[ExI] U.S. Medical Care

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2009/4/4 painlord2k at libero.it <painlord2k at libero.it> wrote:

> Maybe you think I advocated to put him/her inside an asylum forever, but I'm
> not doing this.
> I only advocate to do it for the limited time needed to make him/her calm
> and not dangerous for him/herself and others and, maybe, help him/her to not
> feel alienated.
>
> What is wrong with this?

In most jurisdictions only people with treatable mental illnesses are
allowed to be involuntarily admitted to involuntarily admitted to
psychiatric institutions. Treatable mental illnesses include major
depression and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia: you give
them drugs or ECT, they get better. This is still a controversial area
in psychiatry but people with personality traits that the rest of
society might consider deviant are not classified in the same way.
Biological treatments make no difference to them, and if they break
the law they are held responsible for their actions and dealt with in
the criminal justice system. This distinction will be thrown into
disarray when we have a better understanding of the brain and how to
manipulate it, but it's the situation as it stands at present.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou