Mental illness causes things to happen that might be bad, but are uncalculated...Evil causes bad things to happen that are calculated to be bad

Mental illness is something that can occur in an infant (from a difficulty during birth from the mother) and can show as the child grows and develops. Evil is people like the late James Gacy who his evil tendencies under a cloud of friendliness but had this "need" to kill boys who accepted his offers of jobs and ended up being bound, strangled, and killed.

Mental illness can also occur during a person's lifetime from some traumatic experience. No one knows for sure until an autopsy is done.

One of them judges on a moral scale; the other evaluates on a scale of mental health. They do not compete since anyone could be either or both.

I takes particular doctors to read into the patterns. That question might be something for Google to check out.

Well, 'evil' is an absolute. Something profoundly immoral or malevolent is still immoral or malevolent regardless of the cause. Personally, I think any person who engages in 'evil' is mentally ill to some degree.

If he isn't sane anymore we treat the person like a baby. Like: oh he didn't know what he did. I don't know exactly. This is a bad comparison... But then the person can't think clearly.

But if someone did it while being sane then the person knew it. Knew what he or she did in the moment and then the person did it in purpose.

Someone who's psychotic might do it because they genuinely thought they were doing good or that they were defending their lives from someone they thought was going to kill them.

Reaching back into the murky depths of my memory, I remember something in the news about a guy who killed his mother who had some kind of illness because he had worked out a mathematical formula that would let him resurrect her with the illness cured. He got started on it but obviously it didn't go as planned.

Evil is a construct. A label under which we put things that are inconscionable to reasonable thinking.
Mental illness is a somewhat euphemistic term for flawed ways of thinking.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=schizophrenia&qpvt=schizophrenia&qpvt=schizophrenia&qpvt=schizophrenia&FORM=IQFRML
Grew up with my Mother like this. I cannot answer your question with my own personal experience, Sometimes I was able to snap her out of her temporary vision. I loved My Mom and felt I was her protector. Later my sister and I have discovered she was sexually abused as a young child.

hi AwesomeBlossom
Rich mental illness. Poor evil. Them's the rules. Not my rules!
Best wishes
:)

not all actions is caused by mental illness. some people are just sadistic or sociopathic to were they dont care much for anything.

Those who are mentally ill do not know the difference between right and wrong; good or bad. Therefore are mentally incapable of choosing their behavior. Those who are evil do know, and choose to do evil anyways.

liberal judge.... mental illness, probably the victim's fault anyway