Don’t punish Kanye West

To be fair to Kanye, it must be difficult to stay sane when you’re completely surrounded by the army of robotic conformists that is the contemporary US elite. After all, is he really any madder than the women have penises academics or any random journalist on the NYT or Wapo? I wonder …

Wearing a “White Lives Matter” t shirt is evidence of courage, not mental illness. I wish I had Kanye West’s b***s, and applaud him and Candace Owens for using their black privilege to such a morally upright purpose.

He’s attracted all the opprobrium because he’s the wrong type of crazy. If he was a BLM and Biden supporter, social media would throb and ooze sympathy.

4 legs good 2 legs bad still applies to people with mental illness.

I think Kanye with his white lives matter is trying to get at the fact the blm movement could cause more divisions in America. Divisive political movements prevent ALL the masses in America from coming together in a common cause for change for the good and peace of all, that’s what big government/ business is afraid of and they are especially afraid of people like Kanye as he has a bigger following than Biden himself. He is trying to promote inclusive politics instead of the old divisions of left and right which are fast becoming irrelevant, not sure he’s coming across great but then the power of the media is such as to distort his point and ridicule him.

A wonderfully humane article. Thank you

When Hadley, with her gender and religious neutral British name, says “I’m Jewish, but when I read West’s posts I didn’t feel offended”, she represents a minority of religious and ethnic Jews. The vast majority of Jews around the globe who saw Kanye’s Tweet, or read about it, were appalled by his antisemitic remarks, which reached his 31.4 million impressionable Twitter followers before it was rightly removed, and he was consequently censored. I don’t live in England, but it took 2 seconds of Google searching to find out that 2021 represented a record year of reported hate crimes perpetrated against British Jews…2,255. Before WWII there were about 500,000 Jews living in England, now census data reveals only about 260,000, which means either Jews are fleeing England en masse, or they’re afraid to publicly reveal their religion to the British government. Even though British Jews have migrated to Israel by the thousands, a large percentage are obviously concerned for their safety (or social standing) when identifying themselves as Jewish.
In the United States a Jew is 6 times more likely to be a victim of a hate crime than a Muslim. 2021 was also a record year for antisemitic “incidents” in the United States…2717.
In short, I don’t care if Kayne West takes his meds or not. If he has the power to incite violence by ranting against Jews (or any other marginalized group), spewing ancient antisemitic tropes to his 10’s of millions of acolytes, then I don’t have a problem with social media platforms sticking a sock in his nasty mouth. I don’t know about England, but in the United States it’s extremely difficult to get someone involuntarily committed to a mental hospital if they’re not a threat to the physical wellbeing of themselves or others. Hate speech won’t get you committed to a mental health facility…the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of speech, even if it’s pernicious.
Yes…even JEWISH LIVES MATTER.

It’s amazing how illiberal elitists invoke mental illness when someone influential disagrees with them politically or spiritually. How smug to think their world is “sane” where Ye’s world is not. No one will condone anti-Semitic remarks (perhaps a product of bipolar disorder), but his WLM and anti-abortion stances are nothing but sane courage. Give him the same benefit of the doubt that other bipolar people are given. Listen to his message and seek common ground to understand the man’s messages.

Great piece. We are all cracked to some extent. I’ve known people for years on a casual basis and then a chance remark has opened up some remarkably odd beliefs.

Punish Kanye West? For wearing “White Lives Matter” and reacting badly to the idiots who were offended by it? Antisemitism is abhorrent to me but Kanye West is not going around cancelling Jewish artists. But those attacking him, the scum called “US elite”, is vicious and bloodthirsty. They prove it every day. His mental health? The only proof that he is not well is ever marrying this synthetic robot Kim Kardashian.

