Thomas Szasz continues his campaign against psychiatry and mental illness. Not only is his critique misleading in its diagnosis, but it is also misguided in its prescription. Szasz would abandon psychiatry altogether to hold people responsible for their actions. Unfortunately, the Szaszian path ignores the neurological causes of mental illness and would needlessly imprison people for nuisance crimes.
Already 17 percent of inmates in the nations jails and prisons have a serious mental illness. I’ve covered the costs associated with some of this imprisonment and ways that state and local governments are already taking steps to achieve better results at less cost.
Let’s help government deal with problems in the right setting, even if that means letting the private sector handle some of them. Then taxpayers can get a better return on their money.
