[liberal/progressive policies and ]
public efforts to transform the mental health care system to be more
humane, to characterize mentally ill people as “Just thinking
differently”, and characterizing mental health care as some form of
evil, we now have a system that makes it virtually impossible to get
folks like Lanza the care they need.
Deinstitutionalization policies driven by “do good” liberals and
the federal government put focus on limited bad acts. Kesey wrote a
story based on his LSD induced observations in one VA mental hospital.
[One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest] Once his story was put into film, his
small example falsely characterized the bulk of mental health care as
dehumanizing and made it impossible to force the Lanza’s of the world to get treatment.
According to ABC News, Ryan Lanza, the older brother of 20-year-old Connecticut school massacre perpetrator Adam Lanza, has told
police that his brother has Asperger Syndrome and another “personality
disorder.” ABC News reports: Neighbors described the younger man to ABC
as “odd” and displaying characteristics associated with
obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Two handguns, a Sig Sauer and a Glock semi automatic were used in
the shooting, the .223 Bushmaster never left the car. He was 20 years
old and therefore in CT not eligible to purchase a gun – So a gun ban
wouldn’t have stopped this one.
CNN REPORTS -
A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation says the
three guns found at the shooting site were legally purchased by Nancy
Lanza, the mother of the suspect in the shooting.
According to the law enforcement official, the Glock and Sig Sauer
handguns were found inside the school with the deceased gunman. The
Bushmaster was found in a car outside the school. The official did not
know if the car was registered to the gunman, to his mother or to
someone else.
“Lanza, has told police that his brother has Asperger Syndrome and another “personality disorder.”
Why can’t ABC mention the other disorder? Afraid it will screw up the
gun grab agenda? Schizophrenia? Depression treated with anti-depressant
meds known to cause violence?
Asperger Syndrome, which some say are a
lesser form of autism, have some less popular negative features that are
missing from the current image of Asperger, but have been observed by
Hans Asperger in his original study and are known from forensic
psychiatry. These include motor clumsiness,
insensitivity to another’s
feelings, destructivity, aggression, endlessly bottled-up anger, violent
outbursts, and grim sadism. Some of these set Asperger apart from
classical autism, and failing to include them in the criteria makes it
appear as if Asperger and autism are really the same.
What is clear, is that decades of failed liberal policy have made it
difficult to force people with severe mental diseases to be treated or
institutionalized. And, then we are all shocked when these same dysfunctional individuals go on a shooting rampage like we witnessed today in Newtown.
For Your Country
posted this back after schizophrenic Jared Loughner went on his
shooting rampage in Arizona that left several people dead and US Rep.
Gabby Giffords seriously wounded.
It is just as true today.
It's actually very hard to force people with severe mental
diseases to be treated because of a range of reforms pushed by
progressives starting in the 60′s:
- Ronald David Laing,
a Scottish Psychiatrist, In the 60′s put forth the foundation of the
Anti-Psychiatry movement. He maintained that schizophrenia was “a theory
not a fact”. The popularity of Laing’s theories is blamed for decline
in students entering the psychology profession.
- President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 Community Mental Health Centers Act accelerated the trend toward deinstitutionalizationwith the establishment of a network of community mental health centers and changes in laws regarding commitment.
- Kenneth Kesey, wrote “One Flew over the Cukoo’s Nest”based
in part on Laing’s thinking (and his own intensive use of drugs).
“Kesey did not believe that these patients were insane, rather that
society had pushed them out because they did not fit the conventional
ideas of how people were supposed to act and behave.” The Book,play, and
later the movie, portrayed a anti-psychiatry philosophy leading to a
public displeasure with residential mental facilities resulting in
further deinstitutionalization policies.
- Deinstitutioanlization led to many legal and structural changes. American public mental hospital patients declined from more than 550,000 in 1955 to fewer than 40,000 at present. The displaced patients now represent 30-50% of the homeless populations.
As a result of Laing, Kennedy, Kesey and public efforts to transform
the mental health care system to be more humane, to characterize
mentally ill people as “Just thinking differently”, and characterizing
mental health care as some form of evil, we now have a system that makes
it virtually impossible to get folks like Loughner the care they need.
Deinstitutionalization policies driven by “do good” liberals and the
federal government put focus on limited bad acts. Kesey wrote a story
based on his LSD induced observations in one VA mental hospital. Once
his story was put into film, his small example falsely characterized the
bulk of mental health care as dehumanizing and made it impossible to
force the Laughners of the world to get treatment.
Critics will focus on gun control after today’s school massacre.
The focus should be on failed liberal policies that excuse rather than assist extremely dysfunctional individuals.
Asperger Syndrome, which some say are a lesser form of autism, have some less popular negative features that are missing from the current image of Asperger, but have been observed by Hans Asperger in his original study and are known from forensic psychiatry. These include motor clumsiness, insensitivity to another’s feelings, destructivity, aggression, endlessly bottled-up anger, violent outbursts, and grim sadism. Some of these set Asperger apart from classical autism, and failing to include them in the criteria makes it appear as if Asperger and autism are really the same.
What is clear, is that decades of failed liberal policy have made it difficult to force people with severe mental diseases to be treated or institutionalized. And, then we are all shocked when these same dysfunctional individuals go on a shooting rampage like we witnessed today in Newtown.
For Your Country posted this back after schizophrenic Jared Loughner went on his shooting rampage in Arizona that left several people dead and US Rep. Gabby Giffords seriously wounded.
It is just as true today.
Critics will focus on gun control after today’s school massacre.
The focus should be on failed liberal policies that excuse rather than assist extremely dysfunctional individuals.