can't distance ourselves.

[JoePhilly]

23. I'd say .... terrified of a terror without a cause that we can understand.

The "logic" of these events escapes us, but for the person performing the acts, they can seem extremely logical.

Evil has a design, a rhyme, and a reason ... but its one we (the sane) can't determine. And "evil" is not one thing in the first place.

The study of autism is finding that many of these kids communicate in ways that the rest of use don't understand. But we can learn to understand them. Its like learning sign language when you are not deaf. The deaf needed to communicate, and a language developed so that the speaking and the deaf could "talk".

There are similar things going on with some forms of autism. Trying to bridge the differences in the "languages".

I suspect that some mental illnesses have similar characteristics ... but are far more complex at this stage of human understanding.

[Blue_In_AK]

24. I'm not thinking mental health as much as I'm wondering about a biological/neurological issue.

This reminds me of Charles Whitman, the Texas Tower shooter, who had a brain tumor. I assume batteries of neurological tests will be done on Mr. Holmes prior to trial.

[longship]

25. Doesn't matter.

We should consider it regardless of anybody's uninformed opinions or even people's so-called informed opinions (if we weren't teachin' evilution, blah, blah).

For Christ sakes, this guy was a gifted PhD candidate in neural science. If he hasn't totally dropped off the edge, even he might admit that we should try to figure it out.

Even Ted Bundy said the same. He couldn't help himself. Maybe Holmes was the same.

If we can understand this, maybe we can treat it, or something.

Whitman in TX predicted that he had a brain tumor, verified during post-mortem.

The brain is the most complex organ in the body. Why would anybody not want to know what's going on with people like Whitman, McVeigh, Bundy, and yes, Holmes.

They fried Bundy's brain in the electric chair and McVeigh got the needle.

Study these cases to find out what's going on, what's different. For Whitman, brain surgery to remove the tumor might have saved more than his life.

Don't assume here.

[HereSince1628]

29. A small point of little significance to us...the guy failed his prelim, he wasnt yet a Candidate.

And failing the prelimary exam and not gaining candidacy seems to have been a place where his life turned a corner away from the promising future that had seemed in front of him.

Like I say, it's may not be a big deal to the rest of us, none of us who don't know him have any idea what not being a candidate meant to him.

[hamsterjill]

28. Maybe

Maybe most terrorists are suffering from mental health issues. But I don't think the 09/11 hijackers were shown to have mental issues, were they?

For me, I'm not resigned yet to the fact that Holmes has mental issues. I'm leaving that to the experts. Certainly, it is a real possibility. But I marvel at the people who think they can diagnose him with certainty without a proper exam by a proper expert. This guy just might be smart enough to have people fooled. I don't know. Again, I'm reserving judgment until there is something factual and medically that indicates one way or the other.