When Hadley states that “— somewhat randomly — Jamie Lee Curtis have reprimanded West for his antisemitic comments”, she obviously isn’t aware that Ms. Curtis’s father was Jewish, and she’s been influenced by the Jewish faith, especially in her adulthood. So that isn’t a random reprimand. Her father was so concerned about being labeled as a “Jewish actor”, thereby limiting his appeal and opportunity in Hollywood, that he changed his birth name from Bernard Schwartz to Tony Curtis. Ms. Curtis’s paternal grandmother and uncle were both diagnosis with schizophrenia, the later being institutionalized, so she’s very aware of the realities of dealing with severe mental illness in American society.

Such a helpful and much needed article. But even in the places that are there to help people such a lack of understanding is rife amongst staff. Just before I retired from one such place I was busy handing over my case-load to a successor. One such man on my list was very paranoid and given to ringing up our unit to say that he couldn’t attend because there “were too many niggers working there”. I spent many hours talking him round so that he would visit and when he did inevitably his outbursts would calm down and he was very agreeable company. My successor happened to answer the phone to him and said immediately “if you use language like that I’m going to put the phone down”. Which she did. It is an utter indictment of our life and times that we seem unable to offer asylum to those who suffer the ravages of mental disorder and instead hold them accountable in an utterly mean spirited and spiteful fashion.

My heart goes out to Kanye. I am 66. A suicidal mental illness has stricken 3 generations in my family. The behaviour and speech of all 3 were remarkably similar and all 3 were untreatable. I have also seen dementia, and recovery from dementia. What seems clear is that health professionals don’t pay attention to the obvious signs – behaviour and speech. Further, health professionals do not do testing for organic health problems when they encounter a mentally ill person. I suggest that many who are labeled mentally ill actually have organic illnesses that are overlooked and ignored, not because they can’t be helped, but because there is a bias in the mental health field that all mental illness is a “chemical imbalance”. Big Pharma certainly has no incentive to change this bias. The mentally ill patient should be given a full clinical workup, just as a patient with a head injury receives. Consideration should also be given to the recent discoveries around autoimmune psychosis. Discharging patients from healthcare facilities with no clinical workup, supportive care or environment is gross medical malpractice in my opinion. But that is the “standard of care.”

The modern narrative that one is either a victim to be celebrated or a villain to be reviled breaks down when confronted with severely mentally ill people. That narrative doesn’t have the subtlety to cope with the complications of ordinary people, let alone those with complex psychological conditions.
Hadley is right, the public likes mental illness to be semi-romantic, with the notion that someone so sensitive wasn’t made for such a terrible world. It has been conflated with intellect and depth. When confronted with the brutal reality of what severe psychiatric conditions entail – the bizarre and often frightening behaviour – the sympathy dries up.
Last year Britney Spears was celebrated as the liberated victim of her rapacious family. Her obvious mental illness is leading her to ever more erratic behaviour and comments, and the mob is turning against her. She’ll be cast out in due course when in her instagram rants she attacks a sacred cow of some kind.

Thought-provoking article, Ms Freeman – thank you.

My view is that folks who harbor hatred in their hearts for those with immutable or close-to-immutable characteristics (be it race, ethnicity, religion or other) are generally unhelpful to others in their society. This is as true for Kanye as it is for groups that desire a world of racism and ethnic strife, be it the Proud Boys, BLM or proponents of Critical Race Theory.

Yes, Kanye needs help and he’s very ill. That said, one can feel sorry for and help the person with the illness while still setting the record straight about what the ill person falsely projects from their bubble onto the world stage.

The most eye-opening self-reflection is whether one sees what Kanye says as very wrong while still having a soft spot in their hearts for other people and groups that preach racism, ethnic superiority or Other-ism narratives that are antithetical to Rev Martin Luther King’s ‘Dream’ speech:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

The bar that Rev King set is truly the gold standard for me personally and for all societies.

Really well written and informative article.
It is so difficult to decide who is playing on a condition and who is genuinely affected.
As you say true mental illness is often degenerative and wrecks lives…

When is it mental illness rather than just occasional weak moments where you lash out because you are just tired of the constant attacks – and say things you regret later?
I cannot imagine the pressure he is under because of his political views while also in a broken marriage and trying to do his best for his children.

