Freewill and Mental disorders

[janiruchan]

I have a friend who has a schizophrenic father. His father is a chainsmoker and alcoholic. His mother tolerates his father’s action because she thinks he does not anymore think well.

Well my question…does people with mental disorder lose their freewill, I mean their capacity to choose well? like for instance the father of my friend? He seems to be oblivious about his health issues and keeps on smoking despite the doctors warning…

 

[JRKH]

There are so many degrees and shades to this issue that it is nearly impossible to give anything like a simple answer.

That said…I’ll take a crack at starting off the conversation by saying that one must be pretty far down the path of psychosis or addiction to be deemed to be without free will.
That’s not to say that one’s free will is not impaired by such illnesses and addictions. But often times there is a level of lucidity involved where a person can choose to get help.

Just my thought on the matter

Peace
James

 

[SighGuy]

Er, not really sure, to be honest. My stock answer would be as follows: it varies.

Our guilt is proportional to our knowledge and will involved in an action. So a thing which is grave matter may not be grave sin if the person, through no fault of their own, lacked knowledge of its sinfulness and/or performed the action against their will.

For those who have mental disorders, it is likely that some of the guilt behind their sins is alleviated due to their relative incapability of choosing rightly. Nevertheless, this does not mean there is a “free ticket” to sin. Playing excessively the part of victim, or willfully avoiding education on why a thing is wrong, do not alleviate guilt and may even compound it. Furthermore, where there is hope in educating a person and building up their ability to make good decisions, we should be doing so.

So, in someone who is totally, utterly insane, I doubt many of their actions will be judged particularly harshly, although only God knows. In a lesser mental disorder, although some guilt may be alleviated in sinful action, other guilt may not.

 

[Gorgias]

Our guilt is proportional to our knowledge and will involved in an action. So a thing which is grave matter may not be grave sin if the person, through no fault of their own, lacked knowledge of its sinfulness and/or performed the action against their will.

Hold on a second, though! You’ve changed the definition – subtly, but significantly – and so you’ve set a different standard.

The standard isn’t only that an action “performed against [one’s] will” is not mortal sin, it’s that an action committed without “deliberate consent” is not a mortal sin. As James said, it’s pretty hard to give a good answer, since so many variables are in play.

The OP asked about ‘free will’, so I’m with James that it’s difficult to say that free will is completely absent; but, if the question really has to do with culpability for grave sin – which I suspect it does – then there’s much greater leeway there.

 

[SighGuy]

I suppose you mean that if an action is performed against a will, it requires a will which is at odds with the action, and if an action is performed without deliberate consent, it merely requires a will which is not positively inclined towards an action?

And thus it creates a wider zone of reduced culpability, because there are those who take action without actually having a positive consent towards the action, yet are not in truth opposed to the action either. Is this what you mean or have I misrepresented your distinction?

Of course that would be an important distinction to make, in the case of those individuals who may act without making clear and “personal choices” to use the words of the CCC.

 

[Gorgias]

And thus it creates a wider zone of reduced culpability, because there are those who take action without actually having a positive consent towards the action

Correct. There are situations that one might posit in which the person’s ability to ‘consent’, per se, is reduced, in the context of the acts that he commits, given the circumstances of his situation.