tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20467797.post3293647652006968310..comments2023-07-29T12:50:32.827+01:00Comments on THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM: DEVIANT AND DISORDEREDPearl Handelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08906994734745965505noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20467797.post-2017776018428665032007-04-23T10:17:00.000+01:002007-04-23T10:17:00.000+01:00i really like this blogi really like this blogKommunicerande Karlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09411027691993305013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20467797.post-51861655784516721682007-04-22T18:10:00.000+01:002007-04-22T18:10:00.000+01:00This new Bill was originally proposed in response ...This new Bill was originally proposed in response to a high-profile murder case in the UK in which the murderer was diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder (ASPD). In 1996 Lin and Megan Russell were killed by Michael Stone. Before the murder Stone had been diagnosed with ASPD, but had not been detained under the 1983 Act because he was not considered treatable. At the trial he was deemed responsible for his actions, and convicted of murder accordingly, because ASPD is not a mental illnesss. Nevertheless "public opinion" in the guise of right-wing news media took the view that he should already have been incarcerated on the basis of his ASPD diagnosis before he had committed the murders.<BR/><BR/>Many of us are deeply suspicious of psychiatric categorisations and diagnoses, but even those who accept them stress that a diagnosis of ASPD in itself does not consitute grounds for incarceration. The Mental Health Foundation's briefing paper on personality disorders states that a personality disorder on its own neither directly causes nor fully explains acts of violence. Mental health charities and psychiatrists have therefore condemned this Bill as a gross over-reaction to the Stone case. To give someone a diagnosis of ASPD is not automatically to designate them a danger to society.<BR/><BR/>It's ironic that the progress of this Bill on Monday was wiped from the mainstream UK news agenda by the Virginia Tech massacre. Journalists have spent the week speculating pointlessly about Cho's individual psychopathology and even his creative writing. Their time would have been better spent enquiring into the culture of militarism and brutality that pervades life in the US. While immediate responsibility for this latest massacre of course lies with Cho, the wider repeating pattern of such events on US campuses surely requires a more social and political analysis. Fear of individual system-evading "sociopaths", treatable or otherwise, merely obscures those deeper questions -- which of course is why violent and repressive governments are so keen to feed that fear with measures such as this Bill.Pearl Handelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08906994734745965505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20467797.post-55444491438650913672007-04-22T02:59:00.000+01:002007-04-22T02:59:00.000+01:00At the same time, the dangerous sociopaths slip un...At the same time, the dangerous sociopaths slip under the system untreated, and posing an actual danger to society.<BR/><BR/>Really good blog.Frank Partisanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03536211653082893030noreply@blogger.com