I’m reading about a guy whose explanation for attacking women is “Allah commanded me to kill women.” I support freedom of religion – but there are times, many times when being nuts improves your chances of getting messages from the almighty.
I’m a sociologist. I leave diagnosis of the individual to the psychologist folks – they have developed the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for this purpose. Despite my willingness to leave that part of the game to the head shrinkers, my training is to look at the society, the culture, and how specific cultures are connected with specific behaviors.
Among the Algonquian tribes, there is a specific way of going nuts called the ‘Wendigo Psychosis’ – you can get a more complete description at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10685673/ . Basically if the folks around you start looking good to eat, you have a problem – but it’s an ethnic psychosis. I’ve never heard of an Italian or German with the Wendigo psychosis.
Our cultures influence how we go crazy. Studies in Shanghai showed that men there were more likely to hear voices with political messages while women were more likely to hear religious messages. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13634615251324088 When I read of ethnic psychosis as an undergrad, one of the things I recall is that Catholic Irish were more likely to hear messages from saints. That was over fifty years ago – I don’t know if it’s still the case. More modern research seems to look for a connection between racism and discrimination leading to ethnic psychosis than a cultural basis – but, with an emphasis in my training that included cultural ecology, I tend to look at the cultural connection. Still, a Canadian study that showed twice the incidence of psychosis among Montreal’s English speakers than the French speakers suggest that there may be merit in both camps.
But back to the Muslim who heard a message from Allah to go out and knife women. I suspect that this sort of divine message occurs much less frequently among, for example, Christian Scientists or Jehovah Witnesses. I may have a Lutheran neighbor who hears divine messages – but it’s been a long time since most of the Catholic/Protestant wars.
I’m not comfortable when I live among people who start looking at their neighbors as culinary treats, as occurs with the Wendigo psychosis. I’m even less comfortable among people who get messages from the almighty to go out and kill. And I see a cultural basis for how they go nuts.
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