Out of the Shadows: Confronting America's Mental Illness Crisis

This book speaks to the heart of the latest mental health issues...homelessness being one of them. I have much respect for this professional who is not afraid to get his hands wet. God bless him.

Dr. Torrey once again published a book that highlighted a critical issue among mental health professionals. He once again tries to prod the American public into becoming aware of what is happening among the mentally ill in this country. He wants his profession to take a hard look at how they are responding to the crisis of mental illness. He desperately wants them to evaluate how they are responding. And he wants the system changed.

This book is one of Dr. Torrey's best. He demonstrates how Americans have allowed their government and medical profession to immorally ignore and degrade the people who need our help the most--those with serious mental illness. Mental health workers would rather treat relatively healthy people going through ordinary life crises. Indeed, a sign of sucess in psychiatry and psychology is having a comfortable office practice where you don't have to see many manic depressives and almost no psychotics. The DSM (Psychiatry's diagnostic manual) is written so that any problem in a normal human life can be considered a "mental illness," so talking to a millionare who is disappointed that he only has $3 million instead of $10 million qualifies as providing mental health care. Meanwhile, those with serious depression kill themselves and people who are disabled because of dangerous hallucinations and delusions live in their own filth on the streets. This is all the more tragic because we have the means to treat the vast majority of mental/brain diseases. Very few people cannot be helped by the hundreds of medications that exist, but many are deprived of treatment because of absurd social and political policy. Torrey implicates several different political groups and movements as playing a big part in the problem. Liberals, civil libertarians, mainstream consrevatives and the far right have all had their reasons for closing mental hospitals and depriving psychiatrists of the ability to effectively treat their patients. Torrey points out that most of this opposition to psychiatry is done out of ignorance and hopes that as more and more people know the facts, society will demand that poeple with life threatening mental diseases be given the treatment they need to live health productive lives, and that the limited mental health resources our nation has will be spent wisely; giving those with the greates need the highest priority.