Mental Health, Evil and Personal Choice

I have been extremely busy at work for the last three months, and haven't written a blog for awhile.  However, I have been thinking a lot about a number of issues, some of them quite philosophical.  One of them is the issue of evil.  What is evil and just how does it impinge on our lives?

Many philosophers have discussed the role of evil and I can't say that I am an expert on what other 'experts' have said. But I come from a philosophical tradition (Mormonism) that believes in evil and the influence of the Adversary, Satan, Lucifer, whatever you want to call him, in our lives.  He tempts us to make 'wrong' or evil choices and we have the agency to personally choose to resist that evil or to give in to it.

Recently I have run across a couple of people who seem to be making evil choices is the sense of doing things, whatever it takes, to advance their own self interest.  In one case, a friend of mine married a man with more severe 'mental health issues' than she understood before the marriage.  Recently he became quite abusive and violent, punching the wall, throwing furniture, etc, and finished by calling an ambulance "because he was having a heart attack."  That was the third time in just over a month for this kind of ambulance ride.His heart was normal.  It was all triggered because his new wife had tired of waiting on him, sympathizing with him, and devoting her whole attention to his tantrums.  Fortunately, because both his hands were in casts from punching the wall, and she suggested to the people in ER that he needed a psych evaluation, he was admitted to a psych ward.  There had been other recent problems with lying and gambling, in addition to the name-calling, threats, and shouting that I would call emotional abuse. The psychiatrist informed the wife that these were all symptoms of his mental condition.  He hoped that the medications would make these symptoms less severe, but told her that if she stayed married to him she could expect to be emotionally abused for the rest of her life. He also said that these problems get worse as aperson ages.

I tell this story because recently I had some experiences that were more personal with someone who lied to and manipulated me - quite successfully I might add - in order to get me to give her a substantial amount of money.  I am not sure what the money was to be used for, except that I found out for sure that it was not for the purpose she explained to me.  There were big promises of repayment "next week when we get a pay cheque."  If the reason given for the need being so desperate and temporary was a lie, it is more or less a given that the money would never be paid back.  I have tried to think of what that quantity of money would be spent on, and can only suspect, once the obvious things like rent, utilities, car, clothes and other forms of shopping, are eliminated, it is likely some form of gambling.  As I talked with my friend about her mental husband, I began to see a huge number of parallels in behaviour - lying, gambling, abuse, although at this point her abuse is veiled as 'joking'.  I began to see her as probably having the same mental health issues as my friend's husband.  In some ways it has been easier to view this behaviour, not as a huge issue of disrespect, or total lack of empathy for my very real needs, or as the sign of a totally corrupt person, but as the evidence of a mental health condition which may very well increase with age.

However, how does the concept of evil fit into all this?  The meds my friend's husband was prescribed have indeed made him more calm and less apt to break into violent outbursts of name calling or throwing furniture.  However, it is evident that his high level of self-interest is his greatest motivation, and his ability to show concern for his wife's needs is still obviously lacking.  In the beginning days of their marriage, he was kind and almost loving.  That was when he was having heart problems and she was devoting all her spare time to waiting on him.  He obviously liked that and wanted to keep their relationship on that basis, even when he was recovered.  When she asked for a more reasonable balance, he flipped out and faked heart problems. The meds helped but that balance didn't happen.  So where does brain chemistry as a cause end and personal choice take over?  It seemed like he was able to choose to be 'nice' when he was getting what he wanted and became nasty when he didn't. Was it true that, in the words of that sixties comic Flip Wilson, "the devil made me do it" ? AND does the person in my life have similar "mental health issues"? Or is she giving in to a high level of self-interest that cannot consider the valid and real needs of others, that is, did the 'devil make her do it', or does she have serious mental health issues?

I know that there probably is no firm answer for me to these questions.  I am likely to attribute personal choice to a number of the small sins that people commit.  However, when the offenses are serious, I am less able to make them responsible, since doing so may be admitting the presence of evil in their lives, and consequently thinking they are bad.  THAT makes me uncomfortable.  I am not a judgmental person and I have had a number of people tell me that I am the least judgmental of anyone they know.  It very often happens that when someone has 'wronged' or cheated you in the way she has, they then have to justify themselves by pointing the finger at you and criticizing you, even talking about you behind your back.  Then they can feel like you deserve their treatment of you.  I accept that.  I can at that point avoid contact with them since they have become incapable of being one of my friends, but can only pretend to like me while being compelled to criticize, discredit, and lie about me.  If they are a person who lies anyway this is easy for them.  That I can deal with.  But the larger issue of how to account for it remains.  Is it evil and the personal choice to embrace it, or a mental health issue that drives their behaviour and which they cannot be responsible for? If it is 'mental health' then it will probably not change much, and if it is an evil choice, then until the choices radically change, it will probably not change much. I was discussing the problem with a close friend recently, and she said that it doesn't matter - my response to it has to be the same in either case.  However, I have to think something.  For me personally, it is easier for me to choose mental health issues since that is the least judgmental way.   I just am not willing to judge.

Only God knows what personal responsibility either of these people, or anyone for that matter, bears. I am glad He actually knows and has the wisdom to make the judgment fairly. I am glad that I am not God.