I sought out an article about Luigi and possible mental issue and found what I needed to hear.. I personally have ties to Brian Thompson (BT) and was sick and am still sick to my stomach after hearing that he was murdered, BUT I also have a family member with mental illness with a story very similar to Luigi.. valedictorian, football star, good looking, beloved by others and went off the grid. My family member was diagnosed bipolar and the years that followed were absolute hell…homelessness, delusions, paranoia, violent behavior.. it wasn’t until one psychiatrist finally got through to him that he started and is still taking the appropriate meds to bring back the man we love today. When I see Luigi, I see my family member, and more than the sickening loss of BT, I feel pain and sorrow for Luigi knowing that he is very likely suffering with mental illness too- uncontrolled and undiagnosed. Thank you for posting this. Finally someone is talking about what the reality of this situation might be.
After watching the coverage today and reading some of the released excerpts from his "diary," I'm more convinced than ever that he has signs of schizophrenia or a psychotic break, at the very least. He appeared to have a facial tic on the right side of his face (could be anything but wasn't there before) and the diary, well, it just confounds me. Basically, a detailed m*rder diary, written in longhand with pen and paper and no attempt to cloak or dispose of it. Not even written in code or hidden in a computer.
Unfortunately, I don't think declaring a mental defect is going to do much good but I'm not a lawyer
Thank you for this article! Finally someone share the same sentiment!A few days after the shooting as I was listening to the story the first thing I said, does he have a mental illness? My nephew 24 diagno with Schizophrenia after the last 2 years of “strange behavior”, thinking people was after him, trying to cut his own penis off, holding urine dor over 24 hours because something I’m his head told him “only weak people urinate”. This was a college athlete number 3 Pinellas County FL as a foot ball running back. Nothing happen over night, looking back I now can acknowledge when the change occurred but had no idea what it was, until one day I had a dream to take him to a clinic because I just couldn’t recognize him, thinking he was on drugs. He was diagnosed with Schizophrenia.
What I find is odd, as you mentioned in your story that not one news outlet mentions or reports extensively in any n the fact that something is wrong. They spend so much time talking about what he did, that he a murder, he’s a hero, he a savior of humanity, his family is rich he was a rich kid a valedictorian; any person who has dealt with someone with mental illness whatever it is, can tell you, something is wrong. I pray for his family and what they’re going through as well as Brian family. It’s a tragedy. Mental health and better gun laws go hand in hand. We need more mental health awareness, access to standardize care in form on medication, and therapy. Each individual once diagnosed should have a life long therapist and psychiatrist assigned to them to facilitate their journey.
Since the story broke, I have been asking the same question about the media coverage.
We use terms like cancer and flu as household terms but seem unable to use terms such as schizophrenia and psychotic break. And it is not rocket science, but rather Psychiatry 101.
And yesterday, the Post was discussing Luigi’s narcissism and grandiosity, as assessed by quoted mental health experts. I found that disturbing too, as any mental health expert should know that psychosis is typified by grandiosity and a narcissistic perspective, through no fault of the individual suffering from this affliction.
Thanks for the first wise and accurate analysis I have seen all week.
This was my first thought early on after this was reported on the news. One of the first signs of schizophrenia is distancing themselves from friends and family. The only person that has alluded to this is Anderson Cooper as far as mainstream media. He was not a customer of United. He posted on Reddit about beginning to have brain fog and having trouble with classes that were much simpler than those he had taken previously for the software engineering. In his mind he thought it was brain fog when I believe in actuality it was the beginning of the disordered thought patterns. Then it was reported that he arbitrarily just took off to Japan and told someone that he had some thinking to do. I do think that he got caught up in the Ted Kaczynski book and it sort of propelled him forward. I feel bad for him that his parents have not shown up to visit him. It's been reported that his only visitor was his lawyer. I'm sorry to hear about your family member. Its tragic all around. What bothers me is the amount of disinformation being put out there about this case. Those that are cheering for him or posting things that are untrue and deceptive. Mental health needs a champion and needs much more focus and awareness in today's society so that it may be recognized earlier on thereby preventing horrible things like this happening. Thank you for your commentary.
