A mad debate

Camilla Cavendish in her comment article makes a powerful case for more compulsion in the treatment of the mentally ill.  I'm much more instinctively nervous about the authorities compelling anyone to do anything.

This article in The New Atlantis about the libertarian psychiatrist Thomas Szasz helps put the debate about coercion in the treatment of the mentally ill in a much broader context. Szasz is an arch-sceptic about the claims made for psychiatry and an opponent of the attempts to medicalise human behaviour. There's also a Szasz blog which is worth a peek and Theodore Dalrymple's article from last week is an interesting counterpoint to Camilla's article.

Robbie Millen