I know Eric is covering the Arizona shooter well. But I just had to have my say. And I’ll make it short and sweet:
Paranoid Schizophrenics don’t have politics. They have voices.
But if you want to do politics at least one of his acquaintances has said he was a lefty.
And if you are looking to condemn, how about a system that knew he was troubled and did nothing for him. We don’t treat our mentally ill worse than dogs in Bedlams any more. We are better than that. We are indifferent to them.
Let me say this: for all its fiscal stupidity Illinois has a decent program for those with mental afflictions. Once they get in trouble with the law (the shooter had run ins in Arizona) there are special courts for them. Not only that, Rockford, Illinois has special police trained to deal with the mentally ill.
Cross Posted at Power and Control
They Don’t Have Politics
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11 responses to “They Don’t Have Politics”
We are indifferent to them.
Until they kill someone. If you read Thomas Szasz’s The Myth of Mental Illness and are libertarian you will come away with the belief that no one should ever be forcibly medicated let alone hospitalized until they commit a crime. Governor Ronald Reagan was influenced by Szasz and subsequently closed most of the mental hospitals in California. Now schizos wander the streets talking to themselves, live under bridges, abandoned by their families and society.
Illinois sounds enlightened by comparison.
Here is another killing of a public official just last Wednesday in Rainier, Oregon by a 21 year old on the verge of Schizophrenia. Look at his picture and read the accounts of his family and friends, and you get the picture.
http://tdn.com/news/local/article_db6092c6-1a2d-11e0-9bfa-001cc4c002e0.html
http://tdn.com/news/local/article_1b590ae4-1acd-11e0-99be-001cc4c002e0.html
In the story linked above, Danial Butts shot Rainier Police Chief, Ralph Painter, in the head. Giffords was shot in the head. But we won’t hear a peep about this story nationally, because Butts didn’t have a MySpace page with political ramblings linking him to Sarah Palin or the Tea Party.
Frank,
At one of your links it was noted that the shooter in question had given up self medicating (pot, alcohol) in August.
So, what does Illinois do in these special courts? Commit the mentally ill to institutions or otherwise forcibly remove them from society? Force feed them their medication? What??
Because as you know, the main danger with paranoid schizophrenics is that they will stop taking medication once they’re released from supervised care. Far too many prefer to live on the streets with their voices than take anti-psychotic drugs. Far too many experience improvement with the drugs and pronounce themselves cured and no longer in need of medication. The danger that one of them will become another Jared Loughner is ever present.
So, please don’t get all preachy about the “system” unless you have some suggestions regarding what the “system” can do about this. We could, for instance, decide that a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia necessarily requires that the afflicted surrender his civil rights and live in a care facility in perpetuity recognizing that there is no cure, only control. How about that?
Governor Ronald Reagan was influenced by Szasz and subsequently closed most of the mental hospitals in California.
Now, Frank, it wasn’t quite as simple as that, was it? For many years prior and a variety of reasons, well-intentioned reformers (Lord please save us from well-intentioned reformers) advocated a shift from largely involuntary institutionalization to community-based out-patient counselling and treatment on a largely voluntary basis and a criteria of strictly limited behavioral standards. This approach had many advocates including the ACLU, the CA State Psychological Assoc. and countless sociologists and other academics (in short, the usual subjects). It also had a string of court cases behind it.
In response to all this, the CA legislature passed the Lanterman, Petris, Short Act that Gov. Reagan signed into law. He had, in fact, eliminated many state hospital staff positions and closed several hospitals prior to that for budgetary reasons as the state hospital population had been steadily declining since 1960. He then closed more hospitals as they emptied out.
Unfortunately, these “reforms” didn’t work out as so many well-intentioned reforms don’t. But, what did you expect Reagan to do? Veto the legislation that at the time was based on generally accepted conventional wisdom (albeit generally accepted conventional liberal wisdom)? Not close empty state hospitals? What, exactly?
ST: But, what did you expect Reagan to do?
I thought what Reagan did at that time was the right thing to do. I had read Szasz book, and like Reagan supported the downsizing of mental hospitals. But in retrospect, it didn’t work out quite like everyone expected. So now instead of locking
up seriously mentally sick people and forcibly medicating them, too often they are given outpatient care, and just left to their own devices. I guess the dig at Reagan echoed a lot of criticism he got at the time which we all thought was not justified. But in retrospect he was wrong to go along with what ended up creating hoards of mentally sick homeless people. That wasn’t his worst mistake.
One compromise that I’ve never forgiven him for was his cave in to Democrats to establish state income tax withholding. This was THE pivotal event that allowed California state government to expand to the point that it is now a failed state. Reagan’s sell-out is what started it. He also took credit for a lot of things that never happened, like “fixing the welfare mess”, which helped him win the Republican presidential nomination. He may have been a great speech maker, but the man was no saint. He only looks good now because of the dreck that followed him.
So, please don’t get all preachy about the “system” unless you have some suggestions regarding what the “system” can do about this.
On suggestion would be forced medication with out-patient monitoring. If the schizophrenic stops taking medication, then he gives up his freedom and is hospitalized – a kind of long term parole, with the assumption that all schizophrenics are potentially dangerous when not medicated.
The best place to inform oneself on this is to read Patricia Santy’s blog. She is brilliant, a first rate mind, and knows the subject. I would defer to her opinion anytime.
Her recent post Defects in Epistomology ranks up there with the best of Ayn Rand. I don’t know of a better compliment to give someone.
http://drsanity.blogspot.com/
Sukie,
Force feed them their medication?
Not quite so crude, but yes. They check to see if the person in question is taking their meds.
http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2011/01/defects-in-epistemology-not-to-mention.html