Nothing funny or life affirming about Manic Depression apart from finally accepting you have the illness, that helped me a little. Lithium and Prozac every day for 20 plus years. Blood test every three months was not discharged from psychiatric care till 2019. My long suffering spouse has stayed with me as she knows that I am inherently a good guy not the evil manipulating b*****d that is one of my personality manifests when in a mixed mood. I have written poetry that has been judged as very good, I have done daft things whilst in the forces that have garnered praise.
So much potential I have lead, counselled and hopefully aided many The elephant in the room of course MD the illness robs me of consistency thus so many things fall away, so many supposedly good ideas nothing.
I am what I am, play the hand I was dealt but this f*****g daemon in my soul is not going to be bigged up

He’s another human vehicle veering off the road to a probable early death because such people seem to be ‘unhelpable’. He seems to be treading the same path as the amazing chanteuse Amy Winehouse, whose demise was also, apparently, inevitable.

I suppose it’s because Kanye West is much more famous, but nobody cared when Nick Cannon and other black celebrities went on anti-Jewish diatribes. But I also think it’s because these celebrities still tithe to the holy church of the DNC.

Jews are over represented in the entertainment industry, so if you have a beef with the entertainment industry (as Kanye so clearly does), then he thinks he has a beef is with “Jews.” That’s not mental illness, it’s flawed thinking. And a lot of people think that way.
Otherwise, I’m a fan.

Something about this piece feels manic and incoherent. I’m still not sure of its thesis. If it’s about mental illness (diagnosed by a journalist of a stranger to her) then okay. But it’s not. It’s about Kanye West. I’ve always thought Kanye was a nut. I’ve just never wasted time talking or thinking about it. You gotta admit, it’s a little conspicuous that the feigned appeal for sensitivity to Kanye’s putative untreated mental illness comes after he wore a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt to a fashion show. After I finished reading the article I scrolled back to the top to find out who the author was. When I read “staff writer at The Guardian. She was recently named Columnist of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors” I spit coffee across the kitchen. But in a good way.

“Mental illness has become a kind of identity for some people, and it’s a fine line these days between being open about your problems and fetishising them. To discuss your mental health proves you are in touch with your feelings. That you are revealing your true glowing self, beneath the layers society forces on you. That you are self-aware. Sensitive. And special.”
PERFECT!

I’m curious why this is seen as an either/or type situation. Having a mental illness doesn’t cause all bad behavior, nor should it excuse it. Two things can be true. Kanye West can have mental illness, and also be an anti-Semitic jerk. The two facts are not mutually exclusive of one another. Two what extent is West’s antisemitism influenced or caused by his mental illness is a question that psychiatrists would have difficulty answering, and different doctors would likely have different opinions. Fetishizing mental illness by making it appear hip and cool is bad. Mental illness should not be seen as cool or hip. It should be seen as debilitating to those who suffer from it and as a serious handicap to employment, relationships, and basically any other human activity. Chalking up bad behavior to mental illness though is also bad, because it further dehumanizes those who have mental illness by undermining their personal agency, and as someone who has suffered from mental illness, I can tell you that personal agency, admitting to yourself that you have a problem and need professional help, is a crucial first step in the healing process.

I am sure the author of this article knows what she’s talking about. My worry is that West has over 30 million followers on Twitter alone. That, somewhat incredibly, happens to be over twice as many Jews as there are in the world (circa 14 million). As a direct result of his rants ‘demonstrators’ took it upon themselves to hang banners from a bridge over a busy LA highway saying that “Kanye was right about the Jews”. They threw in the Nazi salute, just in case the banners weren’t sufficiently chilling.
The issue now is that the genie is out of the bottle and Jew hate is on the rise and I for one am worried about where that leads.

I have heard of Kanye West, but have no idea what he does. The other people mentioned, I have not even heard of. I guess there really are parallel universes that do not impinge one upon the other. I cannot be certain, obviously, but suspect that mine is a better place to live.

Nassir Ghaemi’s A First-Rate Madness is a worthwhile in this context.

Ye is like the fool in a Shakespearean drama.

