Psychosis

Hubby and myself were watching In Cold Blood last night. Yesterday case was about a group of teenagers ganging up against a girl. They locked her up in a flat and abused her, physically and mentally for 17 days. She managed to survive when she finally broke down and threatened to kill herself. The teenagers did not want any more trouble, sent her back home and left her at the void deck.

Groupie effect (hahaa.. my own term), usually one does not have the courage to perform an act, typically wrong act, will have the courage to do so when done in a group. I do not know if these 4 teenagers would have tortured the girl should they be alone. But one thing I do see is that, these teenagers are vicious and probably psychotic! They derive pleasure when they see the girl scared and in pain. Under normal circumstances, if you have accidentally hurt another, you will immediately apologised and would have felt bad. Say, you accidentally scalded someone with hot water, immediate reaction is to apologise profusely and try to ease the pain. You will never be feeling happy over another person's pain, right?

Hubby said psychosis is a mental illness where one is devoid of emotion. They are incapable to feel for others. In fact most serial killers have this mental illness. They cannot feel for their victims and actually enjoy seeing them suffer. But I do wonder, if they are devoid of emotion, shouldn't happiness be out of reach for them too??

So relating back to these teenagers. Does that mean they have mild psychosis problem? They were enjoying themselves torturing the girl, and they are not even doing that out of rage. But I guessed the difference is that they did repent and release the girl in the end.

Food for Thot:
Hubby mentioned that there was an argument, should someone suffering from psychosis, if caught committing crime, perhaps hurting someone however not serious enough to kill or warrant death sentence but you already diagnosed the person from the incurable and dangerous mental problem, should they be sentenced for life? Or be treated like normal and sentence them as per others? Not forgetting, these people have a high risk of killing innocent people and not regret it. What say you?