[.ca] Out of the Shadows: Confronting America's Mental Illness ... (ISBN 0471245321)

From Amazon.com:
E. Fuller Torrey excoriates the way the mentally ill are treated in this country. His polemic against the concept of "deinstitutionalization" takes us on a grim tour of the lives led by the mentally ill: untreated, homeless, jobless, and helpless against street violence. Torrey argues that the criteria for involuntary commitment should include the need for treatment.

Torrey wrestles with his intellectual schizophrenia:
In his earlier book, The Death of Psychiatry, Torrey wrote this: A mental "disease" is said to be a "disease" of the mind... But a mind is not a thing and so technically it cannot have a disease... There are many known diseases of the brain ... But these diseases are considered to be in the province of neurology rather than psychiatry... None of the conditions that we now call mental "diseases" have any know structural or functional changes in the brain..." Now in his days of fame Torrey says the very opposite. In this book, despite his painfully transparent attempts to explain away the reality he earlier acknowledged, he is unsuccessful. We are still left with the fact that genuine brain diseases are treated not by psychiatrists like Torrey, but by neurologists. Psychiatrists "treat" non-existent diseases in a non-existent location called the mind. The metaphor of "the mind" didn't change, but Torrey did. And we are left bewildered as to why he now embraces views that he once blasted. It deserves a clear explanation that he doesn't offer. This book, and Torrey's other popular titles, can be read as an extended attempt to justify his devotion to something he formerly identified as useless pseudoscience. It is a case study in the cognitive dissonance of a well respected man.

This is Must Reading!:
This book is one of Dr. Torrey's best. He demonstrates how Americans have allowed their government and medical profession to immorally ignore and degrade the people who need our help the most--those with serious mental illness. Mental health workers would rather treat relatively healthy people going through ordinary life crises. Indeed, a sign of sucess in psychiatry and psychology is having a comfortable office practice where you don't have to see many manic depressives and almost no psychotics. The DSM (Psychiatry's diagnostic manual) is written so that any problem in a normal human life can be considered a "mental illness," so talking to a millionare who is disappointed that he only has $3 million instead of $10 million qualifies as providing mental health care. Meanwhile, those with serious depression kill themselves and people who are disabled because of dangerous hallucinations and delusions live in their own filth on the streets. This is all the more tragic because we have the means to treat the vast majority of mental/brain diseases. Very few people cannot be helped by the hundreds of medications that exist, but many are deprived of treatment because of absurd social and political policy. Torrey implicates several different political groups and movements as playing a big part in the problem. Liberals, civil libertarians, mainstream consrevatives and the far right have all had their reasons for closing mental hospitals and depriving psychiatrists of the ability to effectively treat their patients. Torrey points out that most of this opposition to psychiatry is done out of ignorance and hopes that as more and more people know the facts, society will demand that poeple with life threatening mental diseases be given the treatment they need to live health productive lives, and that the limited mental health resources our nation has will be spent wisely; giving those with the greates need the highest priority.

Seeking advice for troubled teen:
My l4 year old daughter who is a freshman in High School and who attends several classes with her cousin is concerned about his behavior. She and her best friend told me recently that her cousin sits in class poking his arm with a needle. When I asked what the teacher does they told me they send him down to the Guidance Counselor. My understanding is that they have notified his mother. We are not sure if they've gotten him in therapy or not. I suspect they havn't because she is very very quiet and displays some forms of depression. I was also told that he wrote an essay for school entitled "Why doesn't anyone love me" looking for some input.

Documents the Stuggle Among Mental Health Professionals:
Dr. Torrey once again published a book that highlighted a critical issue among mental health professionals. He once again tries to prod the American public into becoming aware of what is happening among the mentally ill in this country. He wants his profession to take a hard look at how they are responding to the crisis of mental illness. He desperately wants them to evaluate how they are responding. And he wants the system changed.