I won't say too much about the context because: spoilers, but in one of the Psi Corp novels there's actually a scene where you see Bester's POV as he "kills" someone's personality (then rebuilds a facsimile of it to serve his purpose.) It's really creepy and really underlines the idea that it's not just about altering memories and behaviours, it's actual murder in every meaningful sense, even though there's still a body with a pulse left behind at the end of it.
It also did a much better job in general (as did those books as a whole) to actually justify the level of societal distrust and prejudice directed at telepaths. A strong P-9 can give you a stroke, and there'd be no way to prove foul play without a P-12 to verify it.
If the P-9 gave a stroke to a "mundane" the P-12 probably wouldn't care to verify it, or make it known to the authorities if he did.