People really want to pretend that the brain isn’t a physical object that can have structural or chemical flaws that affect behavior - I think it’s anxiety over “free will.”
I honestly think there are more people that believe in demonic posession on FR than that believe it’s possible for there to be chemically, structurally, or genetically based mental illness.
A little sad since it is the year 2012, not the year 1012, the last time I checked.
You can't imagine someone killing a bunch of people because they're pissed off?
How about the Happy Land Social Club killer? Did he kill 80 people because he was a schizophrenic or because he was mad as his girlfriend? Or because he was drunk?
I somewhat agree with you, though, that many here, on both sides, seem to have to have some deeply hidden explanation, either medical or spiritual, for this guy's behavior, just because "most" people wouldn't do this.
Maybe it's neither, and the guy was just a complete asshole who couldn't handle failure.
And let me ask you, theoretically, that if Satan DOES exist, you don't think he'd use the vulnerable and mentally ill, with the physical defects you identify, to propogate evil and dispirit the faithful? Would he say those poor souls are off-limits?
And in case you don't know the reductionist view of the human soul is just as bizarre and absurd as whatever it is you mock.
In the Catholic Church, if an exorcism is requested, the sufferer is supposed to undergo diagnostic testing to see if they are mentally ill. If mental illness/ brain disease is present, they're supposed to be treated for the disorder by ordinary medical/psychiatric means before any exorcism is attempted.
There are two major ways that demons influence people, according to Catholic teaching. Demonic possession, the most famous and serious condition, is when a demon takes complete control of a human being’s mind and body. Demonic obsession, or influence, is when a demon tempts an individual repeatedly and oppressively in attempts to lead him or her into hurting self or others.
Not all of the symtoms of diabolic possession are the same as those of mental illness. Several distinctive signs of diabolic possession include:
It's not very common. It may overlap with natural brain disease and other causes. But when it happens, these distinctive diabolic features show that something apart from psychiatric illness is in play.
Maybe, though I see a lot of FR comments that tell me there are more posters here that believe in goobermint Manchurian candidates than believe in either demonic posession or mental illness.
I suspect the boy got into some of the experimental brain drugs and fried his thinker. (Commercial: "this is your brain.....this is your brain on drugs").
And in my experience, most of the people who major in any for of "mental health study" are trying to understand why they, themselves, are nuts.