Civil Commitment and the Mentally Ill - Coursework Example

Civil commitment and the Mentally Ill s The issue of mental disorder has become one of the most important topics for the modern scientific studies. A lot of scientists and psychiatrists try to give the definition to this phenomenon and find out the factors, which provoke its appearance. As a result they faced that there are thousands of factors, which influence the emergence of abnormal behavior among human beings. Each field of science concentrates on the particular problem, caused mostly by its environment. The aim of this work is to analyze the imprisoned people, possessing mental diseases, and their behavior in terms of the applied punishments. Modern system of civil commitment comprises a number of measures for the reconstruction of human mind. This work represents these measures from the point of view of psychologists who have their own opinion as for this approach. The main question remains, if these measures help people to become healthy or make harmful effect on them. The duality of this event is visible due to the experiments held. “The subjective experiences of the mental patient and the theories and therapies of the psychiatrist are like the covers of a book. The front cover, that first attracts our attention, is what the mental patient says and does. Next we usually examine the back cover, namely, what the psychiatrist says about the patient and does with him or to him. Often people go no further, satisfied that they can judge a book by its cover – or covers. I believe something like this has happened with mental illness or psychiatry” (Szasz, T., 1987, 2). Mental illness is revealed through the changes and disturbances in the sphere of human feelings, thinking and behavior, which can bring as well to the changes of the physical functions of the body. Unfortunately, the modern era comprises certain standards of living, the violations of which are very visible for the public society. Sometimes, even mentally healthy people become the victims of bulling and blaming. The mentally disordered person can hardly be understood by the modern society, that is why it is very important to notice the abnormality of his behavior in time and to provide him with the necessary medical support. However, unlike the society, modern psychiatrist consider the insanity as the regular disease and compare it with, for example flue or scarlet fever. They do not see anything supernatural in it, as the insanity and mental illnesses can be cured with the help of correct methods of treatment. The stage of the illness is also very important, as it predetermines the period of the therapy. There are, of course, inborn diseases, the treatment of which can last during the whole life of the individual. Medical team announces that, the earlier the patient will be educed and examined, the faster will be his recovery period. Patients with mental disorders may experience different physical, emotional, cognitive, behavioral and perceptual symptoms. For example: In terms of human emotions, a person with mental disorders can feel only sadness during the long period of time or be extremely happy with no reason. It can be also revealed through the absence of the emotions. In terms of thinking, such people can face the confused dreams and violation of the logical chains, as well as the appearance of different extremely positive or negative judgments about others and about himself. In terms of behavior, the symptoms are expressed by the deviations from the socially accepted norms (sexual perversion, useless movements, compulsive actions and so forth) The insanity defense plays a great role in the system of legal accusations. The fact, that at the moment of crime, the person was not responsible for his actions, due to his psychological state, does not make the person free from the responsibility for the crime, but the methods of punishment are changed. The idea of insanity defense appeared in the times of ancient Greece and Rome. Since that time, it has been developed constantly. In 1724 appeared the first copy of the insanity trial. On June, 30, 1983, in state Kentucky appeared the completely new verdict in the criminal case: “guilty-but-mentally-ill”. It is considered to be the date of approval of the insanity status by the legislative system of Kentucky. The previous verdicts existed only in the status as “guilty” or “not guilty”. Nowadays the state deals with the rule of Model Penal Code. It means that the accused person should proof his insanity. This can be achieved with the help of modal penal code tests, obligatory for the proof of innocence. The success of this event was only noticed in the process of working with the specialists. The development of the psychiatry predetermined the improvement of the state of the incarcerated people. Anyway, the process of insanity defense was greatly criticized by many scientists. The approach of justification of the people with abnormal behavior was broke the rules of social morality. A lot of psychologists stated that the incorrect actions and mental illness were the results of the events surrounded the accused person in the past and the origin of them were predetermined by the difficult childhood. “Individuals who eventually ended up in asylums (during the nineteenth century) usually manifested some form of extreme behavior, including violent, suicidal, and occasionally homicidal acts, hallucinations, excitement, agitation, delusions, and deep depression. Alcoholism was itself not a sufficient cause for commitment” (Failer, J. L., 2002, 72). The criticism does not understand the nature of the responsibility of the accused person, which comprises moral approach, not the scientific one. The opinion of the psychologists as for the insanity cases depends upon the different circumstances. It can hardly be ultimate, because of the difference of the specialists’ vision on the problem. It is necessary to determine the disease correctly, in this case their opinions should coincide. The provided tests and experiments must be accurate and professional, because their results influence the further treatment of the individual and predetermines his future life. The imprisoned people with mental disorders is a complicated case. Most of them face serious difficulties in the regular life, while the atmosphere, which is not appropriate for them can lead to the deterioration of the state or even to the death of the patient. The surrounding atmosphere of prison and the limitation of freedom usually evoke depression. “Depression may be regarded as the converse of excitement. The patient is slow in all his actions, thinks with difficulty, and is miserable and unhappy” (Hart, B., 1958, 31). The example of the harmful effects of the prison on the mentally disordered person is perfectly represented by the story of Timothy Souders. His diagnosis was not inborn, but acquired in the adult life. He died of thirst in the prison at the age of 21, in the result of continuous tortures, provided by the staff of the prison. Anyone who watched the video with these tortures understands that no one can handle this. In such situation, even the healthy person would become abnormal. Timothy was not provided with the correct examination and treatment, which brought to the deep depression and led to the several attempts of suicide commitment. There is no doubt that such patients require the special approach, which can be provided only by the qualified medicals. In order to save Timothy’s life, it was necessary to send him to the special hospital for the rehabilitation and treatment. In six months, his case could be reviewed in terms of necessity for the next treatment period. Timothy should have been treated like the ill person, but not as the dangerous criminal. After his attempts to commit a suicide Timothy was punished in the cruel ways. He was restrained for 12 hours and the staff of the prison considered it to be the way of protection of the patient and the surrounding people. No expert in the sphere of psychology consider restrains as the good idea. There is no purpose and no treatment in this method, so it is perfectly seen that there was no reason to apply such methods of punishment for Timothy Souder. The process of insanity defense still remains controversial. The legislators and society express a great doubt as the necessity for the defense of a criminal, who, for example killed another individual in the state of insanity. The attitude of the legislative and medical commentators is separated by different attitudes towards this issue of defense in the state of insanity. The psychological treatment of insane inmates was carefully studied in Kentucky during the last years. It included the establishment of Kentucky Department of corrections, Medication Committees and so forth. In conclusion, it is important to state the fact that criminals should be punished and incarcerated, while mentally ill people should be cured. Modern medicine has enough technologies for determination of the abnormalities in the mind and behavior of the person. Hopefully, the story of Timothy Souder will encourage people to make the right decisions in order to save human’s life. References Failer, J. L. (2002). Who qualifies for rights? Homelessness, Mental Illness, and Civil Commitment. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. Szasz, T. (1987). Insanity. The idea and its consequences. Canada: JOHN WILEY & SONS. Hart, B. (1958). The psychology of insanity. Fifth edition. Cambridge: The University Press. Read More