Of course the thought occurs to me that this is because abusers are bad
people.

Forgive me for saying this, but that's the sort of attitude that's made
 mental illness the twentieth-century equivalent of leprosy.  "It *must* be
 *their* fault that they're sick!"

I'm not David, so I can't say for sure, but I think he was talking about
traditional abusers when he mentioned that, and not the ones who are mentally
ill.

Of course, it can (and has been) argued that anybody who would abuse a fellow
human being like that MUST be mentally ill to one degree or another, but I
think that's a huge load of BS. Some people are just mean-spirited, abusive
jerks who'll take advantage of another's inability to defend themselves. You
don''t have to be mentally ill to do that. 
  

 Read up on the subject, David.  Part of mental illness is the inability to
 admit that it's *you* that's messed up.  Most often, people with a mental
 illness believe that the rest of the world is screwed up, and they're the
 only sane ones.  Zen portrays this attitude on Akane quite nicely - and

it's

 quite accurate.

The operative words here are "most often." This is IED we're talking about
here, INTERMITTENT Explosive Disorder. Unlike most other mental illnesses
(bipolar, Schizophrenia, etc) where you're always ill, but you can burn hot
and cold (good days and bad days) the swing in IED is a lot more severe. The
episodes can last anywhere for minutes to hours, after which is a very quick
return to the "normal" personality, where you are functionally capable of
analyzing what you did and realizing that you are one messed-up individual. In
fact, in many case studies of IED (at least the ones my psych teacher has
shown me) the sufferer expresses regret and guilt immediatly after.

That's why I'm so PO'd at Akane in TBE. She had her behavior practically
shoved right in her face several times by people she should have listened to
(especially Kasumi... how can anybody ignore KASUMI for crying out loud?!) and
yet totally disregarded it.

 In my research on mental illness for this and "Roses of Shadow", I came
 across some frightening first-person accounts of mental illness.  Usually,
 such accounts came from people who, with medication and treatment, are now
 able to function more or less normally.  But while they were ill, very

often

 admitting they were ill was the last thing on their minds.  Almost
 invariably, it was their families that got them treatment against their
 will.
 
 *That's* the real tragedy of "The Bitter End".  I was much more angry at
 Ranma, Nodoka, Kasumi, Ukyo et. al. for not forcing Akane into treatment
 than I was at Akane for beating Ranma.

True. There's definitly some blame to be directed towards them. I mean, if it
had been RANMA doing the abusing, the cops would have been called almost
before the first punch had landed.
  

 -Richard
 

-Mercutio
"A plague 'a both your houses!"