So strongly agree he appears acutely/subacutely psychotic. With his history of spine surgery, I believe he also needs a thorough medical evaluation to rule out potentially treatable/reversible causes of psychosis like autoimmune or infectious encephalitis. Hoping he is getting the medical and psychiatric evaluation and treatment he deserves.
He posted on Reddit that he was beginning to have severe brain fog and having difficulty keeping up with simpler classes than he previously had. What they don't realize is it's the beginning of the disorganized thought pattern but it is playing out as brain fog. Of note he also had been lifted by Lyme disease a few years earlier. I thoroughly believe he had some type of psychotic break. If I were his parents I would be rushing a psychiatrist over there to examine him.
This is the most retarded thing I've ever read. "What if he'd killed Thompson's family?" The thing is he didn't, he went out of his way to make sure to only target Thompson. His journal documents that he ruled out using explosives for fear of harming innocent people. He had a very clear reason for doing what he did, his physical pain and political beliefs. I don't think you understand Ockham's principle if you think it entails reaching for ridiculous and biased explanations.
Also how many schizophrenic patients would have the wherewithal, in the throes of their madness, to PRINT OUT A GUN, locate a not so high profile executive on his way to a conference and plan their escape so perfectly as to elude the police for days? Oh it can't possibly be political, he must be insane! You people are a joke.
I can understand your reaction and response. You may be correct.
It was my early life experience that schizophrenia meant a clearly psychotic person disheveled and mumbling in the subway.
I have subsequently also experienced the disease among absolutely brilliant young men. They can be calm or agitated, but what is striking is that they can retain brilliant and extremely logical thinking. Bizarre, and violent behavior can result as the a “logical” conclusion of their delusions.
In The Best Minds, author Jonathan Rosen explores the descent into madness of a brilliant and gentle young man named Michael Laudor who stabbed what he thought was a puppet pretending to be his pregnant fiancé. He later walked up to police explaining that he thought someone was trying to harm his fiancé.
More recently I cared for a young man who literally had cut off his right testicle. The first responders found it on the steps to his basement. The man calmly explained the logical and rational reason for why he had done it.
I too had my nephew try to cut his penis off, this was before we found out his diagnosis. I think people get caught on the stereotype of what someone with schizophrenia looks and behaves like, they are not all homeless weirdo talking and mumbling to themselves, that’s usually as the illness progresses without correct access to medical interventions. Unfortunately most men are affected by this illness during 16-25 and Mangione just like my nephew fall into that timeline. It so sad.
Thank you, Gaston, for sharing your family’s story. So sorry for your nephew’s illness and the grief and struggle your family has endured. Sharing our stories and breaking the stigma surrounding mental illness is half the battle!
Very true. Hence the difference between what used to be called “hebephrenic” schizophrenia—characterized by disorganized behavior and disheveled appearance— and the cognitive lucidity which is often present within the systematized, strangely logical delusion of the paranoid schizophrenic.
I wish that our society could commit to truly understanding severe mental illness without judging it. But I believe people are made very anxious by the prospect of trying to understand mental illness…for it means that we are all potentially susceptible to it.
Thank you for this thoughtful response. As you rightly point out, brilliant individuals with schizophrenia or other serious mental illnesses often reman brilliant in certain aspects of their life even as their paranoia and delusional thinking intensifies. Ted Kaczynski, for example, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, successfully eluded the FBI over a 17-year campaign of terror in which he posted 16 home-made bombs, which killed three people and injured 23. A Harvard grad and PhD holder who once taught at Stanford, his intelligence and ability to cover his tracks was not diminished even as his thinking grew more delusional and his hatred for certain aspects of modern technology grew more intense. It wasn’t until his brother turned him in to the FBI that he was apprehended, later committing suicide in prison—still unwilling (or unable) to accept his diagnosis or see it as anything more than an attempt by the authorities to discount his twisted rationale for terror and murder.
In my younger days I worked in a psychiatric institution. My first thought on hearing about Mr. Mangione was that he might be suffering from schizophrenia. I agree that the media are playing up the more sensational elements, while failing to delve into what truly might be behind this troubled young man's actions. His "manifesto", for instance, is 262 words — about a paragraph in length.