I have a very close friend who has emerged from ITU after her life fell apart due to her bipolar husband. Excuse me if my sympathies lie with her.

Punish him? He did something wrong? I thought he was righting wrongs. Goes to show….

The author is over-thinking Kanye West. The only “mental health issue” he has is being profoundly stupid, boorish and primitive. Were he not black, more people would say so.

Man, a terrible article. I see nothing wrong with what Ye has posted. Jews have controlled Diddy throughout his career (his label heads have *always* been Jewish, his publishers, the same!). I don’t understand why people have a hard time with Kanye’s statement? Hmmm.

Dude refuses to get help.

Don’t you mean that mental illness has become fetishized? You said “mental health.” Where are the copyeditors?
At any rate, Hadley Freeman knows that mental illness is not just another way of seeing the world, or being born a misfit, or being sane in an insane world. It is being really sick and desperately wanting to get better. Thanks for this article.

Kanye West is being punished in the way he is, because he is a black man refusing to get back onto the Democrat plantation.

i believe in the necessity of civil commitment for some, especially some of the homeless. But what we must not deny is that these ARE a sort of prison; they are to the civil law what prisons are to the criminal law. And, as C S Lewis warned us, we must not entirely separate the question of “deserved” from any form of compulsory confinement or treatment.

That’s weird – a comment has disappeared where I suggested West might be heading towards an early demise like Amy Winehouse. Heyho, try again. My point being that some celebrities appear to be ‘unhelpable’.
But an excellent article.

I think Kanye West is the most significant artist in the world today; at the very least, a 21st century equivalent of David Bowie.
I see him as a Shaman who shows us a different view of reality that is filtered through his magical consciousness, in order to enable us to understand the world we live in . His idiosyncratic reinvention of music, fashion and Christianity; his relationships, his politics and his mental illness, are all part of his mystical offering.
I consider him to be a prophet of our times.
I realise that this may be a minority opinion.

This is what i would call a ‘hit piece’. I like people like Ye who say what they think; all of us must stand up with our own opinions, like he does. Do not do what this so-called writer did and dismiss free speech by calling free speech a mental disorder. Now, THAT is truly sick.

Just who is this Kayne West person? Should one have heard of him?

This one goes out to the entire media world: Don’t “PUNISH” Kanye West? Then don’t “PUBLISH” Kanye West. Don’t “PROMOTE” Kanye West. Don’t “PROP” Kanye West.
Moreover, the global media influencer complex doesn’t give a damn about Kanye West or his purported mental health problems. If they did, they’d send their reporters out into the hinterlands and talk to regular people – doctors, therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, other professional people…and, of course, many of the millions of voiceless people who have a mental illness, but don’t have the clout, personage or platform of a Kanye West.
“Oh, look! Kanye West is normal again!” will never be published by the aforesaid global media influencer complex. Instead, they want to see him fall. They want to see him fail. They want the effing trainwreck.
We all know why you do these things. Mouse clicks, eyeballs and eardrums. Advert bucks. Subscription bucks. Get the proletariat riled up. Get everybody talking about this. You know, like what I’m doing here. This is what you want, right GLOBAL MEDIA? ROFLMAO

I’ve never heard of Kanye West so, obviously, instant online fame passes right over my head, or maybe I’m just too focused on the prosaic world of houses, streets, hills, trees, insects and stuff like that. Having said that, I have picked up the trend by writing in my private history about my obsessive irrational and socially dysfunctional behaviour when locked up in a boarding school in the middle of nowhere at the same age as Adrian Mole, whose teenage angst that I never had a chance to recognise has, I understand, come back into fashion. There’s probably a technical term for it now. Personal problems of young people, up to and including suicide, have been in the news, and statistically appear real, at least here where it still seems hard to tell the difference between reality and fantasy. I wonder whether the same applies now in Ukraine, or Ethiopia, or for that matter most of the world now or throughout history.

Oh that’s interesting – Unherd rejects comments related to the possible negative outcomes (work it out) of such erratic behaviours by people suffering mental health issues.

Can such people be helped?