Mental Health Association of Nebraska

Vice Squad

Dr. John Sadler, MD, asks if psychiatrists are agents of the police or doctors of the sick?  To illustrate this, he points to the DSM-IV and the proposed DSM-V diagnostic criteria for Conduct Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and classic disorders like Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder, which, according to Sadler, all contain "vice-laden diagnostic criteria . . . that describe immoral or criminal conduct."  Sadler believes that "building diagnostic concepts around vice (wrongful/criminal conduct) is a problem for psychiatry and for the public sphere.  For Stigma, vice-laden diagnoses perpetuate the public perception that psychiatrists are social control agents that  serve as moral police, not physicians with a humane charge of caring for the ill."  (Not to mention the stigma from assigning moral and or criminal wrongfulness to an individual labeled with one of these "brain diseases")

"Our handling of vice - wrongful and/or criminal conduct - in our diagnostic thinking appears arbitrary and is irrational, inconsistent, and misleading."  To read more . . .

Hard Cases Make For Very Bad Law

Dr. Allen Frances, MD, writes that "the most disturbing turbulence at the boundary of psychiatry and the law is the misuse of a makeshift psychiatric diagnosis to justify the involuntary, indefinite psychiatric commitment of rapist.  This is a disguised form of preventative detention, a violation of due process, and an abuse of psychiatry.  The mental health professionals have been placed in the position of providing a dangerous fig leaf to cover an unfortunate correctional gap created by fixed sentencing."  According to Frances, "commitment is meant to protect public safety by keeping the offender in a secure psychiatric facility after his prison sentence had been already completed." SVP (Sexually Violent Predator) statutes are constitutional as long as a mental disorder is found to be the cause of the offender's dangerousness.  Absent a traditional mental disorder, courts "have applied essentially made-up diagnosis, 'Paraphilia NOS, nonconsent'  to justify the psychiatric commitment of rapists who without this 'diagnosis' would be regarded as no more than common, if particularly heinous criminals."

"No one wants dangerous sexual predators released prematurely to the street just because they have received too short a prison sentence.  But, the 'Paraphilia NOS, nonconsent' fix for this legal and correctional problem is a transparent abuse of psychiatric diagnosis that greases a perilously slippery slope loss of constitutional freedoms."  To read more . . .

 

Mentally Ill Toys

Now, here is one that didn't make it into the DSM.  The British SUN reports that a German toy maker "is hoping kids will love his latest creation - a family of soft toys who will have psychiatric illnesses."  The menagerie includes a depressed turtle, a psychotic snake, a delusional sheep and a paranoid crocodile.  To top it all off, each comes with its own medical history, referral letter and treatment plan.  The company's website, aptly named The Asylum Psychiatric Clinic for Abused Cuddlytoys, even offers waiting room posters covering topics like the Theory of Plushtoy Psychoanalysis, and common Methods of Treatment.

According to their creator, "children and grownups like their vulnerability and find something in them that gives them a great sense of comfort in helping to heal them."  Seems like there might also be a market for an inflatable greedy, insensitive toy maker doll suitable for target practice.  To learn more . . .