It is not only just 262 words, it is also replete with spelling and usage errors and shows signs of mental fatigue, confusion, and what he described to his friends before disappearing as “brain fog.” All clear signs that this Ivy Leaguer and high-school valedictorian was suffering from an undiagnosed serious mental illness. Truly tragic, for everyone involved.
100% agreed. Mental illness or personality disorder can take people down on really dark paths. The weird thing is that his behavior literally resembles Ted Kaczinsky's, an intelligent person going into isolation and eventually commits something morally wrong. And if memory serves eventually TK recieved a paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis.
So the media has more than enough tools and facts to understand this case, but I guess partisan interpretations (hero or vigilante) are good for sales and ads.
You nailed it. The worst part to me is, all of the “omg he’s sooo cute!” “he’s a hero!” stuff is, it’s just going to entrench his delusions of grandeur and make his recovery much more difficult, if not nearly impossible.
I’m so sorry about your brother. Why is it always the best people? I pray for a day that we have a cure.
Thank you for writing this! That's also what I think it might be with Luigi Mangione. To me it looks like he was manic and had a psychotic break. My boyfriend has schizoaffective disorder and one of my brother has bipolar. I am not a psychiatrist but I will say that some things in the story immediatly made me thought of a psychotic episode of some kind, maybe triggered by the severe chronic pain he has been suffering from. I hope he will be given a second chance at life, I truly think he is a good person and has so much potential. He is brilliant and seems very kind. That's why I think that what happened was out of character and maybe arised from an undiagnosed mental illness.
I knew Luigi was schizophrenic because my adult son was diagnosed paranoid schiz. at 21 after buying a gun and shooting at an innocent phone repairman who came to his house. He wasn't harmed but my son hit the windshield. He was charged with aggravated assault spent 8 months is state mental hospital and several months incarcerated in jail. This was his second offense using a gun in less than a year. Paranoid schiz. Is devastating to the individual and to family .
Well written
I sought out an article about Luigi and possible mental issue and found what I needed to hear.. I personally have ties to Brian Thompson (BT) and was sick and am still sick to my stomach after hearing that he was murdered, BUT I also have a family member with mental illness with a story very similar to Luigi.. valedictorian, football star, good looking, beloved by others and went off the grid. My family member was diagnosed bipolar and the years that followed were absolute hell…homelessness, delusions, paranoia, violent behavior.. it wasn’t until one psychiatrist finally got through to him that he started and is still taking the appropriate meds to bring back the man we love today. When I see Luigi, I see my family member, and more than the sickening loss of BT, I feel pain and sorrow for Luigi knowing that he is very likely suffering with mental illness too- uncontrolled and undiagnosed. Thank you for posting this. Finally someone is talking about what the reality of this situation might be.
After watching the coverage today and reading some of the released excerpts from his "diary," I'm more convinced than ever that he has signs of schizophrenia or a psychotic break, at the very least. He appeared to have a facial tic on the right side of his face (could be anything but wasn't there before) and the diary, well, it just confounds me. Basically, a detailed m*rder diary, written in longhand with pen and paper and no attempt to cloak or dispose of it. Not even written in code or hidden in a computer.
Unfortunately, I don't think declaring a mental defect is going to do much good but I'm not a lawyer
Thank you for this article! Finally someone share the same sentiment!A few days after the shooting as I was listening to the story the first thing I said, does he have a mental illness? My nephew 24 diagno with Schizophrenia after the last 2 years of “strange behavior”, thinking people was after him, trying to cut his own penis off, holding urine dor over 24 hours because something I’m his head told him “only weak people urinate”. This was a college athlete number 3 Pinellas County FL as a foot ball running back. Nothing happen over night, looking back I now can acknowledge when the change occurred but had no idea what it was, until one day I had a dream to take him to a clinic because I just couldn’t recognize him, thinking he was on drugs. He was diagnosed with Schizophrenia.
What I find is odd, as you mentioned in your story that not one news outlet mentions or reports extensively in any n the fact that something is wrong. They spend so much time talking about what he did, that he a murder, he’s a hero, he a savior of humanity, his family is rich he was a rich kid a valedictorian; any person who has dealt with someone with mental illness whatever it is, can tell you, something is wrong. I pray for his family and what they’re going through as well as Brian family. It’s a tragedy. Mental health and better gun laws go hand in hand. We need more mental health awareness, access to standardize care in form on medication, and therapy. Each individual once diagnosed should have a life long therapist and psychiatrist assigned to them to facilitate their journey.
