RHM Author Interview (Youtube video): Cassandra (Casi) Kearney, Ph.D., author of “Mass Shootings and Mental Health: A Historical Perspective on the ‘Mental Illness as Motive’ Narrative”

Abstract

RHM Author Interview (Youtube video): Cassandra (Casi) Kearney, Ph.D., author of “Mass Shootings and Mental Health: A Historical Perspective on the ‘Mental Illness as Motive’ Narrative” In an effort to better understand the historical significance of the mental illness as motive narrative, this essay investigates what has been recognized as the first mass shooting in the modern United States--Howard Unruh\u27s 1949 mass shooting in Camden, New Jersey. Given that mass shootings were an unprecedented phenomenon, the news media played an important role in explaining the event. As will be shown, many Americans felt uncertain about how mental illness manifested and who was vulnerable. Given the often undisclosed, albeit perceived threat of schizophrenia, the public needed reassurance that there would be some indicator of insanity. Accordingly, the media used evidence of religious fanaticism and unfavorable physical descriptions of Unruh to cast him as separate, outside, or an other. Ultimately, the media\u27s rhetorical choices differentiated Unruh and attempted to make mental illness easier to identify for an audience afraid of its influence