Abigail Brady

I am resisting the temptation to get into an argument on the book of face, and instead coming here to observe that it irks me when people say things like, "You shouldn't blame violent behaviour on people's mental illness. Mentally ill people are more likely to be the victim of violence than the perpetrator." As though it's not possible for the same factor to increase both vulnerability to and propensity to commit violence. The overwhelming majority of the violence that I've been on the receiving end of occurred whilst I was in psychiatric hospitals, surrounded by other mentally ill people.

Of course there's nuance to the conversation. Some varieties of mental illness, particularly the most prevalent ones of depression and anxiety, probably have little to no effect on violent tendencies, whereas others like addiction which have a major effect on impulse control almost certainly do, and still others literally have aggression and violence as part of the diagnostic criteria. It's also important to think carefully about how we assign culpability for violence committed by mentally ill people, and about the impact of speech which uncritically conflates all mental illness with violence. But the idea that violence committed against mentally ill people means we shouldn't speak about the link between mental illness and that which they commit, or even that no such links exists has absolutely none of that nuance. Thank you for listening to my TED Talk :)