On Thu, 2 Nov 2017 10:13:53 -0000 (UTC), Duane wrote:

To me the line between terrorist and mentally ill isn’t very clear.
Religious fundamentalism and insane seem to go hand in hand.

That's an interesting discussion about which I don't feel qualified to
offer an intelligent analysis despite years of practice as a
psychologist. I have not read any of the research on the thought
patterns of religious terrorists nor into the differentiation between
religious delusion and excessive religious devotion. I end up with
questions rather than answers when thinking about this. With the
readers indulgence:

On the face of it, it is tempting to say that one has to be nuts to try
to slaughter large numbers of people (especially in a suicide mission)
in the name of one's god or country or family or some other group. But
can one be rational and do so? That's possible, I suppose, but I don't
know with any certainty. What about, for example, an Anders Breivik or
a Timothy McVeigh? Both were far more efficient killers than the vast
majority of terrorists. They were calculating, analytical and
methodical beyond what is typical of people with major mental illnesses.
Boh were radicalized by right-wing sources (as are, indeed, Islamist,
Christianist and Zionist terrorists in general). Yet on another hand
there was Adam Lanza, whose motivations seemed not rooted in terrorism
but in his own mental illness and yet he too was organized, detailed,
ruthless and efficient.

It is facile and unhelpful to dismiss terrorists as "crazy" or
"animals," because that suggests they are non-understandable; and if
they cannot be understood, we cannot know how to prevent them in the
first place. If we can understand how terrorists come to be, then
perhaps they can be defused in advance (and it is quite likely that this
is much better understood than I am aware of).

If being a terrorist is prima facie evidence of mental illness, then I
think it would be cruel to- as President Trump has openly supported-
torture and indecently punish them. Those actions come at a severe cost
for the "soul of civil society," as one might call it. Trump, of
course, betrays little evidence of being a member of civil society
himself so this likely does not trouble him.

There is a different question of what to do with a mass murderer who is
rational) or perhaps "rational enough"). I do not support the death
penalty- oddly, perhaps, on conservative rather than liberal grounds-
but these people are very, very dangerous and in at least some cases
(perhaps most or even all) it is not safe to turn them loose to likely
do it again. Indeed, turning them loose would just be stupid in those
cases. Just as we do not "turn loose" those adjudicated as mentally ill
and dangerous- they are under lifelong supervision and court-ordered
psychiatric treatment.


Enough rambling with no conclusions!