Re: CHAT: conlangs and mental illness

On Thu, 13 May 1999, Ed Heil wrote:

> On the other hand, people with serious mental illnesses in America often
> cannot get and hold jobs, which means they have no medical insurance, which
> means they don't get treated, which means that if they don't have a strong
> support system in the family they end up babbling on streetcorners and dying
> of frostbite in January.
To clarify: my main objection is to involuntary hospitalization.  Locking
someone up for the way they think, irrespective of their actions, is,
IMHO, nothing less than thought crime.  "For their own good" is no excuse;
the ends don't justify the means.  But methinks I'm a bit conservative for
this list (actually I'm not conservative, I'm a libertarian, but....)

Also to clarify: my experiences have been with the adolescent sections of
mental hospitals.  I can honestly say that every single one of the people
there were capable of functioning in society.  They might not have gotten
along very will with other people, they might not have been very happy
with their lives, but none of them would have been starving in the
streets.  Now, certainly it's easier to get locked up as a minor than as
an adult, and I realize that the problem is rather less severe in the
adult mental hospitals.  But it *is* a problem.

I apologize for drawing out such an off-topic thread.  I just wanted to
clarify my position.

Thanks.

    ___
   )_|_)   Eli Naeher - enaeher@emma.troy.ny.us
  )__|__)   "The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the
 )___|___)   hygiene of older people, and greatly assists the circulation
\-,__|_,---/  of the blood."
 \________/                               --Logan Pearsall Smith