writers guide to mental illness

No branch of medicine faces as much popular skepticism as psychiatry. In this readable yet rigorous little book with a global slant, Porter (social history of medicine, University Coll., London; The Greatest Benefit to Mankind) addresses that controversy by recounting the history of mental illness from antiquity to modern times. A wealth of facts and literary references illuminate how people went from believing that supernatural forces cause mental illness to their reliance on more rational and naturalistic explanations, culminating in today's combination of the medical and psychosocial models. Porter also discusses topical issues, including the relationship between lunacy and creativity; the drive to institutionalize, which peaked in the mid-20th century; the rise and demise of psychoanalysis; and the development of the antipsychiatry movement. This book combines the appeal of history as narrative with the intellectual stimulation derived from cogent analysis. Less comprehensive than Edward Shorter's A History of Psychiatry: From the Era of the Asylum to the Age of Prozac but more academic than Alex Beam's Gracefully Insane: The Rise and Fall of America's Premier Mental Hospital, it will engage both general readers and psychiatry students with its sparkling prose and a well-annotated bibliography

A very short hand version of the mental health act concerning commitent / sectioning. If an individual is a danger to themselves and or the public the he can be taken to a secure unit against his wish's. A danger to ones self covers a lot of ground including the obvious sucidal thoughts / behaviour to less thought about reasons as not eating or living in a poorly kept enviroment. The danger to others is what it says but comes in many forms ie singling out an individual or individuals as a threat to thier welbeing (this may be a paranoid delusion but to the sufferer it is as much a fact as the sun rising in the morning ) or just being a menace to anyone who cross's thier path. If you approach your local mental health team they should be able to give you a copy of the mental health act thier and then.

Fuck I could go on forever but the fact is that mental health is such a soft science that there will always be opposing views. If you can be more specific about what you are looking for then I may be able to offer more help. I worked in several fields of mental health over a period of about 11 / 12 years but this was about 5yrs ago so no doubt ( hopefully anyway ) things will have changed.

The only one that is needed for reference - The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  I found my copy on ebay for like 35 bucks.  You want to get the most up to date copy possible.  This is the book that psychologist use to figure things out.  It's got everything.

72 Hour Hold by Bebe Moore Campbell is on the subject, but it's fiction. Still, it's based on the California 72 hour commitment law. The laws vary by jurisdiction but basically to be committed or certified or admitted (whatever the local term) one f two criteria must be met: an imminent danger to others or oneself. Stress on the word imminent. Over past decades admission criteria have tightened everywhere as beds close and now everyday psychosis like hallucinations won't get a person into a hospital. Instead it's the imminent threat of violence, as determined by a doctor (and often police as well). 

Naturally there are civil rights and patients' rights activists who have monitored these laws and worked on having them loosened. Mind Freedom is an especially strident and large organization (many are smaller, with low impact). The Centre for Cognitive Liberty is more academic.

However, what these organizations centrally oppose is forced medication, which can be administered against the patient's will in a commitment situation. Most often it's antipsychotic neuroleptic drugs like Haldol, olanzapine and risperidone, given to patients with psychosis who don't believe they have psychosis and therefore don't want to take medication. That's key to the anti-forced medication issue too. You won't find patients being treated for depression protesting their Prozac. Schizophrenia, bipolar mania and other psychotic disorders are what are treated with commitments/holds/observation periods and doses of antipsychotics. It also plays into conspiracy theory about Big Pharma: forced medication keeping money flowing and truth suppressed.

Activists argue that they should have to freedom to refuse treatment at any stage. But it's an imminent danger to self or others that is the barrier. People in society need to be protected (those boundaries are contentious too of course) and sometimes people need to be protected from themselves when they're driven to (sometimes very severe) self-destruction.

Neuroethics is a field that gets into all of this, legal issues, and more, though psychiatry is still held at arm's length.