It's a better alternative because it doesn't equate mental illness to murderers and rapists. Mentally well people murder and rape all the time. It's time to get rid of the stigma that they are things that only "cr*zy" people do. He didn't do because he was mentally unsound. He did it because he decided that what he wanted to do was more important than the well being of others.
Yes, I would prefer psychiatric terminology actually, so we're not throwing insults at people who don't deserve to be insulted. And of course I didn't point out the ableist connotations of the terms for the sake of the murderer; I did it for the sake of disabled people as a whole. I'm well aware of what you were referencing.
(Throw a PM my way if you're interested in continuing this discussion. We're probably derailing this thread a bit too much.)
Not all mentally ill people are criminals, and not all criminals are mentally ill. I don't know how my words above favour the lack of ability to perform such a simple logical operation. I was talking about criminals who are mentally ill. This is a different set which is separated from just criminals and just mentally ill non-dangerous folk. Using psychiatric terminology is not an adequate way if you want to get your point across to those who are not in the field. It isn't hard to understand that a "nutcase" is resticted to the subject of this thread, and I'm not attempting to demonize every person who has some kind of mental disorder. Be more careful when turning on that ableist alarm.
Mental pathology or not is for psychiatric evalution to decide. The notion of free will is good and all, but it is a known fact that our free will is not exactly free (it is a product of many factors). We are talking about a young man with "suicide" (as he claims) and homicide sadistic tendencies, not about a respected man who suddenly battered his wife because she wanted to divorce him. You can call him a piece of kitten, and it will make sense. He may feel guilt and repent. But psychopaths are mostly incapable of such emotions. Kevin Davis is not Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov. That is why calling such an individual a "piece of kitten" changes absolutely nothing. And yes, psycopaths (a lot of them, by the way, never have any problems with the law) kill and deceive on their own free will (no one puts those "voices" in their heads... and there are rarely any voices, they just feel like doing it without any good reason). Mental specifics (sociobiological in nature) are not an excuse in their case, it is a major factor that influences their behavior (like alcohol or drugs which impair judgement but are not considered extenuating circumstances) and actually toughens their prison sentence. And we need to "control" this factor as much as we can. Young psyco(or socio)paths' behavior (marked by violence) yields to the timely correction.
It was an interesting discussion. However it was moslty based on misunderstanding. I'm sure as hell I didn't intend to insult a crowd of people. But next time I will choose my words more thoughtfully. Thank you.
Dixi.
Edited by Syn11, 12 October 2014 - 11:06 PM.