Chapter 16 Introduction
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Chapter 16
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TOPIC OVERVIEW
Law and Mental Health
How Do Clinicians Influence the Criminal Justice System?
How Do the Legislative and Judicial Systems Influence Mental Health Care?
In What Other Ways Do the Clinical and Legal Fields Interact?
What Ethical Principles Guide Mental Health Professionals?
Mental Health, Business, and Economics
Bringing Mental Health Services to the Workplace
The Economics of Mental Health
Technology and Mental Health
The Person Within the Profession
Putting It Together: Operating Within a Larger System
Law, Society, and the Mental Health Profession
Dear Jodie:
There is a definite possibility that I will be killed in my attempt to get Reagan. It is for this very reason that I am writing you this letter now. As you well know by now, I love you very much. The past seven months I have left you dozens of poems, letters and messages in the faint hope you would develop an interest in me…. Jodie, I would abandon this idea of getting Reagan in a second if I could only win your heart and live out the rest of my life with you, whether it be in total obscurity or whatever. I will admit to you that the reason I’m going ahead with this attempt now is because I just cannot wait any longer to impress you. I’ve got to do something now to make you understand in no uncertain terms that I am doing all of this for your sake. By sacrificing my freedom and possibly my life I hope to change your mind about me. This letter is being written an hour before I leave for the Hilton Hotel. Jodie, I’m asking you please to look into your heart and at least give me the chance with this historical deed to gain your respect and love. I love you forever.
John Hinckley
John W. Hinckley Jr. wrote this letter to actress Jodie Foster in March 1981. Soon after writing it, he stood waiting, pistol ready, outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. Moments later, President Ronald Reagan came out of the hotel, and the popping of pistol fire was heard. As Secret Service agents pushed Reagan into the limousine, a police officer and the president’s press secretary fell to the pavement. The president had been shot, and by nightfall most of America had seen the face and heard the name of the disturbed young man from Colorado.
As you have seen throughout this book, the psychological dysfunctioning of an individual does not occur in isolation. It is influenced—
By the same token, clinical scientists and practitioners do not conduct their work in isolation. As they study and treat people with psychological problems, they affect and are affected by other institutions of society. We have seen, for example, how the government regulates the use of psychotropic medications, how clinicians helped carry out the government’s policy of deinstitutionalization, and how clinicians have called the psychological ordeals of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan combat veterans to the attention of society.
In short, like their clients, clinical professionals operate within a complex social system. Just as we must understand the social context in which abnormal behavior occurs in order to understand the behavior, so must we understand the context in which this behavior is studied and treated. This chapter focuses on the relationship between the mental health field and three major forces in society—