Sad, isn't it? Having a disability that people can't 'see,' automatically renders you to be assumed either crazy (and therefore violent) or stupid.
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It is sad. I have a friend with schizophrenia and the minute someone at my school learns she has it, they automatically assume she's crazy, stupid and will hurt them. This is ignoring the fact that she's one of the top students in the school and she is pretty quiet and shy. Heck, when I first met her, I thought she was mute or almost mute! Apparently, people also don't pick up the hint that she's harmless by me hanging around her. If she were really this violent and crazy psycho she's made out to be, I wouldn't be her friend.
I can either be a devilish angel or an angelic devil. You decide.
I had a classmate back on highschool who is schizophrenic, and he WAS prone to violence. So I think there's always the possibility to happen.
Edited by 186.182.119.103
I've been thinking about this particular trope and wondering whether to split it, or make a subtrope, for the villain who commits a crime, pleads insanity, and either goes to a cushy mental hospital or gets out entirely. It's like a cross between this and Cardboard Prison. You usually see it in horror movies with an insane villain... it makes him more scary because the audience sees his insanity as a "get out of jail free" card. (It's not, in real life; it just gets you put in the prison hospital ward instead of general population, but it does make for dramatic storytelling.)
I think it should be made clear that violent behavior is indeed a result of being mentally unsound, but NOT the other way around. A Cloud Cuckoo Lander is a perfect example of a "crazy" individual that isn't really portrayed as violent.
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Come to think of it, my friend actually fits that perfectly. Especially since the most "violent" thing she's ever done is kill a ladybug. And she cried over it!
I can either be a devilish angel or an angelic devil. You decide.
So, how violent can you be without being insane?