Mental illness and sin

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glencor63

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What is the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding culpability for sin and psychological disorders like Psychopathy, Sociopathy or Narcissistic Personality Disorder? Psychopathy and Sociopathy in particular are considered genetic and cannot be treated with therapy. The characteristics of Psychopathy includes a lack of remorse or guilt, callousness and lack of empathy, cunning and manipulation, pathological lying, etc.
 
The thing is, the above types are aware of their actions, they just don’t care about consequences or believe in getting caught.
 
We are called to do what we can do with what we are given. We are not robots. A Narcissist (aren’t most of a little bit anyway 😉) might take feedback about their behavior and find an accountability person and/or seek therapy. (Or become President, but I digress). The truth is we are really just beginning to understand and recognize what mental disease or conditions look like.

This is certainly not anywhere is as extreme, but my son has issues with sensory (name removed by moderator)uts and outputs (Sensory Processing Disorder). Loud (normal) noises can be extremely overwhelming stressful conversely he is also disposed to making really loud sounds, physical (impacts), impulsive mess making, jumping suddenly on people in inappropriate ways, and other strong sensory (name removed by moderator)uts.

It’s not only his parent saying this (no really); he is a very sweet, likely more self-aware for his age, intelligent beyond his years, and caring kid. We tell him that this is all something we use not as an excuse, but to help him learn about himself such that he’ll be more socially integrated. This is not something we want to make him do when he has have a professional job, a mortgage, and a family. Simply punishing him would be the least burdensome. But, he would likely be depressive and have needlessly poor self esteem. I love him too much to do so.

I say this all not to toot my own horn (well hopefully not too much!). But, I’m advocating for all parents dealing with awesome children for whom society was just not designed with them in mind. Those who haven’t been in such a situation, please don’t assume we are bad parents or that our kids are disobedient. There’s more than a few on this board that would say his “disobedience” is a willful “sin”. My son would have been punished relentlessly “back in the day” when often his inappropriate behavior is him actually trying to play with you or show affection. Please give us a little understanding.

The same thing with people who have some of these more extreme mental issues. Some are innate disabilities, but some are the result of abuse and other similar things.
 
Psychopathy is genetic. The brain is different. It can be exacerbated by environment, but a true psychopath is born without a concience or ability to feel compassion, mercy, empathy, etc. They mimic these traits to blend in society. They can kill and torture without mercy.
 
I watched video of a psychologist explain these disorders a short while ago and she said that sociopathy was not genetic, but rather, a learned behavior. I often wonder these questions myself since I suspect my mother has NPD. She is pretty much incapable of taking responsibility for anything she has done that has hurt someone else. And, this basically means she would never go to a therapist on her own accord. So, just from my life experience, I would say that these types of people are living in a state of perpetual denial. I think on an intellectual level they know they have done wrong, but since they cannot feel the pain of the person they hurt, they cannot understand how grave it is. Depending on the person that might make their sins less serious, but that is just my guess without contacting a priest. My prayer is that I can see my mom in heaven one day and actually feel genuine love from her.
 
glencor63 said:
Psychopathy is genetic. The brain is different. It can be exacerbated by environment, but a true psychopath is born without a concience or ability to feel compassion, mercy, empathy, etc. They mimic these traits to blend in society. They can kill and torture without mercy.
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But not all sociopaths kill and torture. Maybe they don’t see any point in it, or maybe that just not their idea of fun. Or decide the risk isn’t worth it.

However, we can assume we are judged by what our mental capacity is at the time of the misdeed.

A friend of mine told me that at the retirement home where she worked, a lady had a psychotic break and tried to kill her husband with a hammer. The police were summoned and she wound up on a geropsyche unit where they adjusted her medications. But he never pressed charges and she never had that type of catastrophic behavior again.

We can only assume we’re judged on what we know and our abilities at the time.
 
Those who are given much, much is expected. Those with more struggles, less is expected.
 
The full extent of a person’s culpability or lack of culpability is known only to God. Priests are trained to make informed decisions on this but their knowledge is also limited. We don’t have crystal balls to look into each others’ souls.

I think it’s relevant to point out that for many centuries - long before we started having a more advanced medical understanding of these things - the Church has said that obedience is what matters, not a person’s feelings. If a person has lots of warm feelings and spiritual consolations at Mass or at a retreat, etc., and it doesn’t affect their mission as a human being, then those feelings don’t really matter one way or another. It can even become offensive to God that a person has all sorts of warm feelings but they aren’t making any use of them.

So while empathy can be useful to have it is not a requirement to following God’s will.
 
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I am not discounting that psychopaths can be born a certain way, however the physical structures of the brain can and will change based on habits and life experiences. An addict’s brain is not structurally the same as a non-addict.

So for anything related to brain science, there will be many variables.
 
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The best response is, “take this up with your own priest.”

There are myriad reasons that diminish full consent.

There is no use in generalizing, because every person is unique, every case unique.

Best for the internal forum rather than an Internet Forum.

Consult your priest, please.
Deacon Christopher
 
The brain won’t change, even over time. It’s genetic. Psychopathy is completely unchangeable. You are born a Psychopath.
 
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