Emotionally Disturbed
"Emotionally Disturbed" is the catchall for people whose behavior upsets us, but who we cannot fit into any traditional psychiatric pigeonholes.
There are few crimes as upsetting as those committed against children. Last night in New York City a man was arrested for stabbing a 10-month-old baby in her stroller. The poor baby is in critical condition and her mother is beside herself. According to the New York Times, "The police official who described Mr. Derr [the accused attacker] as emotionally disturbed did not elaborate on his condition."
When did the police get into the diagnosis business? Maybe the guy is simply a bad, horrible person who wanted to stab a baby because it gave him perverse pleasure to do so. If there are people out there who are considered sane but are sexually attracted to babies, then it's not such a far stretch that there are people who are considered sane but like to hurt or kill babies.
Some people are just plain bad. They choose to do heinous things.
It's hard for us to comprehend that someone would enjoy hurting a sweet little baby. In this case there was no sensible provocation. I mention that because years ago when I lived in Ithaca, New York there was a case of a mother who shook her baby to death. No one thought she insane because the baby was crying non-stop with an illness and the mother lost her temper. She was sentenced to a long prison term.
But in this case the accused didn't even know the family or the baby (as far as I can tell). We look for excuses in these situations because it frightens us to know that there are monsters in our midst - people who hurt or kill with no provocation at all, from whom we cannot protect ourselves. We hope that there is a sign that will make the monsters obvious - maybe the mutterers, or the suicidal, or the aggressive people are the monsters. But remember Dennis Rader and Ted Bundy - some people just like to harm and there's no "emotional disturbance" about it.
There are few crimes as upsetting as those committed against children. Last night in New York City a man was arrested for stabbing a 10-month-old baby in her stroller. The poor baby is in critical condition and her mother is beside herself. According to the New York Times, "The police official who described Mr. Derr [the accused attacker] as emotionally disturbed did not elaborate on his condition."
When did the police get into the diagnosis business? Maybe the guy is simply a bad, horrible person who wanted to stab a baby because it gave him perverse pleasure to do so. If there are people out there who are considered sane but are sexually attracted to babies, then it's not such a far stretch that there are people who are considered sane but like to hurt or kill babies.
Some people are just plain bad. They choose to do heinous things.
It's hard for us to comprehend that someone would enjoy hurting a sweet little baby. In this case there was no sensible provocation. I mention that because years ago when I lived in Ithaca, New York there was a case of a mother who shook her baby to death. No one thought she insane because the baby was crying non-stop with an illness and the mother lost her temper. She was sentenced to a long prison term.
But in this case the accused didn't even know the family or the baby (as far as I can tell). We look for excuses in these situations because it frightens us to know that there are monsters in our midst - people who hurt or kill with no provocation at all, from whom we cannot protect ourselves. We hope that there is a sign that will make the monsters obvious - maybe the mutterers, or the suicidal, or the aggressive people are the monsters. But remember Dennis Rader and Ted Bundy - some people just like to harm and there's no "emotional disturbance" about it.
posted by Christine at Thursday, September 08, 2005
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