Synthetic sanity: medicating inmates in order to execute them

Fit to be Killed: Manufacturing Synthetic Sanity on Death Row looks at the likely fate of the Arizona shooter, Jared Loughner.

Eventually the Supreme Court will probably rule on forcibly medicating inmates for the purpose of executing them. It is difficult to be optimistic about the verdict that would be handed down by the Roberts court; the outcome will probably depend upon Justice Kennedy. But whatever the verdict of the Supreme Court Justices, prison physicians can make the difference. All too many of them have long forsaken the fundamental oath of medicine, “Do No Harm.” Doctors must stand up against synthetic sanity in substantial numbers, and their professional societies must punish those who breach the doctor’s oath. Ultimately, however, there is only one definitive solution to practices like creating synthetic sanity: to abolish the benighted practice of capital punishment once and for all.

Read the full article here:

Premature employment

The news media has revealed many details about Jared Loughner’s mental state that resulted in the tragic scene in Arizona.

In addition to be dismissed from his community college, Loughner also was trying in vain to find work. He applied for, and never heard back from, sixty-five low level positions. You can only imagine what this did to his already deteriorating state of mind.

People who are psychotic or in the fledgling stages of recovery, by and large, are in no shape for the competitive job market. This simple observation doesn’t seem to be widely appreciated. Mark Vonnegut wrote in The Eden Express that the person is too wrecked to do much of anything for at least one year, and Vonnegut appeared to be someone who recovered relatively quickly from his first bout with psychosis. One year is optimistic for a return to an educational facility or the job market. Medication or no medication, five or ten years or more is often more realistic for the time it takes to regain your bearings.

The family often fails to understand this need for time and begins to champ at the bit when they feel that enough time has elapsed. Parents, often in fear, anger and frustration, push their children to go out and bring in income. They think that it will help the child rediscover self-esteem and, more selfishly, it will make-up for the expense of keeping the child at home. Home life becomes more Darwinian the longer the adult child stays at home with nothing to do. Families’ patience is taxed in the absence of understanding. One of the criticisms of NAMI is that it is said to lower people’s expectations for their own recovery because it sees the person as chronic and in need of a lifetime of support. That’s the low side of expectations. The high side of expectations may not be much better, because it pushes people to do things before they are ready.

There is a fine line between being realistic and crushing all hope. Conventional psychiatric care does a poor job of managing these expectations, no matter where you live. When someone has a breakdown, there is a huge negative impact on the dreams and aspirations of the parents for their child. As a parent, I wanted to see Chris return to “normal” as soon as possible, and to succeed at the benchmarks that his peers were setting. I wanted him to resume university and I was devastated when the doctors questioned all of this in a way that said to me his condition was chronic. The more negative they were, the more I fought against it, and pushed Chris to do things that he just wasn’t ready for.

A better way to address expectations during the crisis of psychosis is to be of the mindset that recovery is expected, but just not now. This would go a longer way in curbing the panic of most parents and it would be truthful. Notice I said, expected, I didn’t say “hoped for.” “Hoped for” recovery introduces doubt. People will automatically translate “hope” in their minds as a long shot, something that happens to other people.

Faith healing doesn’t work with hope or belief. It works with firm expectations that healing will happen because of faith that God’s grace is taking place. Family members should be given a different story than the bleak story they are currently fed. The story should be uplifting.

The number 18

The New York Times ran a story today about the deteriorating mental state of Jared Loughner.

TUCSON — Officials at Pima Community College, where Jared L. Loughner was a student, believed that he might be mentally ill or under the influence of drugs after a series of bizarre classroom disruptions in which he unnerved instructors and fellow students, including one occasion when he insisted that the number 6 was actually the number 18, according to internal reports from the college. As for his remark that he did not have to go along with his instructor’s view that the number 6 was actually the number 6, a counselor, Delisa Sidall, wrote: “I reminded him that a complaint was made that he was disruptive in class and he said, ‘I was not disruptive, I was only asking questions that related to math.’ I asked him to tell me the question he asked? He said, ‘My instructor said he called a number 6 and I said I call it 18.’ He also asked the instructor to explain, ‘How can you deny math instead of accept it?’ ”

I am one of many people who firmly believe that the people labelled mentally ill are laboring under something cosmic. A quick check of an Indian numerology website gives a plausible clue for the cosmic consciousness that was overwhelming Loughner.

This website follows the teachings and preachings of the late Pandit Sethuraman.*

18 is the number of Mars; 1+8 = 9 (Mars). It is a number of war, strife and bloodshed and a number that denotes decline of Divine Grace and the ascent of rank materialism and selfishness. Look at the following names of cities (or countries) that have their names under the number 18

Mumbai (18) from Bombay (17)
Sri Lanka (6 + 12 = 18; 12 is also a sub-par number) = 18 from Ceylon (24)
Amritsar (18) from Amrut Sarovar (39) OR Amrit Sarovar (34)
Myanmar (18) from Burma (15)

In all these cases, the name was changed to an unfavourable number from an originally favourable one.

•Myanmar is ruled by the military junta. Burma was the rice bowl of the world; Myanmar is a begging bowl.
•Till the name was Ceylon, it was a prosperous and happy land. But once it was changed to Sri Lanka the ethnic problems surfaced as a violent movement that is going on even today.
•Bombay’s name change to Mumbai has caused increase in violence; bomb blasts now occur once every year.
•Amritsar was bloody throughout the 90s; even the army (denoted by Mars – 9) entered the Golden Temple (loss of divine grace) fully denoting the significance that numbers hold.

Let us learn the importance of numbers – how they rule our lives and how by understanding them we can attain सुखः and समृद्धि

Was Loughner that far off by insisting that the number 6 was actually the number 18? The number 6 is the number 9 turned upside down. Upside down is how his world must have appeared to him at that moment.

When will mental health systems recognize that mental illness is an understandable and often insightful coping mechanism? When will individuals respond appropriately rather than further isolating the individuals by dismissing them as “creepy and hostile,” as reported in the NY Times article. When will mental health systems and people reach out compassionately to those who are suffering before we see another replay of an all too-predictable scenario?

_______________
* A GLOWING TRIBUTE
“So far I was under the impression that Mathematics had only four facets, but this man – Pandit Sethuraman had revealed to me amazingly that it has a FIFTH facet too. Truly, he is great genius!”
Sri. M. VISVESVARAYA 3rd September, 1946 (Divan of Mysore State,; Famous Engineer)