Justin Mohn has “been ranting and railing about the government for 10 years now and how they’re out to get him,” a childhood friend told NBC News.
The man accused of killing his father and displaying his decapitated head in a macabre YouTube video has long been obsessed with conspiracy theories, say those who knew him.
Justin Mohn, 32, was arrested on charges of first-degree murder and other counts after his father, Michael Mohn, was found beheaded in their family home in Middletown Township’s Levittown section Tuesday evening, court records show.
In a video that was removed by YouTube hours after it was posted Tuesday, the younger Mohn described his father as a federal employee of 20 years and referred to him as a traitor to his country. He also called for the death of all federal officials while allegedly displaying his father’s head.
“We’re all just in shock right now,” John Prickett, 68, who lives down the block from the Mohn residence, said Wednesday.
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He was at least 22 when this started, maybe earlier. That’s kind of the prime time for symptoms of schizophrenia to appear, and it can happen to anyone, even you.
It is no secret that culturally approved magical thinking can mask those symptoms at best, and encourage them at worst. Religion is magical thinking, and for the last several years, so is right wing politics.
No matter who or where you are, especially when you’re in your 20s, please take note of magical thinking in your own head, and check in about it with professional mental health care. This is doubly important if you are also surrounded by and influenced by other kinds of magical thinking.
Mohn is absolutely responsible for his own behaviors and actions, as are we all. But it would be irresponsible to remain blind to understanding the circumstances that brought him to those actions, so that we can take preventative measures to avoid this in the future.
Thanks for the insight. How would you define magical thinking? Or might be helpful to phrase it as how do you recognize magical thinking?
A lot of genetic mental issues start with the hormonal shifts during puberty, but based on one of his book titles he was also consuming cannabis, which is definitely not great if you’re already schizophrenic or psychotic, or have genetic tendencies for it.
The mean thing about psychosis is that you don’t realize it. For him it was reality. Mental health education is key. If you notice someone in their early or mid twenties become reclusive and feel paranoid, notice a professional. As his friends should have done in college.
Btw, under psychosis people are unfit to plead, if that’s the right term. So it’s difficult to call him responsible.
Is that a thing in America? I’ve never seen anyone struggling with mental health get forced treatment short of a suicide attempt.
If there is evidence that a person is a danger to themselves or others the a police officer can forcibly take that person to a hospital for evaluation and the hospital can hold the person involuntarily for 72 hours. To hold the person for longer than 72 hours the hold must be reviewed and approved by a judge. As you might expect the system is subject to significant abuse.
Is “becoming reclusive and paranoid” sufficient for that? Or do they actually have to make some kind of threat.
For the 72hour hold they either have to make a threat or be acting irrationality while interacting with the officer. For a court ordered hold initiated by a family member or social worker becoming reclusive and paranoid can be enough if it rises to the level of the person neglecting their own basic needs.
Not from the US, but I assume not. I didn’t mean forced treatment,but professionals know best how to approach this. Just telling him that his perception isn’t real is most likely not gonna work.
You nailed it