The Insanity Offense by E Fuller Torrey
Beginning in the 1960s in the United States, scores of patients with severe psychiatric disorders were discharged from public mental hospitals. At the same time, activists forced changes in commitment laws that made it impossible to treat half of the patients that left the hospital. The combined effect was profoundly destructive. Today, among homeless persons, at least one-third are severely mentally ill; among the incarcerated, at least one-tenth. Of those individuals living in our communities, many are the victims of violent crime. Other untreated individuals commit crimes, including murder and assault. In The Insanity Offense, E. Fuller Torrey takes full stock of this phenomenon, exploring the causes and consequences as he weaves together narratives of individual tragedies in three states with sobering national data on our failure to treat the mentally ill. In the book's final chapters, Torrey outlines what needs to be done to reverse this ongoing—and accelerating—disaster.
E. Fuller Torrey is a research psychiatrist specializing in schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness. He is the founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center and the executive director for laboratory research at the Stanley Medical Research Institute. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780393066586 |
| ISBN 10 | 0393066584 |
| Title | The Insanity Offense |
| Author | E Fuller Torrey |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Publisher | WW Norton & Co |
| Year published | 2008-07-28 |
| Number of pages | 288 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |