The United States, the Soviet Union, and Mental Illness

Unfortunately, the way people with mental problems are treated in the West is not much better than the way political dissidents were treated in the Soviet Union. They are (and were) both chemically and physically restrained, silenced, and isolated from the society, apprently for their own good and the protection of the society, many of them getting killed in the process by a seemingly benevolent helpful police force not properly trained in handling them. It is not taken into account that there are better ways that don't ruin valuable lives, that are less costly in the long run in terms of individual suffering, the lives lost to bad treatment and maltreatment, and the cost-effectiveness of the treatment, and that can actually completely cure the long-suffering individual. Unfortunately, mental patients receive horrible treatment at the hands of authorities, doctors, and ordinary citizens, simply because they have had unimaginably bad lives and are in terrible mental and emotional pain. No wonder mental patients who are generally left to their own devices or even accepted as still family and community members in the East and nonindustrialized countries fare much better in the long run, many of them being cured by themselves, leading much better lives in general, and contributing to their communities.


Let's end mental and emotional oppression now.