The online social network has been inundated with calls to “crucify” the man who has been charged with killing and displaying dead animals in religious sites, members of the public having embarked on a hate campaign.

It is, of course, pertinent for the courts to start realising that shrugging off cruelty to animals as a minor crime, such as giving a suspended sentence, is like ignoring a ticking time bomb. But there are cases when imprisonment is not the wisest of decisions.

Earlier this week, police brought to an end a cat-and-mouse game involving a person who has been charged with killing animals and desecrating religious places.

A court ordered that he be transferred to a mental health rehabilitation hospital. This newspaper was the first to carry footage of the alleged cat killer, who was caught on camera surveying an area surrounding Mosta church before he embarked on another cat and dog crucifixion, only to be seen once again surveying the area before disappearing into the darkness. However, his identity could not be revealed at the time as his face was covered.

In a question and answer interview with this newspaper, psychiatrist Etienne Muscat gives our readers an insight into what goes on in the minds of people who engage in such cruel acts and in the event that such barbarism is symptomatic of someone who is deeply mentally disturbed, what could be the reason for this.

 

Some members of the public have embarked on a hate campaign in reaction to a spate of cat and dog killings? Can you give us your opinion as to why this is happening when it has been made public that the man charged with these killings is suffering from mental health problems?

First of all, I would like to make it absolutely clear that while I can understand that it is the interest in this particular case that is leading to this interview, I cannot and will not be discussing any specific case but rather considering general situations regarding high-visibility incidents such as these. I know from experience that no-one except the legal teams and the medical staff directly involved with the courts in this case have real knowledge of the facts and it would thus be inappropriate for me to give an opinion.

Having said that, it is becoming routine for observers to turn to the social media to comment on items of news value and in certain cases quite a snowball effect is seen.

We all like things to be clear and straightforward, and there is something very reassuring in having a firm opinion and a solution to all our problems: it makes the world around us feel simpler and safer.

I think we all have the tendency to form opinions based on our experience of life, and we apply this to cases we hear about, even if we know very little about the details.

Unfortunately, the immediacy of social media allows us to make our thoughts public before we can even think them through, and they are then used as fuel by other observers.

Since, naturally, these are not simple situations, social media outcries such as this one do not help anyone and only make it harder to reach the truth or to allow for the eventual rehabilitation of an individual as decided by the law courts.

 

Why has there been this outcry from the public, and why is it so powerful?

There are two further important elements in the case you mention: the gruesomeness of the reported crimes, which instinctively leads to a gut reaction from us as observers, and the report of mental health problems.

For those of us who do not have daily contact with mental illness, it is very hard to understand how insidious mental illness can be in distorting a person’s perception of the world around him, and the role of illness in this type of crime can thus be viewed dubiously by observers.

Then there is a significant section of the population that views the concept of mental illness with suspicion: some do not really believe mental illness exists, and many find the thought of mental illness so frightening and threatening that the natural reaction is to want to remove it by condemning the individual or hiding him from sight – permanently, if possible.

Additionally, I find that there appears to be something seductive about the ability to give an opinion to the public at large through social media that several of us find hard to resist, and that seems to contribute to this type of explosive outcry.

And I often wonder whether the ability to speak publicly but at the same time ‘hidden away’ relatively anonymously behind a computer or Smartphone gives us a feeling of safety and encourages us to throw in our opinion whereas in other circumstances we would be a bit more cautious if speaking to an audience. (On the flip side, while social media seems to lead to previously-unimaginable levels of ‘noise’, it seems to me that it is also leading to shorter attention-spans, and that events such as this one remain newsworthy for briefer periods of time.)

 

What is behind such killings? Is it a question of genetic, hormonal, biological or cultural conditioning and does the type of person who engages in such killings have any control over his or her desires?

This is where it becomes impossible to comment on any case without first-hand knowledge. There are several reasons why people can behave in such terrible ways, and we should all make an effort to treat each case on its own merits.

Some acts are intentional and carried out in full awareness of the circumstances, societal rules and the consequences. Others are less clear-cut and are thus deemed by the courts to carry diminished responsibility.

However, genetic, biological and cultural factors are absolutely relevant in the behaviour we all exhibit; in fact, it is the interplay between them that leads to the specific ways we all behave. The particular set of natural characteristics we are born with, moulded by the physical events (including illness) and the social circumstances we experience as we grow and learn, make us individuals in the way we view the world and interpret it, and thus react to it. Thus, the reasoning behind any act has to be understood before we can comment about how much intent there was to cause harm.

 

How in your opinion do hate campaigns affect those who engage in such actions?

A lot depends on the driving force behind an extreme action, in other words, the effect is different on the person who erroneously believes that he or she is carrying out an act to benefit humankind than on the person who is not necessarily mentally ill and who is seeking gratification through public awareness and is trying for shock value.

We also often ignore the feelings of family members, who could have been struggling with the mental illness of a loved one for years and who are hurt tremendously by gratuitous comments and summary judgements from people who do not know the real circumstances and, in fact at times even go so far as to blame the parents or families of the perpetrators of these higher-profile actions.

 

Are individuals with a history of mental health problems aware of their actions?

People with treated mental illness are often as aware as the rest of us about their actions and implications.

“People who have active mental illness of the type that leads to a distortion in their perception of reality are still aware of their actions in the sense that they do not tend to find a weapon in their hand and say “how did this get here?”.

Only in rare instances can medical conditions lead to this scenario. The problem with the reality distortion of the type that is found in individuals with serious illness called psychotic disorders is that the individual can interpret routine events in ways that have very specific meanings for him or her, and can act under the direction of a set of false beliefs or commands that no one else can hear but that nonetheless are nearly impossible for that person to resist.

