I have said this before in various forms, but in light of the ongoing discussion of BK's mental condition I feel it bears repeating.
I am skeptical of the proposition that BK was "mentally ill", and assuming he is, that this would explain his actions and be somehow relevant to his defense.
If you examine the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR), you'll find yourself and most if not all your friends there. The DSM is designed to help trained and experienced professionals diagnose and treat their patients, not to help armchair psychologists to speculate about the possibility that a thrill/spree/mass murder suspect has a diagnosable mental disorder. When we do that, we are indulging in conduct that professionals (like Dr. Ramsland, who hasn't made any public comment) would consider unethical.
Further, assuming for the sake of argument that BK suffers from a mental disorder, no one has offered an explanation why he acted so differently from the millions of others who suffer the same disorder. Mental illness is, IMO, a rabbit hole that offers neither explanation nor comfort to those who seek to understand this event.
We like to believe we are mentally healthy and therefore would never stalk and kill four strangers as BK has been charged with doing. We seek gain some psychological distance from the accused in this way. IMO, it's a form of whistling in the dark.
It's scary to contemplate the possibility that evil is in each of us, and that we might actually be capable of killing our fellow humans. But maybe we should. It might cause us to give more attention to the importance of the fundamental personal, community, and societal guardrails that keep most of us from choosing to descend into evil in response to the personal suffering everyone encounters in life.
Even assuming that BK suffers some mental condition, IMO it is incumbent on a community committed to justice in this case to assess whether it is relevant to the charges he faces. Here's what Idaho law says about this:
"
Idaho Statutes Section 18-207. MENTAL CONDITION NOT A DEFENSE — PROVISION FOR TREATMENT DURING INCARCERATION — RECEPTION OF EVIDENCE — NOTICE AND APPOINTMENT OF EXPERT EXAMINERS.
(1) Mental condition shall not be a defense to any charge of criminal conduct.
...
(3) Nothing herein is intended to prevent the admission of expert evidence on the issue of any state of mind which is an element of the offense, subject to the rules of evidence.
..."
So, I invite those who are inclined to dwell upon BK's mental condition to tell us what relevance this discussion has to BK's guilt or innocence in the deaths of the University of Idaho students.
I feel compelled to respond. And I will say I completely disagree about amateur use of DSM. Let me preface this by saying that I have done field diagnostics for research that supports DSM. At the beginning of my psychiatric research, I thought the same ("Everyone is in DSM.")
But spend one day in a major psychiatric clinic OR in an inpatient unit and you'll see that it's not true. The public uses phrases from DSM all the time, as descriptors.
That's not the design of DSM nor should we be using it that way,
At any rate, BK's diagnosis (VSS) is a neurological disorder, which causes perceptual disturbance. The term "mentally ill" has little meaning, but in general, most psychiatrists will tell you they treat "mental illness" and that neurologists treat VSS and similar syndromes.
Can someone have both psychiatric symptoms AND a neurological disorder? Yes.
ANYWAY, last night I realized that I"m not interested in diagnosing BK, per se.
So I resoundingly agree with you. I want to eliminate the neurological (and the upbringing part, if any) in order to contemplate just what it is that makes some into a mass murderer/wannabe serial killer.
And while we cannot and have not ruled out characterological disorders (personality disorders), that group of descriptors gets us closer to the problem of evil. Modern psychiatric and psychology are in big debates about the problem of evil - just as we are, here.
For me, what's left over when we rule out neurological and mental health disorders (if any) is the problem of what causes a BK. I've added in "life stressors" to my own personal rubric because mentally fragile people do behave in reactive ways sometimes, if they are pushed past their limits (which by definitions are not the same as for the rest of us).
I'm fine with "Evil" being the category to which we assign this small segment of horrible monsters. Does someone set out to be Evil? Does it just befall them? Is there some demon or spiritual entity that imposes itself on them (as implied by folk literature on Evil)?
We're left with this mysterious force or thing called Evil. But what is it?? Is it just a residual category of the rest?
Naturally, we are left pondering our fellow humans, but I do not believe that each person is capable of the evil that BK inflicted. Not at all. There are predisposing conditions and some of us (many of us) are incapable of doing what he did. I reject entirely the idea that *anyone* could suddenly become a BK (and by so doing, I also reject nihilism - because if true, if we can ALL be as Evil, then all hope is lost and everything is meaningless -
just as BK claimed as a teenager) That make us all just "sacks of meat" capable of anything, without souls or anchors or inner meaning. Which is how he felt.
I have never felt that way. And when I'm dead, I hope someone points out that not only did I never plan or contemplate killing or violently attacking anyone, not in this lifetime. I've got a few years to go - but pretty sure I'm going to get through the rest of my life without becoming a mass murderer.
Most people do. We should be marveling at how most of us are NOT evil. I fear that young people may actually buy into this idea, which is so depressing (that we are all equally capable of Evil). I should also add that these are moral and spiritual questions, so everyone is entitled to their view.
But, I totally agree with you that the Mental Health Model (or the Physical Health Model) do not adequately explain BK and that he is a candidate to be called Evil. I might not have agreed 30 years ago, but I do now.
Anyway, the intent of this post is to cheer you up, because occasionally I go to the same place as you have. But I'm convinced that most of us are not capable of this degree of Evil - I just don't know why BK has been capable. Mental health issues/neuro issues do NOT explain it. I just need to pare it down to what remains.
Where does Evil reside?
