Adam Lanza Medicalisation Evil

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Monday 17 December 2012 14.26 GMT

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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"



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,



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



Thursday 20 Dec 2012

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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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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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SScciieennccee The Guardian

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