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Stigma and Straw

Department of Psychiatry, Scunthorpe General Hospital, Church Lane, Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire DN15 1QQ

Sir: Is it not heartening to see that well-known telepathic psychiatrist Jack Straw doing his bit for the College anti-stigmatisation campaign. So, Osama bin Laden is now officially, as far as the Foreign Office is concerned, ‘psychotic’. Well that's all right then, we don't need bombs, just two psychiatrists and a social worker parachuted into Afghanistan with pink forms to sort this one out. How stupid of us not to have seen it ourselves, obviously bin Laden is bad/evil, therefore he must be psychotic and akin to Hitler. The over-whelming strength of the argument is irresistible... to the average Sun reader.

In one fell swoop Jack Straw has undone all the good work that has gone on to integrate the mentally ill into society, and provide the public with positive images of mental illness. But I wonder whether anyone should really be surprised given what is around the corner with the new Mental Health Act and severe and dangerous personality disorder legislation. Bring on the gulags.

This Article Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Al-Adwani, A. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Al-Adwani, A.