Whether an action that is a culturally accepted norm is considered a mental illness or not depends on who you ask. Wakefield's (1992) perspective was that cultural norms matter, and that is how abnormal psychology was taught during my master's program. In the first place, you can't confuse your values with mental illness. You talk about people murdering and committing suicide with a tone of disgust, but you can't demonstrate mental dysfunction by the behavior itself.
Consider this: many animals kill each other and sacrifice themselves for their kin as a normal part of survival. Humans have done it to each other since they speciated, and their ape ancestors before them were no different. Are their brains somehow broken just because they're doing something that disgusts you? No.
Don't get me wrong, I would carpet bomb a city of murderers and rapists because they're not my people, but I don't have to marginalize them by calling them mentally ill; that their values are so different from mine is enough for me to justify it to myself and many of my contemporaries.
__________________
H̓̇̅̉yͤ͏mͬ͂ͧn͑̽̽̌ͪ̑͐͟o̴͊̈́͑̇m͛͌̓ͦ̑aͫ̽ͤ̇n̅̎͐̒ͫ͐c̆ͯͫ̋ ̔̃́eͯ͒rͬͬ̄҉
|