Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.

I read an article in the New York Times today about Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., who has been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder, the same illness that my father suffers from. Three things about mental illness I can tell you:

1. People do not understand it and are afraid of it.


2. Mental illness is subtle sometimes and can be treated. I would expect that many of J.J.'s peers suffer from similar disorders with varying severity.


3. It is common to blame the sufferer, whereas with a physical ailment the cause, such as cancer, is blamed rather than the victim.

I remind myself to forgive my father, because he is crippled by manic-depression. An observer is tempted to forget the illness during his periods of lucidity. I am tempted to react to him in normal fashion as I have all my life, but now his illness has progressed until his mind is ruled by the illness, with little of his better, former self remaining.

Mental illness raises fascinating ethical questions. Perhaps one should forgive everybody, because all evil under the sun may be the result of mental illness, undiagnosed and untreated. Can free will exist in a mind impaired? Today we know only a few mental illnesses, but how many conditions exist without labels? Of course universal forgiveness was the position Jesus adopted. Perhaps we are too limited in both resources and wisdom to adopt this position on a societal scale or even an individual one.Post a Comment

by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments