"The monster of Florence" is a book by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi about the true story of a serial killer in Florence between 1968 and 1985, called the monster of Florence. This is a quote from a monk in Florence who ran a mental health practice out of his cell in a monastery. He is giving his thoughts on the serial killer and mental illness.
"There is no longer any communication among us because our very language is sick and the sickness of our discourse carries us inevitably to sickness in our bodies to neurosis, if not finally to mental illness. when I can no longer communicate with speech I will speak with sickness. my symptoms are given life, these symptoms express the need for my soul to make itself heard but cannot because I don't have the words and because those who should listen cannot get beyond the sound of their own voices. the language of sickness is the most difficult to interpret and is an extreme form of black mail, which defies our all efforts to pay it off and send it away. it is the final attempt to communication. Mental illness lies at the very end of the struggle to be heard. it is the last refuge of a desperate soul who has finally understood that nobody is listening or will ever listen. Madness is the renunciation of all efforts to be understood. it is one unending scream of pain and need, into the absolute silence and indifference of society. it is a cry without an echo. This is the nature of the evil of the monster of Florence and this is the nature of the evil in each and every one of us. We all have a monster within, the difference is in degree."