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saraentz 's review for:
5/5 — Man will reject straightforward, compassionate action out of a tragic obsession with slippery slope fallacies.
In the case of the mentally ill, Pete Earley demands us to question why parents, therapists, and doctors’ insistence on forced medication is rejected in favor of an individual’s civil liberty to remain mentally ill. This being the “protection” which has left hundreds of thousands of mentally ill individuals to experience the revolving door of hospitalization, imprisonment, and homelessness — a structural consequence of the 60’s mass deinstitutionalization movement, which with no alternative system in place, left the innocently insane worse off than anything cried out in Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Earley shares this masterful investigation of America’s mental health care crisis alongside personal experience navigating his college-aged son’s bipolar diagnosis. The doctors won’t medicate unless his manic son consents (which he will not do, given his illness does not permit such foresight), insurance providers won’t cover expenses they arbitrarily deem excessive (shocker: no room for preventative care), and judges will not intervene unless the victim is experiencing imminent violence toward themselves or others (already too late). His son is revealed to be among “the lucky ones,” who is responsive to medication, loved by attentive parents, and as the story unfolds, able to dodge the life-shattering felony charges that resulted from an episodic house break in.
The unlucky ones will be left unmedicated or unresponsive to medication, and thus treated as criminals. This group will go on to experience much of their lives in institutions designed to punish and watched over by correctional officers trained to oppress. Kindness approaches this group in superficial ways — legalizing parks admission after hours, permitting fires in public spaces, allowing the blockage of sidewalks — laws which may decriminalize homelessness for the mentally ill, but will not save them from the inevitable revolving door.
Pg 145 — “I’ve never had one person whom I’ve helped say, ‘Doc, I wish you would have left me crazy on the streets.”
In the case of the mentally ill, Pete Earley demands us to question why parents, therapists, and doctors’ insistence on forced medication is rejected in favor of an individual’s civil liberty to remain mentally ill. This being the “protection” which has left hundreds of thousands of mentally ill individuals to experience the revolving door of hospitalization, imprisonment, and homelessness — a structural consequence of the 60’s mass deinstitutionalization movement, which with no alternative system in place, left the innocently insane worse off than anything cried out in Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Earley shares this masterful investigation of America’s mental health care crisis alongside personal experience navigating his college-aged son’s bipolar diagnosis. The doctors won’t medicate unless his manic son consents (which he will not do, given his illness does not permit such foresight), insurance providers won’t cover expenses they arbitrarily deem excessive (shocker: no room for preventative care), and judges will not intervene unless the victim is experiencing imminent violence toward themselves or others (already too late). His son is revealed to be among “the lucky ones,” who is responsive to medication, loved by attentive parents, and as the story unfolds, able to dodge the life-shattering felony charges that resulted from an episodic house break in.
The unlucky ones will be left unmedicated or unresponsive to medication, and thus treated as criminals. This group will go on to experience much of their lives in institutions designed to punish and watched over by correctional officers trained to oppress. Kindness approaches this group in superficial ways — legalizing parks admission after hours, permitting fires in public spaces, allowing the blockage of sidewalks — laws which may decriminalize homelessness for the mentally ill, but will not save them from the inevitable revolving door.
Pg 145 — “I’ve never had one person whom I’ve helped say, ‘Doc, I wish you would have left me crazy on the streets.”