barnbwt
member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2011
- Messages
- 7,340
He never went on a mass-shooting, though, did he? He also accomplished much of his most important feats after the point people realized he was in serious trouble. Drug abuse from self-medication was ultimately what got to him. I'm also not sure 'treatment' was much of an option back then; shock, lobotomy, and sedatives were pretty much the rule of the day (which was the real reason Cuckoo's Nest was so alarming to people, when they realized just how ineffective treatment was, and how the facilities were really no more than prisons with severe latitude in modifying inmate behavior). Since we supposedly do have better legitimate treatment options, now (still somewhat debatable), mental health treatment is closer to actual treatment than ever. From that perspective, it does actually make more sense to process patients the way we do (in the past, the clinical aspect was closer to window-dressing)I don't think too many people with OCD got locked up even in the old days. Though untreated, a condition could conceivably degenerate to the point where committal was necessary. Look at Howard Hughes. Toward the end of his life, he probably should have been, but his money and the power that comes with it shielded him from that. But conditions like that are entirely treatable without committal.
What, specifically, is the failing? This is where knee-jerk responses fail; specifics. We're gonna write legislation to address this, so what specifically should be fixed? Dump more people into the system we have? Triage more borderline cases as requiring committal? Make enforcement more diligent in picking up people suspected of needing committal?It's a failing of the system.
I keep hearing this, but I don't understand how a violent history doesn't get you off the streets --in jail, if nowhere else. Sounds like a failing of the enforcement or penal structures. I keep saying, if we properly punished people who commit violence, we wouldn't have these same folks contributing to the numbers again and again. Every time someone reoffends, the multiply the 'latent' crime rate of humans by 2. Or, perhaps, the families seek psychiatric committal in the hope of a 'cure' for what is actually criminal or evil tendencies? In that case, it's a problem with using the wrong tool for the job and no reform will help.There are violent people as well, some of whom had a history of mental health issues, and many of whose relatives have tried to get them forced into treatment, but are powerless to do so under the current system.
That's not why people are involuntarily committed, btw. That same justification can be used to starve the obese. Bonus, right?The fact that many people who aren't violent, but are still so severely mentally ill they need to be treated, even against their will, is a bonus.
But logically, is that not a reason to limit the authority people have over others where possible?Abuses are always possible, but that's true in any area where some people are given authority over others. That's no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water.
TCB