The Golden Ratio
Page 30
That can be true, sometimes. The system can fail people whose mental illness can, when untreated, result in an inability to control violent impulses—or, while they can control them, they don’t want to or see no reason to. Many countries lack the interest, resources, and funding for the necessary medical intervention and therapeutic treatment to manage such cases in a way that those mental illnesses can be treated with respect for the individual involved while helping them socially acclimate.
But sometimes the pathologically violent are just…um…
Bad people.
Hateful, cruel, and frequently socialized into violent behavior based on us vs. them mentalities that dehumanize those seen as the enemy, and then encourage violence against them based on propaganda about some perceived threat.
That’s the type of violence we face most often in the United States.
That’s the type of violence we’re talking about when we say someone “just snapped;” not that they “went crazy,” but that they reached peak saturation for the indoctrination into violence engendered by their feeling of righteous persecution, and tipped over a point that made them choose to take grossly harmful action.
And mentally ill people are far more likely to be victims of that kind of violence than perpetrators of it.
We need to stop just labeling all violent people as “crazy” and then dismissing it without addressing the causes and the consequences.
We need to stop looking at every form of mental illness as potentially harmful to others and thus worthy of social ostracization and mockery, when most mentally ill people are more likely to harm themselves than others.
That’s why, in this episode, I felt it very necessary to separate the Golden Ratio Killer’s dark triad pathology from his apparent symptoms of OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). It’s very easy for people accustomed to “crazy = violent” to say “oh his OCD tipped over the edge and he snapped.”
No.
People with OCD don’t kill people.
People with OCD might compulsively clean your desk when you’re home sick from work, or have a panic attack and need to leave the room because they can’t exactly count the number of hairs in your moustache. They might, like I do, need to wear disposable vinyl gloves to touch doorknobs in heavily trafficked areas.
They’re not going to try to kill you just because two blades of grass on your front lawn are uneven.
The Golden Ratio Killer is an untreated person with ASPD (antisocial personality disorder) who was put in the prison system instead of receiving the counseling he needed, and who—like many with ASPD—will often adopt a “revolving door” of traits that suit their image of themselves. As Seong-Jae said, parroting OCD behavior is a form of mirroring that TGRK has adopted to justify his actions.
It’s not a reflection of what real OCD is like, and understanding that distinction matters.
Making that distinction matters, when dealing with cases of violence that are frequently in the public eye.
Too quickly we often easily apply some label about mental health that only serves to further stigmatize and demonize mentally ill people who deserve our support, help, and compassion.
Not to be thrown in with outliers who have been failed by the system in their need for treatment, or associated with people who enact violence out of hate and fully conscious choice.
Think, when you find yourself falling back on that old “crazy = violent” trope.
And ask yourself if your honestly think your depressed cousin June who sleeps all the time or that friend of yours who always has to organize his pens by color and nib type or that girl you dated who had anxiety attacks in crowded public spaces could really hurt someone.
You know the answer is no.
You also know you give them the benefit of the doubt because you know them and trust them.
But if they deserve the benefit of the doubt…
So does everyone else out here struggling with mental illnesses, who just want to live and let live.
Not see anyone die.
-C
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[ACKNOWLEDGMENTS]
Y’ALL ARE JUST GOING TO have to get used to the fact that I thank my chosen family in every book: mija, aneki, imouto, mei mei, L. It’s just a given that every last one of these books is supported and encouraged by the emotional labor they put into keeping me from dissolving into a pile of panicky, anxious, dysfunctional goop.
I don’t know why they put up with me.
But I’m glad they do.
[ABOUT THE AUTHOR]
COLE MCCADE IS A NEW ORLEANS-BORN Southern boy without the Southern accent, currently residing somewhere in Seattle. He spends his days as a suit-and-tie corporate consultant and business writer, and his nights writing contemporary romance and erotica that flirts with the edge of taboo—when he’s not being tackled by two hyperactive cats.
He also writes genre-bending science fiction and fantasy tinged with a touch of horror and flavored by the influences of his multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual background as Xen. He wavers between calling himself bisexual, calling himself queer, and trying to figure out where “demi” fits into the whole mess—but no matter what word he uses he’s a staunch advocate of LGBTQIA and POC representation and visibility in genre fiction. And while he spends more time than is healthy hiding in his writing cave instead of hanging around social media, you can generally find him in these usual haunts:
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