Jonathan Thompson’s use of the phrase “self-murder”is
ill-advised, and “crazy”(as used by both Thompson and Ray Ring)
arguably is, too, in this context, in particular as a major heading
on the front page (HCN,
3/31/08). Yet more telling, however, is Thompson’s – and
to a degree (and surprisingly) Ring’s – apparent ignorance of how
mental illness and even just serious depression outside of mental
illness actually work. Mental illness itself almost always, perhaps
always, has a physical base. We divide illnesses into
mental/physical under the false Cartesian dichotomy and under
thousands of years of cultural pressure and ignorance and in large
part because of insurance and medical corporations and their
influence. There is no mind-body chasm. In fact, there’s not even a
thin crack.
There are, indeed, suicides of absolute will,
where neither “mental”illness itself nor serious depressions that
may or may not qualify as “mental”conditions are the factors:
Buddhist monks dousing themselves and lighting up in protest,
hunger strikers and suicide bombers. And there is little doubt that
some suicides are “self-murder.”But most suicides are indeed people
in great pain, physical, “mental”or emotional. And many of them,
contrary to what Thompson apparently believes, are impulsive, and
most that are planned out are planned out while the people aren’t
thinking clearly, which therefore hardly qualifies it for
“self-murder.”Willful intent and a reasonable amount of
self-possession need to be present for that.
As father of
a bipolar son and brother-in-law of a seriously troubled woman who
has been threatening suicide, I loudly applaud HCN’s publication of
this article and for drawing attention to the issue(s). I just wish
the diction had been handled a bit more sensitively, particularly
in the opening editorial.
Nial McCruimmen
Spearfish, South Dakota
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Language is a virus.
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