Lubitz es nuestra caja negra | Lubitz is our very own black box

Cuando el pasado 24 de marzo se estrelló en los Alpes el avión de Germanwings que hacía el trayecto Barcelona-Düsseldorf con 150 ocupantes, la dimensión del accidente nos estremeció y nos sumió a todos en el dolor y el desconcierto. Tantos muertos de pronto, tan cercanos, tan reconocibles como cualquiera de nuestros vecinos: la chavalería alemana regresando alegre de una semana de intercambio de institutos, las parejas rotas, los bebés, los esforzados empresarios, los turistas…

Pero el fiscal de Marsella nos sacó pronto del duelo y la postración. Del estupor por la tragedia súbita pasamos a transitar por un camino de horror y sobresalto ante lo inexplicable: se trataba de una masacre ejecutada voluntariamente por el copiloto. Andreas Lubitz.

When Germanwings flight travelling from Barcelona to Düsseldorf crashed into the Alps last 24th of March, with 150 occupants on board, the dimension of the accident moved us all and left us in pain and perplexity. All of a sudden so many dead, so close, any of them as recognisable as any of our neighbours: German youngsters happily returning from a high-school exchange week, broken couples, babies, hardworking entrepreneurs, tourists…

But Marseille’s attorney soon pulled us out of our mourning and prostration. From the initial astonishment caused by the sudden tragedy we found ourselves travelling a path of horror and shock upon the inexplicable: it was all an intentioned massacre executed by the co-pilot. Andreas Lubitz.

We started knowing he blocked the cockpit door like a sealed tomb. That he was a mentally unstable person with a history of mental disorders and altered behaviour. And every day, hundreds of lives relied on him. He coldly planned his act beforehand. His breathing wasn´t even altered. And every day he was in charge of hundreds of lives. He had left a multitude of signs and warnings around him, a now atrocious trace of crumbs of his illuminated destructivity. But linked the dots until what was unimaginable occurred. And every day, he was in charge of hundreds of lives.

Everybody (family, friends, girlfriends, bosses, doctors, administration) so determined to turn the other way and not grant enough importance to what was actually crucial.

Beyond the unacceptable stigmatising reaction towards mental illnesses during these past two weeks of obscure immersion into Andreas Lubitz’s life, this devastating drama has made a few reflections which I’m going to consider as positive, as long as they’re accompanied by the introduction of necessary measures to repair the cracks of the imperfect system which has allowed a psychopath (yes, I consider him so) to achieve his goal of being remembered.
Even if it is only as a tribute to the 149 innocent victims.

Since 1948, the World Health Organisation defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. Therefore, either health is comprehensive and holistic or it is not health. And guaranteeing adequate attention to mental health is a previous and necessary condition for a healthy society.

Depression is a common disease throughout the world, and it presumably affects around 350 million people in different degrees. It can turn into a serious health issue, especially if it is of long duration and of moderate or severe intensity, causing great suffering and altering work, school and family activities. Between 10% and 25% of women and 5% and 12% of men will undergo depression sometime throughout their lives. And only 1 out of 3 receives adequate treatment. But it is an illness which can be diagnosed, treated and cured, and one can, in the immense majority of cases, lead a perfectly normal life thereafter.

The WHO also offers a disturbing statistic: 2% of the world’s population are psychopaths. Out of which, only 1%, around one and a half million people, commit criminal acts.

Psychopathy (or antisocial personality disorder) is a mental illness which only affects will, and not intelligence. Its essential feature is the total absence of empathy, a total disregard for the consequences of his actions on others, and/or a substantial degree of resentment driving those actions. Psychopaths or sociopaths are, therefore, not exempt from criminal responsibility.

People suffering from depression (and other mental illnesses) usually pose a threat to themselves, but rarely to others; which is totally the contrary to what happens with psychopaths, given their emotional deficit and extreme lack of consciousness of the other.

Depressed people are usually unable to hide their illness because of its debilitating effects. A psychopath is easily capable of fooling anyone, even mental health specialists.

The fact that Lubitz was able to parade before a whole catalogue of experts which only subscribed his sight, psychosomatic and depression issues, precisely without the most dangerous and destructive mental disorder of his personality being detected, seems to validate, as his “great final moment” proves, that we are dealing with a psychopath.

From my point of view, the key to the Lubitz case isn’t his suicidal impulse, not even his previous depressive episodes, but a psychopathic disorder associated, as everything indicates, to a bipolar or manic depressive profile. On one hand, this implies a total lack of empathy (nobody cares), and on the other, a feeling of superiority, exacerbated in the manic phase: to be God, the power of life and death. Immolation at a peak, with a defenceless retinue of 149 people, 149 lives in his hands. Including the captain, the superior he would never be.
To be God.

“One day, everybody will know my name, and they will keep it in their memory”. It is difficult to find a bigger expression of arrogance, grandiloquence and the feeling of “righteousness” which are traditional characteristics of psychopathy, and not of clinical depression.

A suicidal person doesn’t want to kill himself. He wants to die. And he certainly does not want to carry humanity with him, neither he considers his disappearance as a feat to be remembered. He just wants to put an end to a life he can no longer stand. His own.

Psychiatric disorders are detectable, diagnosable and treatable. But we have to acknowledge their existence and assume they are adequately tackled as an indispensable condition for a healthy society. The validation of the state of our mental health has to be as common, normalised and accepted as the state of our cardiac or respiratory health. As our cholesterol or blood pressure levels. Or as our visual acuity or our motor skills.

And of course, nobody holding responsibilities over the integrity of citizens can be exempt to the evaluation of his health from this comprehensive point of view. Neither a surgeon, nor a firefighter or a taxi driver. Neither a policeman, nor a teacher or a judge. Neither a president, nor a mayor nor a councilman.
Neither a pilot.

Because there is nothing closer to a devil than he who believes is God.