‘Not every person who feels lost is mentally ill': Psychiatrist warns against rush to portray Ottawa shooter as ‘crazy’
Sharon Kirkey, Postmedia News | October 26, 2014 | Last Updated: Oct 26 9:21 PM ET
Groping for answers, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s mother said her son was mentally unbalanced and desperate to escape an unhappy life before he made his suicidal charge across the lawn of Parliament Hill last week.
But a renowned U.S. psychiatrist cautions against the rush to loosely label Zehaf-Bibeau as “crazy” or attribute his perturbed state of mind before gunning down Cpl. Nathan Cirillo to a psychiatric disorder.
“It’s always a dangerous thing to diagnose anyone from a distance, especially when they’re dead,” said Dr. Allen Frances, a professor emeritus at Duke University who chaired the task force that produced the fourth version of psychiatry’s official manual of mental illness.
“Total mental balance is an ideal and elusive goal for any of us,” Frances said.
When something so horrific, bizarre and destructive happens, everyone searches for meaning, “and the natural, first thing that comes to mind is, well, he must be crazy,” Frances said.
“But most criminals, most substance abusers and most political or religious extremists are ‘mentally unbalanced’ at least some of the time,” he said. “Our man was all of these.
“This doesn’t mean that we have a psychiatric diagnosis that fits him, or a psychiatric treatment that would have cured him, or an explanation for his behaviour that satisfies, or that we could ever predict who, or when.”
Related
RCMP conducting threat assessment after Tom Mulcair demands 24-7 security in wake of Ottawa attack
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau made video that suggests Ottawa shooting driven by ‘ideological, political motives': RCMP
'I am sickened by it': Ottawa shooter's mother pens a candid letter about her 'unhappy' son
Rex Murphy: In our age of hollow celebrity, moral heroes emerge during a week of darkness
'I am sickened by it': Ottawa shooter's mother pens a candid letter about her 'unhappy' son
EXCLUSIVE: Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s conversations were strange — he often spoke of the devil — leading the family to wonder, ‘Was he crazy?’
Read the letter …
In an emotional and lengthy written statement to Postmedia News on Saturday, Susan Bibeau said her son had a serious addiction to drugs and that his conversations were strange — he often spoke of the devil, for instance — leading the family to wonder, “Was he crazy?”
She said her son was an unhappy person who was “at odds with the world,” and so he turned to religion and Islam as a way to make sense of it.
After reading the letter Saturday, Frances described it as deeply moving, a final statement to the media written by a “decent, intelligent, emotionally aware and deeply pained and guilty mother” who understood her son “better than anyone else could, or will.”
But he is concerned, too, that describing the shooter as mentally unbalanced doesn’t necessarily mean he had a definable psychiatric illness. “Not every person who feels lost or has a messed up life is mentally ill,” he said.
It also suggests someone has to be crazy to do violent things. There is some increase in violence among the severely mentally ill, Frances said. “But it’s not enormous, and they’re responsible for only a tiny amount of the violence in the world.”
Mental illness can make people more susceptible to extreme religious or political teachings or fanaticism, he said. The killer may have “globed onto” radical teachings that brought meaning “to what was previously his meaningless life.
“And if he was willing to kill and die for this, that is regrettable. It is something that all of us have to begin to worry about — how we’re going to prevent others from finding meaning in this bizarre way, this destructive way,” Frances said.
It’s hard to solve those problems. It’s hard to solve the alienation of youth, particularly youth of first- or second-generation immigrants
Zehaf-Bibeau was a danger to society and to himself. But believing his actions those of a single, mentally sick man — a one-off aberration, an individual act — is easier than addressing the systemic problems that are dangerous and harder to deal with, Frances said, including disaffected youth and a society that permits easy access to drugs, weapons and bizarre political and religious extremisms.
“It’s hard to solve those problems. It’s hard to solve the alienation of youth, particularly youth of first- or second-generation immigrants,” Frances said.
“It’s easy to say, ‘oh, he’s just crazy.’ “
With files from Douglas Quan, Postmedia News
ff topic: reminder:
