PSYC39H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Insanity Defense, Delusional Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder
Document Summary
Despite the tragedy of many highly publicized cases, brutal and violent crimes are not usually committed by people who are mentally ill. If they did, then crime rates would skyrocket: about 18% of the us population is estimated to have mental illness, with over just 1/5 of that group having a serious mental illness (smi) Medications help people through the day, but they are rarely the solution to underlying psychological problems: there are often unwanted side effects, usually more common for psychotherapy and medication to be provided. Thomas szasz: a psychiatrist, criticized the psychiatric profession. Zasz did(cid:374)"t (cid:271)elie(cid:448)e that (cid:373)e(cid:374)tal diso(cid:396)de(cid:396)s should (cid:271)e (cid:374)ot (cid:271)e (cid:396)ega(cid:396)ded as illness, primarily because this gave too much power ot the medical profession and enabled widespread use of drugs to control the behaviour of the people. He advocated a therapeutic approach wherein individuals could be taught to take (cid:396)espo(cid:374)si(cid:271)ilit(cid:455) fo(cid:396) thei(cid:396) o(cid:449)(cid:374) (cid:862)p(cid:396)o(cid:271)le(cid:373)s i(cid:374) li(cid:448)i(cid:374)g(cid:863: note, his views are in minority.
