Departments

;

Blogs > Liberty and Power > What a "History of Mental Illness" Means

Jun 5, 2004

What a "History of Mental Illness" Means


by Liberty and Power


Submitted to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

To the Editor:

I am puzzled by your June 4 story about moving “criminally acquitted patients” from facilities in Little Rock to facilities in Corning (“Judges get final say in patients’ transfers”). If they have been acquitted, why are they being moved anywhere? Then I learned that the Arkansas Partnership Program “has provided treatment to those acquitted of crimes because of mental disease or defect since…1995.” It goes on: “Most have…years of mental health problems.” Yet I was not reassured. For as Thomas Szasz points out, no one, including psychiatrists, has ever seen a mental disease, mental defect, or mental health problem. When people say they’ve seen those things, all they really mean is that they’ve seen bad behavior. But behavior, however bad, is behavior, not disease, and behavior has reasons, not causes (such as disease), even if the reasons are not readily apparent to observers. (Don’t bring up brain scans: they do not show causes of behavior. Correlation, even if it exists, is not causation.)

So when you report that people acquitted of rape, murder, and aggravated robbery have histories of mental health problems, all you’re saying is that these people have histories of bothering and harming other people. Why not just say that? And if that’s the case, why were they acquitted and why are they locked in a “mental health facility”? They belong in prison. We can't excuse people of responsibility for their crimes, then wonder what happened to self-responsibility.


comments powered by Disqus

More Comments:

laura green - 7/1/2008

If the mentally ill are to be treated like the rest of us, then they should also be provided with the same health care.This also goes for substance abusers.
...................................
laura green

Addiction Recovery Arkansas

Addiction Recovery Arkansas/

laura green - 7/1/2008

I think if we are to treat mentally ill persons like other normal people, they should also be given healthcare like others.This should be the same for substance abusers.
...................................
laura green

Addiction Recovery Arkansas

Addiction Recovery Arkansas/