The insanity offense : how America's failure to treat the seriously mentally ill endangers its citizens / E. Fuller Torrey.
2008
RC443 .T67 2008 (Mapit)
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Details
Title
The insanity offense : how America's failure to treat the seriously mentally ill endangers its citizens / E. Fuller Torrey.
Edition
1st ed.
ISBN
9780393066586
0393066584
0393066584
Imprint
New York : W.W. Norton, c2008.
Language
English
Description
xvi, 265 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Call Number
RC443 .T67 2008
Dewey Decimal Classification
362.196/89
Summary
Beginning in the 1960s in the United States, scores of patients with severe psychiatric disorders were discharged from public mental hospitals. At the same time, activists forced changes in commitment laws that made it impossible to treat half of the patients that left the hospital. The combined effect was profoundly destructive. Today, among homeless persons, at least one-third are severely mentally ill; among the incarcerated, at least one-tenth. Of those individuals living in our communities, many are the victims of violent crime. Other untreated individuals commit crimes, including murder and assault. Here, advocate Torrey takes full stock of this phenomenon, exploring the causes and consequences as he weaves together narratives of individual tragedies in three states with sobering national data on our failure to treat the mentally ill. In the book's final chapters, Torrey outlines what needs to be done to reverse this ongoing--and accelerating--disaster.--From publisher description.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-250) and index.
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Table of Contents
Introduction : the origins of a disaster
Death by the roadside
Thirteen murders to prevent an earthquake
"The odds are still in society's favor"
The killing of three devils
The sad legacy of Ms. Lessard
God does not take medication
The consequences of unconstrained civil liberties : homeless, incarcerated, and victimized
The consequences of unconstrained civil liberties : violent and homicidal
An imperative for change
Fixing the system
Coda : death by the roadside.
Death by the roadside
Thirteen murders to prevent an earthquake
"The odds are still in society's favor"
The killing of three devils
The sad legacy of Ms. Lessard
God does not take medication
The consequences of unconstrained civil liberties : homeless, incarcerated, and victimized
The consequences of unconstrained civil liberties : violent and homicidal
An imperative for change
Fixing the system
Coda : death by the roadside.