Probably schizophrenia or drug-induced psychosis.
Thank you Michael Judge,
Since the story broke, I have been asking the same question about the media coverage.
We use terms like cancer and flu as household terms but seem unable to use terms such as schizophrenia and psychotic break. And it is not rocket science, but rather Psychiatry 101.
And yesterday, the Post was discussing Luigi’s narcissism and grandiosity, as assessed by quoted mental health experts. I found that disturbing too, as any mental health expert should know that psychosis is typified by grandiosity and a narcissistic perspective, through no fault of the individual suffering from this affliction.
Thanks for the first wise and accurate analysis I have seen all week.
Ellen C. Weld, PhD
This is the audiobook version of The Best Minds for anyone interested
https://www.audible.com/pd/B0B9P1X85D?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=pdp
This was my first thought early on after this was reported on the news. One of the first signs of schizophrenia is distancing themselves from friends and family. The only person that has alluded to this is Anderson Cooper as far as mainstream media. He was not a customer of United. He posted on Reddit about beginning to have brain fog and having trouble with classes that were much simpler than those he had taken previously for the software engineering. In his mind he thought it was brain fog when I believe in actuality it was the beginning of the disordered thought patterns. Then it was reported that he arbitrarily just took off to Japan and told someone that he had some thinking to do. I do think that he got caught up in the Ted Kaczynski book and it sort of propelled him forward. I feel bad for him that his parents have not shown up to visit him. It's been reported that his only visitor was his lawyer. I'm sorry to hear about your family member. Its tragic all around. What bothers me is the amount of disinformation being put out there about this case. Those that are cheering for him or posting things that are untrue and deceptive. Mental health needs a champion and needs much more focus and awareness in today's society so that it may be recognized earlier on thereby preventing horrible things like this happening. Thank you for your commentary.
So strongly agree he appears acutely/subacutely psychotic. With his history of spine surgery, I believe he also needs a thorough medical evaluation to rule out potentially treatable/reversible causes of psychosis like autoimmune or infectious encephalitis. Hoping he is getting the medical and psychiatric evaluation and treatment he deserves.
He posted on Reddit that he was beginning to have severe brain fog and having difficulty keeping up with simpler classes than he previously had. What they don't realize is it's the beginning of the disorganized thought pattern but it is playing out as brain fog. Of note he also had been lifted by Lyme disease a few years earlier. I thoroughly believe he had some type of psychotic break. If I were his parents I would be rushing a psychiatrist over there to examine him.
I completely agree. He needs evaluation and treatment asap
This is the most retarded thing I've ever read. "What if he'd killed Thompson's family?" The thing is he didn't, he went out of his way to make sure to only target Thompson. His journal documents that he ruled out using explosives for fear of harming innocent people. He had a very clear reason for doing what he did, his physical pain and political beliefs. I don't think you understand Ockham's principle if you think it entails reaching for ridiculous and biased explanations.
Also how many schizophrenic patients would have the wherewithal, in the throes of their madness, to PRINT OUT A GUN, locate a not so high profile executive on his way to a conference and plan their escape so perfectly as to elude the police for days? Oh it can't possibly be political, he must be insane! You people are a joke.
I can understand your reaction and response. You may be correct.
It was my early life experience that schizophrenia meant a clearly psychotic person disheveled and mumbling in the subway.
I have subsequently also experienced the disease among absolutely brilliant young men. They can be calm or agitated, but what is striking is that they can retain brilliant and extremely logical thinking. Bizarre, and violent behavior can result as the a “logical” conclusion of their delusions.
In The Best Minds, author Jonathan Rosen explores the descent into madness of a brilliant and gentle young man named Michael Laudor who stabbed what he thought was a puppet pretending to be his pregnant fiancé. He later walked up to police explaining that he thought someone was trying to harm his fiancé.
More recently I cared for a young man who literally had cut off his right testicle. The first responders found it on the steps to his basement. The man calmly explained the logical and rational reason for why he had done it.
