MENTAL ILLNESS: NOT A FOUR-LETTER WORD
Dawn Marie Goula
Issue date: 4/30/07 Section: News
When NBC decided to air tapes that Cho Seung-Hui made just days before he murdered 32 students and faculty on the Virginia Tech campus, a heated debate started on what the effect of showing the tapes would be. Was it fair to families who lost their sons, daughters, spouses, and parents? Would it give Cho exactly what he wanted when he mailed the package? Could it spur copycat events?
I dare to ask something else: what is the effect if we do not show them?
It has become known that Cho had a history of mental illness and that the campus officials were well aware of this. When, almost 17 months before the killings, Cho was evaluated by a mental health facility after an acquaintance reported him suicidal, he was released back to the campus. Following that evaluation, a judge indicated that Cho "is mentally ill and in need of hospitalization, and presents an imminent danger to self or others as a result of mental illness." But this was not enough on a campus, and in a culture, more concerned with individual rights than that of the community. Cho's mental illness paled in comparison to his rights.
NBC has forced citizens to look in the face of mental illness and deal with it head on. If it had not been for Cho's illness, the innocent students and future changers of the world would still be with us today. President Bush's comment of the students "simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time" was a slap in the face to the families of the victims and all U.S. citizens. It was not the victims who were in the wrong place; it was Cho. He should not have been on that campus until he was given serious, monitored help for his illness. It was his right to get help; it was the students' right to be protected from those that posed "imminent danger."
I admit it is not easy to look at Cho, or this issue, head on. Just trying to read TIME magazine's coverage of this event, I found myself folding over the full-page photo of Cho holding the gun straight at the camera; unable to read the article with the image in my face. On the other hand, I also found myself tearful for the students pictured who had lost their lives. As has been brought up by people who disagree with showing the tapes, I do not believe that people will look at Cho and forget about those who perished.
We must find a way to turn mental illness away from what some dub with a four-letter word: evil.
According to Dorland's Medical Dictionary, psychosis is "a mental disorder characterized by gross impairment in reality testing...usually without apparent awareness on the part of the patient of the incomprehensibility of his behavior."
Cho has been described by some as villainous and a broken loner, but he was not evil. His reality was that of someone who was totally unaware of how delusional his thoughts were. As he saw it, all people were his enemies and his actions were warranted. Yes, he truly believed this.
We need to talk about mental illness on a national level. We need to educate young and old about mental illness, so they can help themselves and the people around them. Most of all, we need to open our minds to the members of our society who are horribly misunderstood and disgracefully underrepresented.
I dare to ask something else: what is the effect if we do not show them?
It has become known that Cho had a history of mental illness and that the campus officials were well aware of this. When, almost 17 months before the killings, Cho was evaluated by a mental health facility after an acquaintance reported him suicidal, he was released back to the campus. Following that evaluation, a judge indicated that Cho "is mentally ill and in need of hospitalization, and presents an imminent danger to self or others as a result of mental illness." But this was not enough on a campus, and in a culture, more concerned with individual rights than that of the community. Cho's mental illness paled in comparison to his rights.
NBC has forced citizens to look in the face of mental illness and deal with it head on. If it had not been for Cho's illness, the innocent students and future changers of the world would still be with us today. President Bush's comment of the students "simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time" was a slap in the face to the families of the victims and all U.S. citizens. It was not the victims who were in the wrong place; it was Cho. He should not have been on that campus until he was given serious, monitored help for his illness. It was his right to get help; it was the students' right to be protected from those that posed "imminent danger."
I admit it is not easy to look at Cho, or this issue, head on. Just trying to read TIME magazine's coverage of this event, I found myself folding over the full-page photo of Cho holding the gun straight at the camera; unable to read the article with the image in my face. On the other hand, I also found myself tearful for the students pictured who had lost their lives. As has been brought up by people who disagree with showing the tapes, I do not believe that people will look at Cho and forget about those who perished.
We must find a way to turn mental illness away from what some dub with a four-letter word: evil.
According to Dorland's Medical Dictionary, psychosis is "a mental disorder characterized by gross impairment in reality testing...usually without apparent awareness on the part of the patient of the incomprehensibility of his behavior."
Cho has been described by some as villainous and a broken loner, but he was not evil. His reality was that of someone who was totally unaware of how delusional his thoughts were. As he saw it, all people were his enemies and his actions were warranted. Yes, he truly believed this.
We need to talk about mental illness on a national level. We need to educate young and old about mental illness, so they can help themselves and the people around them. Most of all, we need to open our minds to the members of our society who are horribly misunderstood and disgracefully underrepresented.
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