Better to be safe than sorry.
Once you have been able to assess his mental health, alive, you have a less chance of being accounted for a "letting die" blame.
Patterns of thought are significantly linked with the psychology of perception.
I would say with what if you have hinted with the interest in Anthropology, the field of Social Psychology is more to your liking. It would be more 'looking outward from within' as opposed to Cognitive psychology...