Occupied
WASHINGTON IN TURMOIL AFTER PSYCHIATRY GROUP DISCLOSES
300 MILLION AMERICANS ARE MENTALLY ILL
by Ted Chabasinski
(Special to the Occupied New York Times)
May 15, 2012
The
American Psychiatric Association announced yesterday that rigorous scientific
analysis of the newly adopted fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual, often called its "diagnostic bible" and itself promulgated after
rigorous scientific analysis, revealed that over 300 million Americans, or 95
per cent of the U.S. population, suffer from mental illness. The
organization's newly elected president, Joseph Mengele IV, urged the country
to "set other, petty concerns aside, and rally to ensure that these poor sick
people get the help they so desperately need. Our rigorous scientific analysis
tells us this is a problem that must not be ignored."
The
announcement threw the government into immediate crisis mode. Both President
Obama and his Republican opponent in the presidential election, Mitt Romney,
conceded that the newly discovered mental health crisis had to be addressed
immediately. Obama said, ”You can’t argue with science,” and called on all
Americans to support the “war on mental illness” that would have to be fought.
Romney
issued a statement that read in part, ”This is real...But the crisis would
never have happened but for President Obama’s reckless tax and spend policies.
As President, I will use my business experience to solve this
problem.”
U.S.
Senator Paul Windebotham (D-Minnesota), chair of the Senate Special Committee
on Mental Health, announced that his committee will hold immediate hearings on
what he called "the gravest mental health crisis this country has ever faced."
Windebotham, a member of the National Alliance for Mental Illness and a
noted advocate for more mental health funding, said, ”We must do all we can to
assure that these poor sick people get the help they so desperately
need.”
But
economic advisors to the president warned that the cost of treating so many
mentally ill patients would likely cause the American economy to go back into
recession or worse.
Meanwhile,
psychiatrist E. Fullovit Torrey of the Treatment Advocacy Center, known for his
support of the right of psychiatric patients to be treated without their
consent, said that, “Three hundred million untreated mentally ill people
allowed to walk the streets means three hundred million walking time bombs
that might explode at any minute.” He called on the president to use the
army to round up any untreated patients and take them to treatment centers
“where they can receive the medications they so desperately
need.”
According
to Dr. Torrey, “This is not the time to be concerned with the trivial niceties
of ‘constitutional rights’ when our country’s survival is at stake. This
problem could have been averted, were it not for misguided civil libertarians
who don’t recognize the only important right for mentally ill people is their
right to treatment.”
However,
a meeting of the National Security Council convened by the president ruled out
the use of the army, since over ninety-five percent of the soldiers would also
be mentally ill.
GlaxoNovartisPfizerLillyMerck,
the world's largest pharmaceutical manufacturer and the owner of the
psychiatric association, pointed out that this newly discovered crisis meant
that the U.S. would be facing an unprecedented shortage of psychiatric drugs.
But it pledged that it would do its part to produce the needed
medications, provided that certain safety regulations were suspended and no
taxes were levied on any profits it might make. It suggested the government
enter into a “cost plus” arrangement used in previous wars, where companies
were paid their cost plus a certain amount beyond cost, in this case, five
hundred percent
A
GlaxoNovartisPfizerLillyMerck spokesperson said that the company wanted to be
a good corporate citizen, and realized its obligation to do its part to help
deal with the crisis. According to the spokesman, "We recognize that all
of us, no matter how much of a sacrifice it may be, must pitch in to make sure
these poor sick people get the help they so desperately need."
Meanwhile,
Bob DeMent (R-Miss.), speaker of the House of Representatives, said his party
was willing to make compromises to address the crisis. He proposed that
the money to purchase the necessary medications be found by stopping all
federal payments for education, food aid, unemployment insurance, Social
Security, and Medicare, and reducing all taxes to zero on corporations and
people earning more than $1,000,000. "These socialist giveaway programs
only benefit useless eaters anyway. This way, we can help our patriotic
corporations while making sure these millions of poor sick people get the help
they so desperately need."
Representative
DeMent said he was willing to work with the Democrats to address this issue,
in spite of the fact that many members of his party believe that the real
problem facing the country is not mental illness, but witchcraft.
Power concedes nothing without a struggle. It never has and it never will.
--------Frederick Douglass