In conclusion, reading the second United States constitution, I can’t trust the current government because of the ratifications: the government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar. No! I won’t pay debt with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver! No! I won’t trust in god!
The Internet is covered with speculations about this young man, his politics, what makes him tick. There are diagnoses of Schizophrenia, Manic Depressive Illness, "Evil," and rejoinders not to diagnose him, not to jump to conclusions. However, the hints we have in his writings are too typical to ignore. Take this comment, " No! I won’t pay debt with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver! No! I won’t trust in god!" While it’s tempting to think he’s speaking ideologically, it could be [and probably is] an example of the extremely literal and concrete thinking of a person in the disorganizing throes of a psychotic decompensation. What’s on the back of our currency? "IN GOD WE TRUST." Our currency is not backed by gold and silver. It says "IN GOD WE TRUST" on the back, and in his illness, he doesn’t trust anything. That kind of literal translation of "back/backed" and the motto "IN GOD WE TRUST" is typical in a psychotic thought disorder. Were I to have read that last paragraph prior to my experience working in mental hospitals, I would be incredulous that anyone might make such an interpretation, so I’m aware how odd it sounds. I pass it on because it is indicative of the profoundly disabling interior disturbance experienced by someone with such an illness. Even the simplest of meanings gets lost in the chaos.
I can’t decipher "In conclusion, reading the second United States constitution, I can’t trust the current government because of the ratifications." The "second United States constitution" might be comparing the one before his illness and the way he reads it in his illness, but that’s a guess. And the word "ratifications" appears to be a neologism [new word], conflating "ratify" and "ramifications." Both meanings sort of fit ["ratify" the Constitution, "ramifications" as in consequences]. The remainder of the sentence, "the government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar," is typical of psychotic thought. It is paranoid, and the word "implying" is again an amalgam of "implying" and "applying" with both meanings fitting. "mind control and "brainwash" refer to what are called "ideas of influence" – the feeling that one’s thinking is being controlled from the outside through some mechanism. In this case, he feels the "influence" is being implemented "by controlling grammar." Having lost the ability to understand abstract meanings, the psychotic person searches for meaning in the structure of language, often with bizarre results.
The federal complaint outlines discoveries from the investigation since the shooting on Saturday. In a search of Mr. Loughner‘s home, authorities found a note in a safe with a handwritten note saying, "I planned ahead," "My assassination," and "Giffords," as well as what appears to be Mr. Loughner’s signature. Investigators also found a note, dated Aug. 30, 2007, addressed to "Mr. Jared Loughney" from Ms. Giffords’ office thanking him for attending a "Congress in Your Corner" event in Tucson.
“I was getting concerned about the safety of the students and the school,” said Mr. McGahee, who took to glancing out of the corner of his eye when he was writing on the board for fear that Mr. Loughner might do something. “I was afraid he was going to pull out a weapon.”A student in the class … wrote an e-mail to a friend expressing her concerns. “We do have one student in the class who was disruptive today, I’m not certain yet if he was on drugs [as one person surmised] or disturbed. He scares me a bit,” Ms. Sorenson wrote in an e-mail in June that was forwarded Sunday to The New York Times. “The teacher tried to throw him out and he refused to go, so I talked to the teacher afterward. Hopefully he will be out of class very soon, and not come back with an automatic weapon.”
In the past, this young man would have been hospitalized. In the pre-psychopharmacology era, he may have spent years in a mental hospital until he either recovered or died. Then the antipsychotics came along, and finally such patients could be treated. The expensive mental hospitals were shut down rapidly [too rapidly] and hospitalizations became brief [days rather than years][too brief]. We got so used to psychosis being treatable that we forgot what we had learned in the centuries before – that these patients are desperately ill and can be dangerous when in the throes of a psychotic deterioration. Nowadays, there’s virtually no place to hospitalize them, and the patient rights side of the equation makes it hard to hold them until they [we] are safe. The anti-psychotics do not cure Schizophrenia. They usually control psychotic thinking, but they are no fun to take [side effects] and are often discontinued. Often they can only be used intermittently.
In the 1970s, we passed through a period where the mental health system and the "state of the art" were somewhat in balance. There were hospitals for stabilization and Mental Health Centers to follow these patients [and many definitely need following]. Some patients didn’t respond and did need something like custodial [protective] care. But the coming of Nixon and then Reagan [I’m sorry, but it’s true] defunded all of that. So now, the biggest Mental Hospital in America is the LA County Jail. Most people with psychotic illnesses are able to live in the community. Many live normal-ish lives and do okay. Some live beneath bridges in the world of the homeless. But the system for those who can’t manage is almost non-existent.
Wonderful, wonderful post. Bravo.