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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

An editorial position on " more mental hospitals, please " ?

I think it is about time the Providence Journal take an editorial position on the tragic failure of 50 years of deinstitutionalization of the severely mentally ill. Too many mental health professionals have been corrupted by FOR PROFIT health care. Or they are too timid to speak out. With all these horrible news stories about the numerous crackups ( " Nope, no problem here ! " said the good doctor. ) you would think that our more competent psychiatrists and mental health therapists would be ashamed of their profession. And bottles of anti-psychotic pills ( self-administered ? ) are no substitute for clearly seeing the troubled human soul.
       As the late Dr, Viktor Frankl-the founder of logotherapy- and a Nazi death camp survivor- author of " Man's Search for Meaning " - taught his disciples : the mentally ill must also be shown that their existence still has meaning, even a transcendental one. The manic-depressive's soul is a lot more than a lithium solution. For-profit psychiatry laughs at the human soul. And look all around you for its fruits !
  Rather than be a jail-house for the mentally ill ( " lock them all up ! " ), a modern mental institution can resemble one of those comfortable , idyllic Roman Catholic " retreats ".  Where recovery is indeed possible. Where now healthy souls do one day just walk out the door.

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Ron