Keep power's shadow away from asylums
- Source: Global Times
- [08:33 June 13 2011]
- Comments
As more and more cases of healthy people being falsely imprisoned in mental hospitals have been exposed, the public has responded with horror and sympathy.
Right now, the new draft of the mental health law, which has been revised several times in the last 26 years, has been opened up to the public for comment.
It is a substantial step in the legislative procedure.
But it is too naive to merely rely on the law to prevent people being falsely imprisoned in mental hospitals. A law that focuses on the regulation of medical procedure is not enough to untie the problems caused by complicated and sharp social conflicts.
The most relevant parts of the draft includes terms like "the diagnosis of mental disorder should not be based on other factors besides patients' health condition" and "patients have the right to choose hospitalization or not." But these are just common sense principles in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.
The real cause for these cases is the abuse of power, not a failure of medical process.
Actually, the reason why these cases happen repeatedly also lies in a paradox in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.
For example, medical circles generally accept that, for real patients, the more cooperative they are the better. So when a normal person is falsely imprisoned in an asylum, he or she will be told, "The more you say you are normal, the more abnormal you are."
Given this, the draft adds that "Only when the patient cannot recognize or control his behavior and has the potential to endanger himself, others and public safety and order can he be hospitalized involuntarily."
But, in light of this term, will persistent petitioners, who keep trying to have their case heard for decades, be counted as unable to control their behavior? Is their behavior disturbing public order?
That's been the excuse used in the past.
We have reason to look forward to the arrival of the mental health law since any law is better than none. But in essential, this is a social problem right now rather than a medical one.
As long as medical principles are observed in the process of treating mental illness, there will be no more such cases.
But as long as power lurks behind hospitals and doctors, its enormous shadow will still affect potential "patients."
Beijing Youth Daily
