The United States is Witnessing the Return of Psychiatric Imprisonment

1
640

From The Guardian. “Across the country, a troubling trend is accelerating: the return of institutionalization – rebranded, repackaged and framed as “modern mental health care”. From Governor Kathy Hochul’s push to expand involuntary commitment in New York to Robert F Kennedy Jr’s proposal for “wellness farms” under his Make America Healthy Again (Maha) initiative, policymakers are reviving the logics of confinement under the guise of care.

These proposals may differ in form, but they share a common function: expanding the state’s power to surveil, detain and “treat” marginalized people deemed disruptive or deviant. Far from offering real support, they reflect a deep investment in carceral control – particularly over disabled, unhoused, racialized and LGBTQIA+ communities. Communities that have often seen how the framing of institutionalization as “treatment” obscures both its violent history and its ongoing legacy. In doing so, these policies erase community-based solutions, undermine autonomy, and reinforce the very systems of confinement they claim to move beyond.”

Article

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

1 COMMENT

  1. What I cannot even begin to wrap my head around is how grossly divisive everything has become. People have been behaving absolutely Bat guano insane about the involuntary commitment…The people who are *actually* an enormous danger to everyone around them are being coddled by the system& typically play active roles in harming anyone around them that they simply do not like.

    I have noticed that a *LOT* medical professionals have an unfortunate habit of turning out to be selfish, narcissistic psychopaths who have been drawn in to positions which they are privileged with abusing whoever they wish without consequences….In my own experiences- One state agency psychiatrist I was forced to be “treated” by subjected me to horrible medical procedures WITHOUT Anesthesia or sedation because he said I “deserve to suffer and be experimented on because it’s the only positive contribution of any kind” my entire life would result in. He gleefully tortured me- & with the help of my abusive “Husband” I spent 36 of 44 calendar months involuntarily committed and drugged to the point of drooling…Any time that it was simply inconvenient to have me around, or I would get mouthy and lash out- If I refused to comply with whatever my ex wanted from me- He would have me hauled away and petitioned. I spent three years of my life with my brain being nuked over and over because it was good for everyone else in my life, apparently.

    When I was *Permitted* to be “included” in my own treatment planning (ha ha.. ya right) the jerks on my team and the MDs would look through me and make eye contact expectantly with my abusive ex-husband. He would always go right along with anything I fought against. I had NO CHOICES in my life from the clothes I wore, to the snacks I ate. I wasn’t even allowed to take potty break or a shower without the door wide open because I might “get into trouble” ‍. I wasn’t even allowed to have coffee! And I could only talk on the phone to people he approved of while he was in the room. He went so far as to take the phone, the computer cables and mouse along with the coffee canister with him every single day to work to prevent me from having any ideas he didn’t like. I attempted suicide and lashed out repeatedly- all only to wind up back in the same place- The county psych hospital where I was continually becoming MORE mentally disconnected and disordered and less functional…The doctor in charge of my treatment endorsed and praised my ex husband for every horrible thing he helped unleash on me. I felt I was driven to either kill myself or find a way to get out.

    I finally did after I fled the region and lived homeless in a city over a hundred miles away.. it was far enough that the horrific system which oversaw my court order couldn’t really touch me…because they couldn’t FIND me. Several months later …I ended up on dialysis and lived in ANOTHER hospital ward for long haul patients for over six months! The dangerous cocktail of drugs I was force fed had caused complete acute hepatic failure- and trashed my kidneys too. I obviously told them about what happened to me, and how the state Medical care oversight organization were engaged in glaring, egregious, human rights violations.

    I was lucky that they actually believed me. I was terrified that no one would believe what happened to me because the “treatment” team on my case had pounded it into my head that I was a delusional, dangerous liar and no one could ever trust a word that came out of my mouth.

    After I survived dialysis, I tried to hunt down the records of what happened at the other clinic. And I started sleuthing the background of the doctor who was so maliciously driven…It turns out that he spent 4 years in prison in Texas for Burglary and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to cause great bodily harm or death….In other words- ATTEMPTED MURDER. He had left Texas for AZ because he couldn’t get recertified there ever! I was beyond astonished that they were permitting a VIOLENT CRIMINAL to oversee the WELFARE and make UNILATERAL welfare decisions over HUNDREDS of the most VULNERABLE and complicated patients in the state!

    I tried to find my records and it took me several months to finally conclude only a few things: They destroyed all of my records. The clinic I was being abused at was “dissolved” and no longer existed at all- No one had even heard of it…or they pretended they didn’t. Dumbfounded- I called back days later four separate times and was given four versions of the same story by four different people who worked in the records department. No one had even had my name in their system- I never existed as a patient at ALL according to the the records. The court order also vanished…I was never on record in the county for anything other than VOLUNTARY visits to private in- patient facilities…nothing about spending literal YEARS in county psych!

    The whole damn thing is SO HORRIFICALLY illegal….&by that I mean the WHOLE behavioral health “TREATMENT” scam that it absolutely must be stripped down to the ground floor and built back up after significant audits and sweeping evaluations are made of doctor morality by patients. The monster who tortured me should have *NEVER* been permitted to get away with what he did & do this to as many patients as it must have occured with!

    The power inequity is going to shift. Everything is literally falling apart. And it will be a very very unpleasant part of the road- But we cannot continue to put bandaids on the broken arm (and leg, and brain) of modern mental health protocols. They are pushing patients off the edge into suicide and other erratic outbursts with the help of malicious, selfish family members who support further harm for their own gain. The level of unacceptably sociopathic behaviors among average people have reached a sumus.

    Most average people are screeching that we all need to be locked up and lobotomized for THEIR safety…but they don’t seem to realize that they are the ones who are dangerous. The people who are in favor of throwing addicts into “wellness camps” (Death camps- let’s get real!) because it’s convenient for them to lord unspeakable suffering on others on the premise of worthiness. They feel that the homeless, the mentally ill and drug addicts are all the same single overlap trifecta of degeneracy who “had their chance”- and now just deserve to go be tortured to death- They simply do NOT care what happens to people that they consider “unworthy”…and in a growing number of cases- The more than do not care- They care very much about being judge, jury and executioner of the life and future of everyone else around them.

    We saw the intolerant behavior start increasing during COVID- and it’s reached a point of unnecessary cruelty towards anyone who isn’t enough of the right kind of Square to fit into their kind of hole…As we brace for the impact- we need a web to support each other as only survivors of this abuse can…But that’s not going to be easy as people will be far more closed mouthed about discussing any sort of diagnosis… particularly substance use.

    Report comment

LEAVE A REPLY