PSYC 2621 Chapter Notes - Chapter 15: Thomas Szasz, Insanity Defense, Involuntary Treatment
Document Summary
Civil commitment is the legal process of placing a person in a mental institution even against his or her will. Criminal commitment is the legal process of confining a person found not guilty by reason of insanity in a mental institution. Civil commitment usually requires a relative or a professional file a petition with the court which empowers psychiatric examiners to evaluate a person. Mental health professionals tend to over predict dangerousness. According to szasz and other critics of the practice of psychiatric commitment the commitment of the many to prevent the violence is of the few is a form of preventive detention that violates basic constitutional principles. It is easier to piece together fragments of peoples prior behaviors as evidence of violent tendencies after they have committed acts of violence. Most people who have general tendencies toward violence never act on them.
