Vol. 2, No. 3 , 1996, Page 2 |
"Biological organs, the brain included, are biochemical laboratories, and mental disorders are
medical problems, striking the parts of the brain that control emotion, thought and speech. Society
resists this realization, though, the way the church once refused to believe that the earth orbited the
sun. For if society were to accept what science has to say about mental illness, it would undermine
the rationale for ignoring the biggest public health problem in America."
Tom Siegfried,
in The Dallas Morning News,
April 29, 1996
"There is a valid role for psychiatrists in the criminal justice system-a role that psychiatrists are
not performing. That role consists of identifying and, when possible, correcting, the brain disorders
of criminal offenders. There's strong evidence that a significant percentage of hard-core criminals
suffer from serious brain dysfunctions-and that society could be saved much grief and expense if
psychiatry focused on understanding the causes and aiding in the treatment or prevention of such
dysfunctions."
Sydney Walker, M.D.,
in A Dose of Sanity, 1996