The motivation of anger and hatred is stronger. The perpetrators of mass murder are not psychopaths

In response to the Walmart massacre in El Paso, Texas, which killed 22 people last week and which President Donald Trump described as "mentally ill monsters", a psychiatrist wrote that the description was a convenient and misleading explanation intended to divert public attention from the possibility The darker behind this unimaginable horror is that the murderer may have been a rational, full of hatred only.

Dr. Richard A. Friedman argues that it is reasonable to imagine that anyone who kills 22 cold-blooded souls should be really crazy or mentally ill, but the truth about mass murderers and the relationship to mental health is more complicated than that.

One of the largest mass murder studies conducted by Dr. Michael Stone, a professor of clinical psychiatry at the Columbia University School of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, in which 350 people participated, found that only 20% of the perpetrators suffer from psychotic illness The other 80% did not have a mental illness that could be diagnosed, but only the daily stress, anger, jealousy and unhappiness of most of us.

Similarly, an FBI study of activist killers between 2000 and 2013 found that only 25% had a psychiatric diagnosis and only 5% had psychotic illness.

However, the obvious implication of these findings is that a prisoner of ordinary emotions is capable of heinous acts of violence and does not need to be mentally ill to appear to be a "monster."

Friedman says it is not possible to know for sure that the suspect in the El Paso incident - Patrick Cruzius, 21, had a mental illness without a detailed knowledge of his personal and medical history, but what he published on the Internet suggests that we should not be quick to assume that As well.

For me, Friedman said, his statement seemed logical and coherent, not confused, and surprisingly, it seemed to echo what Trump had been saying all the time about immigrants. From this perspective, it is quite reasonable that the murderer of El Paso is a mentally balanced person who happens to be inspired by an abominable racist ideology.

The frightening truth is that hatred and aggression of the average human is far more dangerous than any mental illness. Consider only the number of people who have been driven to mass murder because employers fired them from their jobs or ostracized their mistresses. They were probably not mentally ill, but simply filled with anger.

In fact, mental illness contributes to about 3% of violent crime in America, and the best evidence reveals that there is a very small increase in the risk of violence for those with serious mental disorders such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The idea that we can know the mass killer before it moves is an epidemic imagination so far, as these individuals usually avoid contacting the mental health care system.

Given the new global resurgence of white nationalism and xenophobia in recent years, it is not surprising that a few individuals have responded to this climate of hatred by directing these ideas in a violent manner.

In short, we are social animals that are easily affected by our environment and this environment is full of anger these days.

Friedman concluded that strengthening mental health programs, although a noble goal, would not solve the epidemic of mass murder and that more effective policies could include arms control, increasing the size and scope of controls.