National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy
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Hardly Mental Illness
To the Editor:
Let's remember that hate is not a mental illness.
In the wake of such senseless and violent events as the shootings in Los
Angeles (front page, Aug. 13), we are inundated with an endless parade of
talking heads who are all too quick to come up with "causes" for such
outrageous actions.
Where in an earlier era the public heard pronouncements that such offenders
were "in Satan's grip," today there is often a rush to judgment of "mental
illness." But hatred — whether racism, homophobia or anti-Semitism — is
not a disease, and no psychiatric drug can make it go away.
THOMAS BEHRENDT
Bethany, Conn.
Aug. 13, 1999
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