Forced Treatment

For some, forced treatment represents a crucial public safeguard to prevent mass shootings and other tragedies often associated with those who are severely and persistently mentally ill.  For others, coercive treatment represents a fundamental violation of human rights - and a legitimate concern behind the anti-psychiatry movement.

QUESTIONS TO PLAY WITH:  

-How strange does someone’s behavior have to be, in your view, to legitimate forced treatment? What leads you to that opinion?

-Have you ever known a person with a mental illness? Were they forced to undergo treatment? Should they have been? Why or why not?

-What does society owe to the mentally ill? What does it owe to those without mental illness? Do your answers change depending on the type or severity of mental illness?

-Who should get to say whether someone is dangerous?