“Hate is not a mental illness,” says Dr. Stephen Giordano.

He notes that there is no diagnostic category for hate, and it is wrong “to assume that hateful people, whatever their color, creed, or stripe, must be mentally ill.”

People suffering with mental illness are more often the victims rather than the perpetrators of crime, he says.

As violent crimes are increasing not just in Albany County but across the nation, Giordano says, “The solution is not just going to be a mental-health solution …. If we are alienating and isolating and stigmatizing and discriminating against portions of our community, that’s going to come with a cost … One of those costs may very well be violence.”

Giordano also says, “I think people who cause other people pain are very likely in pain themselves.”

For 11 years, Giordano has served as the mental health commissioner for Albany County. It’s not an easy job. The work took on new dimensions over the last two years as the pandemic, with isolation-inducing restrictions, caused more mental-health problems.

Giordano, who grew up in New York City, and says his heart is still there, majored in philosophy as an undergraduate at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

“Some of the questions that are dealt with historically in philosophy are about how to live, what’s right, what’s fair, what does suffering mean,” says Giordano in this week’s Enterprise podcast.

Read the full article here:

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.