There can also be other factors that lead to people committing inexplicable acts, and some people have a lot of difficulty in recognising what social norms are and how they could appear to others, without necessarily suffering from psychosis or reality distortion.

These people can commit acts that they hope would get them positive attention, recognition or friendship without realising the full impact of their actions on those around them.

Again, only a detailed and thorough examination of the mindset of the individual at the time of the act can help to clarify these scenarios.

 

Sometimes people with a mental illness are used by third persons who have a motive? What is your opinion?

There will always be those that are more vulnerable, including to exploitation, and an apparently never-ending supply of people who are willing to exploit and manipulate them.

I suppose that such is life although it hurts me deeply to see people being taken advantage of.

“In my experience, while people with chronic mental illness are indeed more vulnerable to exploitation on so many levels, it is not so commonly seen in the realm of committing violent crimes. Rather, people with serious and chronic mental illness are more often exploited for material advantage.

However, those who are less able to safeguard their interests due to intellectual disabilities or a lack of intelligence, or those who are intelligent but not able to 'smell' sense when someone is taking advantage of them due to poor development of social awareness skills, and especially in cases where there is unfortunately additional serious mental illness, can be led by others to commit acts that benefit the manipulator and land the perpetrator in trouble.

 

What would be the right ‘punishment’ for a person of this sort: prison or rehabilitation in a psychiatric hospital?

In general, that depends on the society the person lives in, and on the decision taken by the legal system as to whether the act was undertaken with criminal intent or without full appreciation of the circumstances, and thus with a distorted appreciation of the situation and outcome.

Where a person’s responsibility is diminished in the sense that the action was committed due to a serious mental illness, then the solution is treatment rather than punishment, in an appropriate hospital in order to safeguard the community and ensure compliance with treatment. In Malta, the person remains the responsibility of the Justice Minister while the hospital treating the person reports all progress and changes in circumstances to the Minister.

This is often viewed by society as a “cop-out” or travesty of justice, but I do not think that the enormity of being sent to a psychiatric hospital for possibly decades is appreciated by those who consider this as a loophole.

Naturally, there are also those who are suffering from mental illness but where the mental illness is not thought to be sufficient to diminish the responsibility for the crime committed. These people are sentenced to prison, but it is critical that treatment is also provided there, since to suffer from mental illness is a terrible calamity and, in my opinion, the appropriate treatment of mental illness of whatever severity should be one of the cornerstones of any self-respecting civilised.”

 

Does the fact that some people with mental illness live in abnormal conditions justify their actions?

This is a social question. On the one hand it is clear that one cannot simply justify acts where harm is done to others intentionally or otherwise, but on the other hand we are negligent as a society at large if we know that social deprivation, poverty, domestic violence and ignorance (lack of knowledge) are a breeding ground for violence and antisocial behaviour and we do nothing about them except condemn the people who commit violent acts once they graduate from this environment.

 

What drives a person to do something of this sort?

Summarising what we have been talking about up to now, each act carries a unique rationale and it is the job of the people working with the individual to identify it. Sometimes this can be a disregard for the rights and sensibilities of others, at other times it can be due to the perpetrator being led on by others in a situation where he or she is trying to ‘fit in’ in an inappropriate way. And in some cases, a person commits an act while under the mistaken but unshakeable belief that he or she is being directed to do so by a higher power, or that he or she is being physically controlled by another, or that the victim is abusing or torturing them and that the only way of defending themselves or their families is to strike out in a form of self defence.

In some exceptionally tragic cases, children have been killed in order to save them from a belief that they otherwise faced eternal damnation or a fate worse than death. Only a very tiny minority of people with psychosis or severe mental illness are ever violent (they are far more likely to be the victim than the perpetrator of violence and abuse), but when they are violent under the influence of a psychotic state, the circumstances are often dramatic and terrifying due to the apparent lack of logic.

 

Do you feel the images released in the media have made things worse?

It is hard to imagine that they could help. I would like to point out that in cases of gruesome actions performed under the influence of a psychotic disorder, there is no punishment greater than the person’s own realisation of what he or she has done, once the illness has been treated and an insight into one’s actions and past beliefs is regained. This can be real torture.

Thus, in the case of people who are seriously mentally ill and who are seeking rehabilitation back into a life of normal routine, negative societal attitudes can disrupt this reintegration even once treatment has been carried out.

Furthermore, as we discussed earlier, it is tremendously painful and unfairly disruptive for the relatives of the alleged perpetrator.

Nonetheless, as you will probably appreciate, it is hard to hold back the media in cases of strong national interest, so perhaps discretion in reporting could be the goal.

 

How can people be convinced that this man was not aware of his actions?

Obviously, I cannot talk about the details of this case. It is not exactly an issue of ‘consciousness’; it is the ability to appreciate the realistic circumstances in which they took place and the reasonable outcomes.

Education is a slow and frustrating process, since we are all quick to judge and give an opinion, but it is, I believe, ultimately the most effective tool, as long as it is repeated consistently by those whose opinions are respected.”

 

By means of letters affixed to the animals that were crucified at religious sites, the alleged animal killer vented his anger towards a number of individuals. Does this help the person vent his emotions and make him feel better by doing so?

On the one hand, when we repeat any action it is likely that we are getting some gain or relief from it; on the other hand, repetition of the same act could also mean that whatever we are getting is not resolving the original problem.

In certain situations, we feel so righteous and so justified that we firmly believe we are right to impose our opinions on others, certain that doing so will gain their approval and understanding. When we are fully convinced of being right we find it hard to imagine that we will be faulted, and difficult to think that others could have different but equally justified opinions.

However, when we choose methods that are disturbing to others we often lose the very respect we were hoping for.

At times, it is the tendency to choose the inappropriate forum in which to vent our anger that indicates a lack of awareness of the circumstances and that, potentially, there could be a problem with assessing reality.”