Word Cops Strike Again!

I must have been living under a rock ! I did not even suspect that

    the term " mental patient " is " both archaic and offensive " until

    letter writer Steven A. Brinker - with his " extensive experience in

    the mental health profession " - pointed this out to me. ( " Don't

    call them 'mental patients', "  Providence Journal, July 8 )

       Perhaps in the enlightened future there will be no more " drug addicts "

    or even " coronary patients ". Beware of  offensive stereotypes!

       So now " mental patient " is the moral equivalent of the N-word ?

      Have we made REAL progress in our treatment of the " psychiatrically

    challenged " ?  Perhaps these are the people who actually get to be

    treated by psychiatrists. But what about those - let me use an even cruder

    term - CRAZY PEOPLE we see all over the place in a city like Providence ?

       Have our enlightened social workers - so sensitive with WORDS - discovered

    that they don't really exists as potential " psychiatric patients " ?  Only

    people who think in terms of stereotypes - such as yours truly - actually

    see a scandalous crime of NEGLECT here .

       Writes Steven Brinker : " There are no MENTAL HOSPITALS for MENTAL

    PATIENTS ". And that my smug " social worker " is just the problem !

        The language police think that by changing WORDS we can change

    REALITY . HUMBUG !