MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
More in the case that James Holmes was doped out of his mind.
Comments
I don't see any evidence here he was "doped out of his mind.." No evidence here, and I haven't seen it anywhere. (We haven't even got to the stage of anyone involved in the legal proceedings admitting he was "out of his mind" yet, drugs or not, but that's another thing.)
From what I've read, the lawsuits have all been reported as being about the psychiatrist and the university not taking the steps to put him into an initial process of involuntary commitment, with the presumption that if that had been done, he might then have ended up being held until he wasn't showing signs of danger to others anymore.
Which in a way suggests nearly the opposite, that these people think that forcibly drugging him might have prevented it.
And there is such a common faith in psychiatric pharmacology being able to fix this sort of problem that there's a phrase to go with it, the "I was off my meds" excuse for doing something crazy.
Personally, I think there is a mistaken faith..As if once a delusional violent person gets the right drugs, that person will be normal and happy and will realize that they should keep taking those drugs. I think too many don't realize that it is rare for things to work out this way. That it's common for psychiatric patients, especially the severely ill ones, to be so miserable with the results of the drugs that they stop taking them once they are free of oversight..
I've been following the news on Holmes precisely because you're writing on these issues makes me more interested in knowing what his illness he thought she had and what drugs he was prescribed and whether he was taking them.. So far I haven't seen anything reported on that, haven't found anyone with proof of knowing anything about that leaking it.
In the process of looking for such info, I ran into this recent "I was off my meds" excuse, the NYC subway pusher:
Personally, I think it's highly likely, especially because he was a doctoral student in neuroscience, that Holmes was self-medicating, too, with disastrous effects. (It's ironic, but he himself could eventually end up suing the psychiatrist and university for not committing him.)
P.S. Here's another article, which in effect argues that many people with mental illness don't have a lot of faith in drugs making them better:
Please Take Away My Right to a Gun
By Wendy Button, Op-Ed Contributor New York Times, January 18, 2013
She's a political speechwriter who suffers with severe recurrent depression, and writes about how after she had an incident with an intruder, she seriously considered buying a gun for protection, then concludes:
by artappraiser on Sun, 01/20/2013 - 2:51pm