MENTAL ILLNESS TARGET OF BARBS, JOKES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 9, 1992                   TAG: 9201090633
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By JOAN KASTNER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
MENTAL ILLNESS TARGET OF BARBS, JOKES
I THOUGHT we were a little closer to ending the stigma against people who are labeled mentally ill, but they continue to be the butt of all kinds of jokes and comments. Two items in your newspaper Dec. 29 add to the problem.
I was extremely disappointed in Eric Randall's choice of words in his review of Rosalind Mile's book, "Love, Sex, Death and the Making of the Male." Randall described Joel Steinberg as a "mental case." This wording leaves the reader to believe that people who are labeled mentally ill are automatically violent.
Steinberg was most likely an abused child who grew up to abuse his wife and daughter. The situation in the Steinberg family was tragic, but calling him a mental case does a disservice to the many people who have actual mental or emotional symptoms and are receiving psychotherapy and/or drug therapy to help cope with these symptoms.
"Lunatics" is another word Randall uses to describe David Berkowitz and John Hinckley. Again, this derogatory term is often used to insult people who are behaving differently.
Randall needs to leave the state of mind out of the review and stop confusing the issue. The three men he mentioned have committed or attempted violent crimes. Hinckley happened to have a psychiatric diagnosis. Not all criminals or killers do.
The percentage of violence among the mentally ill is no greater than among the general population, but that fact is often impossible to see when reading newspaper articles such as this. Mental illness and violence are not synonymous.
"Cathy," usually a delightful comic strip, erred too. In one panel, Cathy is telling her boss where his employees were, since they were not all at their desks. "Three people are in the coffee room comparing psychotic episodes with their relatives during the holidays," she says.
Cartoonist Cathy Guisewite is obviously referring to the stressful times around the Christmas holidays, with all the strange things that happen among family members. "Psychotic episodes" is used here inappropriately as a joke.
Anyone who has experienced an actual psychotic episode, and has returned to reality, knows just how long and how emotionally painful the recovery process can be. Use of the word "psychotic" ought to be reserved for people who have experienced psychosis, or for professionals for labeling purposes. Just as jokes about ethnic and minority groups ought to be told only by people in these groups, Guisewite needs to let the very people who know what that word means tell the "crazy jokes."

Joan Kastner is a former newspaper reporter and an advocate for people who are labeled mentally ill.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB