adam lanza medicalisation evil
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Top storiesSScciieennccee
Monday 17 December 2012 14.26 GMT
AAddaamm LLaannzzaa:: tthhee mmeeddiiccaalliissaattiioonn ooff eevviill
In the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings, why are we so quick toassume that to commit such a crime Lanza must be 'sick'?
Family and friends light candles in memory of those who died in the shooting at Sandy Hook
Elementary School that left 20 children and 6 adults dead. Photograph: Corbis
Lindsey Fitzharris
As a medical historian whose research focuses on a time and place
very alien to our own, I rarely comment on current events. However,
in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newtown, Connecticut, which left 20 schoolchildren and six adults
dead, I would like to discuss briefly what I would characterise as the
"medicalisation of evil".
Anyone who has been watching the news over the past few days willhave heard the gunman, Adam Lanza, described as "sick," "disturbed"
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and "defective". The perpetrator may indeed have suffered from
mental conditions that led to his homicidal attack, but even before
anything was known about Lanza (including his name), many people
in the media assumed a crime of this magnitude could only be
committed by a mentally unstable individual. Very little discussion –if any – was given to the role of personal responsibility in this tragic
event.
It is an age-old question: what is evil? The answer, of course, is
subjective. Many scholars have argued that our concepts of deviant
behaviour have changed over time, first being seen as a sin, then a
crime and now a medical problem.
The French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault was one of the
first to write about the medicalisation of evil. In his 1974 lecture on
"The Birth of Social Medicine", he pinpointed what he believed to be
a crucial moment in history: "Starting in the 18th century, human
existence, human behaviour, and the human body were brought into
an increasingly dense and important network of medicalisation."
Other important works by scholars such as R D Laing, Thomas Szasz,
Irving Goffman and Ivan Illich followed, suggesting that our concept
of "normal behaviour" was a social construct that relied heavily on
medical discourse.
Today, the medicalisaton of deviant behaviour has made it difficult
for us to accept notions of "evil". Nancy J Herman, associate
professor of sociology at Central Michigan University, notes that "the
diminution of religious imagery of sin, the rise of determinist theories
of human behaviour, and the doctrine of cultural relativity" have led
further to the exclusion of "evil" from our discourse.
Why do we find this narrative so appealing? Why are we so quick to
assume a person such as Lanza is "sick?" In an article for Parade
Magazine in 2002, Andrew Vachss, a crime fiction novelist and child
protection consultant, noted that explanations of mental illness offer
"the possibility of finding a cure" and "assures us that the predator
didn't really mean it". In other words, it is unsettling to admit that
someone who commits a horrible crime may have done so knowingly
and without remorse.
Lori Korngiebel, a post-production supervisor for Disney,understands this problem all too well. In 1994, her boyfriend, Danny,
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along with his entire family, was brutally murdered. The perpetrator
was Danny's own brother, Edward Charles III.
Korngiebel remembers testifying against the man, who never gave a
reason for his actions and who now sits on Death Row at San Quentin
State Prison in Marin County, California. "I have seen evil, looked it
in the eyes in a courtroom. Evil is not sick. And, evil does exist," she
says.
As time progresses, we will learn more and more about the man who
is responsible for the terrible slaying of so many innocent people.
Undoubtedly, there will be further discussions about his alleged
mental state. Was he a lonely individual? Did he show signs of depression? Was he autistic? What antisocial behaviours did he
exhibit?
An answer "yes" to any one of those questions obviously does not
make a person homicidal. While I do believe it is important to
determine what factors may have led Lanza to open fire on Sandy
Hook Elementary School – and whether this tragic event could have been prevented – I want to remind the US and the world of one thing:
evil is about choice. Sickness is about the absence of choice.
LLiinnddsseeyy FFiittzzhhaarrrriiss is a medical historian at Queen Mary, University
of London. She runs a website on the history of pre-anaesthetic
surgery, The Chirurgeon's Apprentice , and is currently writing a book
on the evolution of surgery
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Thursday 20 Dec 2012
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Gun control advocates flood companies' Facebook pages with
complaints in wake of shooting at Sandy Hook elementary
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Thursday 20 Dec 2012
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vviiccttiimmss
Families and friends of the victims have spoken publicly about their
loved ones in the week since the Sandy Hook shootings
Tuesday 18 Dec 2012
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Gene Rosen, who lives near Sandy Hook elementary school, tells how
he sheltered six children in his home
Monday 17 Dec 2012
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mmaassss kkiilllliinnggss
PPeetteerr AAyyllwwaarrdd:: To stop marginalised individuals like Adam Lanza
and Thomas Hamilton in Dunblane becoming killers we must start at
school
Monday 17 Dec 2012
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Edited audio recordings of police radio activity after emergency 911
calls came into Newtown police about the Sandy Hook elementary
school gun attack
Monday 17 Dec 2012
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