Quote:
Originally Posted by kittygilchrist
I respect the opinions of experts in a field. In this case we are offering our opinions about when a psychiatric evaluation should be required, and few of us know much about the field.
Tal and I have in common desire to delve into research. Below is research into the most common mental disorder associated with crime. It's schizophrenia.
Before we give evaluations to people buying guns, why don't we build a system of mental health where people already known to be insane can be housed and treated? I worked at the Northeast Florida State Hospital where law enforcement would bring acutely ill dangerously insane persons mandated for admission, and the "system" would refuse because there were no beds. In one case I recall, the officer and the insane person spent the entire night in the car in the parking lot.
Rise in crime and premature death among those with schizophrenia in past 30 years – study |
I also believe and from very personal experience that the powerful in the US have used labels of mental illness to cover up wrongdoings of their own. One of these probably is "paranoid schizophrenic". For instance, starting around January 1991 I fought to be honest about my commitment to improving resources designed for survivors of crimes while still at the University of Minnesota Law Library. I was met with subtle suggestions that I see the University psychologist and then not so subtle. This had nothing to do with concern for my mental well-being but really only had to do with the image of the law library/law school. I sent the same documents that prompted the attack on my mental health to 100 US Senators, half the sitting US Representatives, all the US Governors in 1991, some law school deans, some law professors. I believe only three or four had the same response that, this interest in survivors rights with respect to access to practical information indicated that I needed to see a University psychologist.
The irony though is that after this fight of mine in 1991, there was a CBS National News Report around July 6, 1996 that they had made this approach to attacking internal critics a policy at the Library of Congress where the woman it had been used on had suffered greatly losing her home, job, and probably many friendships for fighting back.
As many know my interest in victims/survivors rights is based on the 2-24 murder of my then high school teacher's daughter Michelle Mitchell near the University of Nevada, Reno campus in 1976.
The CBS News Report of July 6, 1996 said that this policy of attacking critics in terms of the mental health rather than on their ideas originated in Stalin's Soviet Union. Hitler and his Nazi regime had a similiar kind of approach to undesirables. They would label them "paranoid schizophrenic" and just lose them in their mental health system.
I had covered my campaign about helping survivors/victims of crimes while in a study on stress on the unemployed at the University of California San Francisco School of Health Services in late 1992-1993. I was subject #613. The woman doing the interviews of me, Myra Young, waited until the end of the 17 week study and told me that this was a very worthwhile cause. She did seem a little worried about what would become of me though. As many should surmise, I lost any of the bridges I had made while working at the University of Minnesota Law Library as well as at the Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners. Not much someone with no reliable references can do but attempt to fight back.
I will bet that if people searched they would see that this approach to attacking people who tried to improve things from inside the system probably shows up a lot more frequently than it should in what is supposedly a free open society.
My approach to fighting back was to spotlight this problem by getting everyone and anyone I could think of involved with fighting this despicable approach. It takes advantage of people's fear about mental illness a well as their lack of real knowledge of treatments and the like. Of course, who is better to spotlight such problems than the media in all its various forms? I spent a lot of time telling this story to writers, actors, journalists, screenwriters, comedians and anyone else who might listen. Having burned my bridges meant I had to rebuilt them myself piece-by-piece while often having to dodge things coming at me from various directions. For instance, Gary Corsair of the
Villages Daily Sun had called me in May 2007 the Memorial Day weekend asking me if I were a "paranoid schizophrenic" because of what some smart alecs had said on Snopes Tinfoil Hat section about some of the more stupid attempts I had made to get more people involved with this struggle. Mr. Gary Corsair was writing a piece on my attempts to get the Florida Victim Services Directory linked to the Lake, Sumter, and Marion County public library websites.