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People with mental illnesses are not necessarily or even usually less rational than people without them. The only reason people think that is the false notion that a “normal” person is totally rational and that irrationality therefore is *only* present because of mental illness.
Depressed people, for instance, actually give more accurate self-evaluations than the general public. I’ll try to find that study later when I get the chance.
Everybody has “irrational” thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. That’s what being human is. If you think any eccentric, abnormal, or exceptional behavior must be due to mental illness, it’s because you don’t really understand what humans are or how the mind works.
Social psychology has documented hundreds (probably more) ways in which people, on average, think in irrational ways—biases and prejudices, subconscious or otherwise. We’re actually pretty predictably irrational animals in any controlled environment.