I too had my nephew try to cut his penis off, this was before we found out his diagnosis. I think people get caught on the stereotype of what someone with schizophrenia looks and behaves like, they are not all homeless weirdo talking and mumbling to themselves, that’s usually as the illness progresses without correct access to medical interventions. Unfortunately most men are affected by this illness during 16-25 and Mangione just like my nephew fall into that timeline. It so sad.
Thank you, Gaston, for sharing your family’s story. So sorry for your nephew’s illness and the grief and struggle your family has endured. Sharing our stories and breaking the stigma surrounding mental illness is half the battle!
Very true. Hence the difference between what used to be called “hebephrenic” schizophrenia—characterized by disorganized behavior and disheveled appearance— and the cognitive lucidity which is often present within the systematized, strangely logical delusion of the paranoid schizophrenic.
I wish that our society could commit to truly understanding severe mental illness without judging it. But I believe people are made very anxious by the prospect of trying to understand mental illness…for it means that we are all potentially susceptible to it.
Thank you for this thoughtful response. As you rightly point out, brilliant individuals with schizophrenia or other serious mental illnesses often reman brilliant in certain aspects of their life even as their paranoia and delusional thinking intensifies. Ted Kaczynski, for example, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, successfully eluded the FBI over a 17-year campaign of terror in which he posted 16 home-made bombs, which killed three people and injured 23. A Harvard grad and PhD holder who once taught at Stanford, his intelligence and ability to cover his tracks was not diminished even as his thinking grew more delusional and his hatred for certain aspects of modern technology grew more intense. It wasn’t until his brother turned him in to the FBI that he was apprehended, later committing suicide in prison—still unwilling (or unable) to accept his diagnosis or see it as anything more than an attempt by the authorities to discount his twisted rationale for terror and murder.
In my younger days I worked in a psychiatric institution. My first thought on hearing about Mr. Mangione was that he might be suffering from schizophrenia. I agree that the media are playing up the more sensational elements, while failing to delve into what truly might be behind this troubled young man's actions. His "manifesto", for instance, is 262 words — about a paragraph in length.
It is not only just 262 words, it is also replete with spelling and usage errors and shows signs of mental fatigue, confusion, and what he described to his friends before disappearing as “brain fog.” All clear signs that this Ivy Leaguer and high-school valedictorian was suffering from an undiagnosed serious mental illness. Truly tragic, for everyone involved.
100% agreed. Mental illness or personality disorder can take people down on really dark paths. The weird thing is that his behavior literally resembles Ted Kaczinsky's, an intelligent person going into isolation and eventually commits something morally wrong. And if memory serves eventually TK recieved a paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis.
So the media has more than enough tools and facts to understand this case, but I guess partisan interpretations (hero or vigilante) are good for sales and ads.
Thank you for capturing what journalism has failed to capture all week- the sad reality of a psychotic break. It’s tragic and poorly understood.
You nailed it. The worst part to me is, all of the “omg he’s sooo cute!” “he’s a hero!” stuff is, it’s just going to entrench his delusions of grandeur and make his recovery much more difficult, if not nearly impossible.
I’m so sorry about your brother. Why is it always the best people? I pray for a day that we have a cure.
Thank you for writing this! That's also what I think it might be with Luigi Mangione. To me it looks like he was manic and had a psychotic break. My boyfriend has schizoaffective disorder and one of my brother has bipolar. I am not a psychiatrist but I will say that some things in the story immediatly made me thought of a psychotic episode of some kind, maybe triggered by the severe chronic pain he has been suffering from. I hope he will be given a second chance at life, I truly think he is a good person and has so much potential. He is brilliant and seems very kind. That's why I think that what happened was out of character and maybe arised from an undiagnosed mental illness.
I knew Luigi was schizophrenic because my adult son was diagnosed paranoid schiz. at 21 after buying a gun and shooting at an innocent phone repairman who came to his house. He wasn't harmed but my son hit the windshield. He was charged with aggravated assault spent 8 months is state mental hospital and several months incarcerated in jail. This was his second offense using a gun in less than a year. Paranoid schiz. Is devastating to the individual and to family .
Great article