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Don't Call Me Crazy: A Survey Of America's Mental Health System, Justin L. Joffe

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Unfortunately, the typical exposure to mental illness for most Americans comes via tragic mass shootings or highly publicized celebrity mental breakdowns. However, the vast majority of mentally ill individuals are not violent murderers or hyper-tweeting celebrities. Rather, they are the ordinary, everyday people that make up the tens of millions of American adults suffering from some form of mental illness. The American mental health system has a lamentable history. The initial policy of locking up mentally ill individuals in jails transitioned to a system of confinement in asylums that quickly became notorious for their poor living conditions and treatment. The …