Reply #33: I guess it depends on your definition

[Mizmoon]

He had emotional issues and I think that the definition of mental illness is very broad - including everything from PTSD to depression to being emotionally distrubed to schizophrenia. I was trying to get at what you're getting at - he wasn't mentally ill before he was forced to commit murder, but afterwards he spiralled into a emotoinal condition and he needed help. He wasn't the kind of ill that needs pills, he was the kind of ill that needs community and therapy. He needed a plan to recover.

I am reminded of the scene from the film Gandhi where another man who has killed talks of his dispair:

Hindu Man: I'm going to Hell! I killed a child! I smashed his head against a wall.
Gandhi: Why?
Hindu Man: Because they killed my son! The Muslims killed my son!
Gandhi: I know a way out of Hell. Find a small boy, about this high, whose parents have been killed, and raise him as your own. But make sure he is Muslim, and raise him as one.