Over 30 years ago, I was committed involuntarily by my parents
and a psychiatrist they hired who initially insisted my opinion
that all human beings have a right to end their lives if they
wish was some kind of mental disorder that justified detaining me
against my will through involuntary commitment proceedings. My
sorrow because of personal problems and having at times
thought about ending my life to escape the pain I felt was what motivated my
parents to hire the psychiatrist, but I never did decide to end my life nor
had I ever made a suicide attempt, and the psychiatrist didn't actually say anything
about how sad I felt or that he thought I might decide to end my life in response
to my question about why it was appropriate
to subject me to an involuntary commitment. After about a month
of observing me and talking with me on an almost daily basis
he told me he'd changed his mind and had decided that while he
disagreed with my opinion about everyone having
the right to end one's own life, it wasn't really
a disorder - and he said he could find no evidence I had a mental
illness, just ordinary sorrow that he called "situational, not
biological." According to my parents, about the same time
he told them I did "not have a serious mental illness." Two or
three weeks later he discharged me from the hospital.
However, about two weeks after my release, my mother made an
appointment for me to see him because she thought my mood was
too serious or sad. The main reason I'd been committed was
my refusal to resume so-called outpatient psychotherapy I'd
tried months before and found worthless, and after my discharge
from the hospital I continued to refuse to be a psychiatric or
psychotherapeutic
outpatient. I was not being asked to take psychiatric
drugs. My parents and their psychiatrist
insisted only that I see him at his office for a consultation or
what might have been called "psychotherapy." Despite his
admission to me and my parents about a month before that I did
not have a "mental illness" (at least, not a "serious" one), the
psychiatrist, with my parents' support, threatened
to commit me again if I refused to see him at his office. I
continued to refuse to see him as an outpatient, and for that reason
alone - none other - he again committed me against my will to the same hospital, using the
"emergency
admission" procedure under which I was immediately incarcerated
before having any sort of hearing or trial. Of course, to
do
this, he had to allege that I had a mental illness and was likely
to
cause injury to myself or others if I was not immediately
hospitalized.
He knew these allegations were false. They were outright
lies. He knew it, and he knew that I knew it. But
because
it suited his purpose of trying to force me to be an outpatient, he nevertheless made
these allegations required by law for an involuntary
commitment.
This was many years before anybody was even talking about
"outpatient
commitment" laws such as Kendra's Law, under which people may
be
incarcerated in a hospital only because they refuse to comply
with
a program of outpatient "treatment."
I was
able to stop this oppressive use of psychiatric commitment law
only by demanding a jury trial. I'd learned from my
first
commitment that failure to demand a jury trial always results in
involuntary commitment by a judge who automatically and routinely
approves physicians' requests for commitment without even
pretending to form his own opinion about the appropriateness of
the
commitment. For example, the judge who committed me did so
without
hearing any testimony despite my demand I be permitted to ask the
psychiatrist questions (i.e., cross-examine the witnesses against
me).
The judge said in response that the psychiatrist had submitted
his opinion
in writing, and despite my protest the judge
insisted that was all that was required. My
court-appointed
attorney (who said literally not one word during my conversation
with
the judge that passed for a "hearing")
ignored my repeated demands he appeal. So the second
time I demanded a jury trial. Rather than attempt to
persuade a jury he
should be permitted to continue to hold me against my will, the
psychiatrist
released me from the hospital. I've had no psychiatric or psychological
"therapy" since then.
Psychiatrists, and in most states all licensed physicians, have always had the power to incarcerate people involuntarily for any reason they want if they are willing to allege "mental illness" and "dangerousness" as required by the state's involuntary commitment law. Since "dangerousness" is a prediction of future conduct, it is always possible to make this allegation. Since nobody can ever prove he or she isn't going to do something in the future, this allegation is always impossible to disprove. In the 30 years I've been observing this I've seen psychiatrists routinely make these allegations even when they have no reason to believe they are true and do not really believe the proposed patient is likely to harm anyone. All Kendra's Law and similar "outpatient commitment" laws do is make it unnecessary for the psychiatrist or other physician to tell these lies. Since few psychiatrists are constrained by the bounds of honesty, Kendra's Law and similar outpatient commitment laws do not really expand their despotic powers. The only psychiatrist whose powers are expanded by an outpatient commitment law such as Kendra's Law is one who always tells the truth, at least as he or she sees it. I think some psychiatrists are honest - even if most of their "expertise" is nonsense - but most psychiatrists I've observed are routinely dishonest.
So let's see Kendra's Law in New York and similar laws in other states for what they are: symbolic victories of those who favor using psychiatry to violate human rights.
There are at least two dangers of these new laws:
First, their enactment shows that our lawmakers still believe myths such as (1) mental illness is a real illness, and it deprives people of free will and of the ability to make rational decisions, (2) mental illnesses are caused by biochemical imbalances that are corrected by psychiatric drugs, and (3) psychiatrists are always honest and are experts in their field, so their "diagnoses" determining who is "mentally ill" and who will become violent are reliable, making safeguards against unnecessary or unjust or oppressive use of involuntary commitment unnecessary. We need to be more effective in our efforts to make lawmakers, judges, mental health professionals, and ourselves realize that physicians are not perfect examples of honesty and integrity, that "mental illness" is not a valid concept, that psychiatry is a pseudo-science, that unjust psychiatric commitment is commonplace, that psychiatrists routinely violate human rights, and that psychiatric "treatment" usually harms rather than helps people.
Second, these outpatient commitment laws may get psychiatrists and other mental health "professionals" in the habit of incarcerating people only because they refuse to take psychiatric drugs when in the past they might have left us alone. All psychiatric drugs are harmful. Nobody should be taking these drugs. If we can't stop the lawful use of coercive psychiatry, we may need to start an "underground railroad" similar to that used to help blacks escape slavery during the period shortly before the civil war when slavery was legal. Does anybody know where victims of psychiatric oppression can go to hide from those who would harm them with involuntary commitment or forced use of psychiatric drugs? Does anybody want to volunteer to provide transportation to such a safe haven?