It seems strange to me (a non believer) that when ever someone says their speaking or hearing or even being influenced by either satan, Jesus, god or
an angel they are deemed to be simply nuts, yet plenty of folk are quite happy to go to church on a Sunday and worship the same, though hopefully not
too many for satan.
It is a sobering thought that somewhere locked up in a padded cell, might be poor Jesus who was a bit surprised at the welcome he got for his second
coming 
Strictly speaking saying you are being controlled by Satan is not a delusion and therefore not a sign of mental illness. A delusion has to be a belief
outside of that person's social, religieous and personal background.
Lots of people believe in Satan therefore it's not a delusion.... Therefore if that was the only thing she was saying she doesn't qualify
for a mental health section.... IE legally "speaking or hearing or even being influenced by either satan, Jesus, god or an angel" isn't
a sign of mental illness.
I once worked with a guy from the North of Scotland who honestly believed he was hearing both the voices of Jesus and satan. I had huge long
discussions over many months with him about this, trying to understand what he was meaning and what he was experiencing. I have no doubt at all that
he was perfectly sane, yet it was clear that he was hearing something in his mind, infact he was one of the most capable people I have ever met for
holding up his side of a debate and I could never manage to debunk his religious views, he’d always come back with a counter argument. Anyone who’s
ever met me in real life knows how much I like a good debate.
Only conclusion I could come to is he had been brought up so much with the idea that bad and good thoughts were associated with either Jesus or satan
that he was literally unable to regard them as his own.
He off course never accepted that to be the case.
quote:
Originally posted by BenB
Strictly speaking saying you are being controlled by Satan is not a delusion and therefore not a sign of mental illness. A delusion has to be a belief outside of that person's social, religieous and personal background.
Lots of people believe in Satan therefore it's not a delusion.... Therefore if that was the only thing she was saying she doesn't qualify for a mental health section.... IE legally "speaking or hearing or even being influenced by either satan, Jesus, god or an angel" isn't a sign of mental illness.
The article states that she said that Satan was driving the car. Either she was lieing to get off, or she genuinely believed it, in which case she
is insane. She didn't say that Satan influenced her, she said he was actually there.
Lieing to get out of prison, only to be locked in a mental hospital is hardly wise. Being in a mental state where those events unfolded is tragic,
both for the woman and for the family of the decesed.
Religious belief isn't to blame here. Plenty of non-Christians refer to Satan or the Devil as a well known character of a certain type.
Insanity just picks up on well known characters. It could just as easily been Jean Luc Picard or William Shakespeare
Probably would have been more credible as Picard was French and we all know how they drive and William Shakespeare wouldn't have a clue which
pedals to press.
'It was that William numpty, I kept telling him that wasn't the brake!'