Time to Shrink from Obsession With Psychiatry?

Letter to Romans: The late psychiatrist Thomas Szasz was an outlier who argued treating mental illness aka “behavior control” isn’t science but politics that robs folks of their free will. I shrink from going that far. But agree “we have an epidemic of psychiatry.”

Think of all the hand wringing that now happens every time a violent if not deadly event occurs. The politicians, MSM, law enforcement, academics, clerics & bloggers scramble to psychoanalyze the alleged perpetrator to determine a “motive.” His or her or its past is poured over as if normal folks can get their head around the eternal question, “WHY?” In the good old days such disturbed souls were cast (and probably rightly so) as simply nuts, bastards, and/or evil devils with a touch of stupidity.

One tragic case in point I loath to point out for fear of trivializing yet another modern era tragedy is the shooting death of a Ms. Good at the hands of ICE trying to do their job in Minneapolis. In the wake of that horrible news all the usual players jumped in to analyze the “mind set” of the shooter & the shot. As if that were scientifically determinable. The political arguments that immediately followed may or may not have had something to do with trying to “start a riot.” I for one can’t imagine figuring out what I’d do if an ICE agent & a car was lurching toward me; or if I were an angry “demonstrator” in my car blocking the road and getting surrounded by angry ICE agents. Panic in such scenarios is human. Regardless, The Rule of Law always warned citizens that it’s their duty to obey police officers in the line of duty, not obstruct them in any way shape or form; rather than “science” per se here, the test of wills will be a more imperfect “reasonable man, woman or it” one. You be the judge, that is, assuming you are a reasonable person.

Davd Soul