It would probably take a mental health professional who had spent time observing Mel Gibson to be sure of the answer to that one. The question does keep coming up of course, due to his increasingly odd public behaviour. One of the most recent incidents involved Gibson shouting abuse at screenwriter Joe Esterhas and his family. Esterhas actually taped him, so there is no question of this being a story made up by the media.

If losing control, attacking people and saying truly vile, unfounded things is proof of mental illness, then he surely is ill. His racist attacks, for instance, sound like things no sane person could make. But that is just a judgement from a member of the public - mental illness is a complicated business. A further complication is Gibson's background - many of his more extreme beliefs are echoing those earlier expressed by his father, who used to be well known for his right-wing and racist views.