“Should Suicidal Students Be Forced to Leave Campus?”

4
190

In The New Yorker, Rachel Aviv discusses an apparently common practice among some US universities to expel students who attempt suicide — even when the patients’ own psychiatrists sometimes disagree.

Should Suicidal Students Be Forced to Leave Campus? (The New Yorker, December 1, 2014)

Support MIA

MIA relies on the support of its readers to exist. Please consider a donation to help us provide news, essays, podcasts and continuing education courses that explore alternatives to the current paradigm of psychiatric care. Your tax-deductible donation will help build a community devoted to creating such change.

$
Select Payment Method
Personal Info

Credit Card Info
This is a secure SSL encrypted payment.

Billing Details

Donation Total: $20 One Time

4 COMMENTS

  1. WTF? Seriosuly?
    “Oh, you feel so bad about you’re life that you’ve tried to kill yourself? I’m going to give you a little push over the cliff then.”
    How much more ridiculous and inhumane can you possibly be. Instead of reassuring the person that you are there for them and that they have an opportunity to go back to something should they recover you essentially stab them in the back.
    What the fuck is wrong with these people?

  2. Note that “medication compliance” is a condition of returning to the school. Of course, the possibility that “medication compliance” may lead to worsening “symptoms” or may have even created the “mental health crisis” in the first place is never considered. And of course, the self-limiting nature of depression is never considered, nor is the possibility that the very environment at Princeton may be contributing to the suicidal thoughts or behavior ever a point of discussion.

    Scratch Princeton off anyone’s list of desirable universities. I hope this is not the norm nationwide!

    —- Steve

    • Well, Princeton is the “world’s leading dickhead incubator network” citing an unidentified internet source so no wonder more sensitive (less prone to become world biggest a***es) people get suicidal there.
      And yeah, I also noticed the not so subtle coercive attitude. Take your pills and be a good kid and maybe we will accept you back. Or maybe not.
      This system is so f***ing sick it’s unbelievable. But that is the direct result of defining depression and other “mental illnesses” as problems based on faulty individual’s biology (which are life-long, genetic and what not). It’s a logical outcome of a false premise.

  3. I wasn’t even suicidal. I was taking meds that led to mini-seizures. The dorm mom had a bunch of session where every girl in the unit was invited but me to tell them that I was a sick and dangerous person and they shouldn’t talk to me. I was very depressed and became more so. The seizures got worse and the dorm mom lied that I wasn’t taking my drugs (though I was religiously) so I was “asked to leave.”

    This was a Christian university. I guess they ought to make people promise not to get a mental health diagnosis as a condition for admittance along with not drinking, dancing, or playing cards!