From Kent R.:

Is it really Asparagus Month? Man, I can't remember the last time I've had asparagus. No wonder things have been so hard recently.

In seriousness, though, I want to say that I'm very glad you included that statement from Philip Dawdy, Liz, because it seems to be very much the case that most people who get caught up in the mental health system do not have appropriate representation in court, or anywhere else. It may be expedient to treat people like products on a factory assembly line in the short run, but it the long run it can have devastating effects - both for the people treated that way and sometimes even for society at large.

I am also very glad you included that statement from Benedict Carey, because I've always resented the way psychiatrists use that phrase "lack of insight". In common usage, it seems to refer to someone who does not reflect on themselves or what motivates them, but in psych-speak it seems to mean a less than wholehearted acceptance of whatever diagnosis any particular psychiatrist wants to apply to someone. Just like the term "Schizophrenia", it seems to refer to something different when used psychiatrically than is the popular perception of its meaning. I think the public perception about those terms is of something that is actually more perjorative than what is meant in a mental health context.

The use of that particular term has always been a particular sore point for me ever since I snuck a peak at some of my mental health records - (which was probably the only way I would've ever seem any of them) - and saw it on there. If the powers-that-be are going to use a term like that in someone's records, shouldn't they at least put a lot of thought into what they are saying, and put it in some kind of context so as not to be any more slanderous than necessary?