June 19, 2004

• The definition of “insanity” is once again up for legal debate in Alaska.

  Alaska law regarding the “insanity defense” is one of the strictest in the country. 

  “
  So-called NGI pleas are very rare here because of Alaska’s extremely
  limited definition of legal insanity. In a 1982 statute known as the
  Meach law, the Legislature limited insanity to defendants who literally
  do not know what they are doing: someone who thinks they are killing a
  ghost instead of a real person, for instance. Or someone who thinks
  they’re squeezing a lemon when they’re actually strangling a human
  being.”

  Charles Meach, the man that law is named after, beat to death a toddler
  on the day he was released from reform school in his youth.  Then,
  when he got onto the streets again after that, he killed his
  parents.  In 1982, he had gotten out yet again and that time he
  killed four teenagers when they found him stealing tape cassettes from
  their campsite in an Anchorage park.

  Somehow, that man’s story convinced our legislators that the part of
  the law that allowed for a defense based on the defendant’s not knowing
  that his act was wrong, was wrong.   Personally, I think
  there are several other conclusions to be drawn from the case that
  might be more logical than that one, and a few other responses that
  might be more rational in terms of protecting society from recidivists.

  But who am I to advise anyone on anything related to the subject of
  sanity versus insanity?  It’s all a game of semantics,
  anyway.  Legal insanity is not the same as the psychiatric
  definition.  Most shrinks I know try to avoid the word as too
  vague and general.  They differentiate between dementia,
  psychosis, neurosis, and personality disorders.  I understand the
  differences, but few members of the general public do.  To most
  people crazy is nuts and it’s synonymous with insane and that’s
  that.  To me, people who believe that are crazy.

  My favorite among all the 12-step programs I’m familiar with is Double
  Trouble in Recovery, the group for those of us who have been or are currently
  under psychiatric care or on psychotropic or antipsychotic
  medication.  I like it because there is less denial and hypocrisy
  in that group than in any of the others.  And that’s as it should
  be.  Is that not what shrinks are for, to help us transcend such
  craziness as hypocrisy and denial?  The average person in this culture who has not had the
  benefit of psychotherapy is clearly nuts.

  In DTR meetings, when we introduce ourselves (first name only in the
  anyonymous tradition), where in AA we say “I’m an alcoholic,” and in NA
  we say, “I’m an addict,” we use one or both of those terms
  (“alcoholic/addicts” are common even in NA, less so in AA meetings
  where in many groups there’s some resistance to even letting dope
  fiends in) and add our psychiatric diagnoses.  Greyfox, for
  example, uses his narcissistic personality disorder as his ticket to
  Double Trouble meetings.

  I say that I’m an addict (alcohol is a drug and we are addicts)
  recovering from OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder, but no one in DTR
  needs to have stuff spelled out for them) and bipolar II (the type of
  manic-depression that is hypomanic and mainly depressive).  At my
  first meeting I said that I have also been diagnosed as schizotypal,
  and that I dispute that diagnosis.  That got a laugh.  There
  are few of us who would dispute that most of us are often
  misdiagnosed.  Some crazy average normal people actually believe
  that medicine (psychiatry is a medical specialty) is an exact science.

  I first brought that schizotypal shit up at the DT meeting to be
  funny
  and to strengthen my claim to belonging there.  I love the
  group.  Now Greyfox, never one to shy away from stealing a good
  line, has
  started saying that same thing about a disputed diagnosis of
  schizotypal personality
  disorder.  No shrink ever diagnosed either of us that way, but
  when we take tests such as the one on 4degreez.com,
  they say that we have mild-to-moderate schizotypal PD, because of our
  shamanic work and psychic abilities.   In the constrictive
  little reality bubble inhabited by an average normal insane person,
  that makes us crazy.   Norms are statistical units and the
  majority of people in this culture believe in things that are
  irrational, imaginary and, frequently, absurd.  It’s all maya, illusion, anyway.

  Some shrinks, those with belief systems (BS,
  or “reality bubbles”) in which there is no such thing as valid psychic
  experiences and/or an alternate reality such as those in which shamans
  work, might give Greyfox and me each a single checkmark on the DSM symptom list,
  but it takes five or more to diagnose.  I suppose that there are
  many shrinks who would, because of their own narrow reality tunnels,
  declare our past-life memories delusional and would, from their
  superstitious fear and denial, say that the shared memories many of us
  have are mass delusions.  But since a few of the past-life
  associates with whom I share some of those memories are now members of
  the psych professions, I won’t condemn the whole profession for the
  craziness of some of its members.  It’s a crazy culture and it
  takes a lot of courage to swim against the stream.

  Anyway, the case in which the insanity definition has just come up is
  one of a woman who has admitted to shooting and killing her three
  teenage sons.  Police, lawyers and everyone concerned are very
  close-mouthed about her motive.  It is known that she told
  arresting officers why she did it, but no one is talking.  I
  suspect that could be because it’s going to be a hot-button racial
  issue, or it could be some bizarre insane delusion that police and
  prosecutors fear could get her off.   Photos in the first
  news stories to come out about the crime show that she and her sons
  were of different colors, and the mom is known to have been on some
  kind of medication that one of her sons had told someone she’d stopped
  taking.
  Anchorage Daily News | Mom who says she shot sons is fit for trial

  How to make a SuSu

  Ingredients: 5 parts intelligence 1 part brilliance 1 part ego

  Method: Blend at a low speed for 30 seconds. Add a little fitness if desired!

  Username:
  
  Personality cocktail
  

  From Go-Quiz.com
  

  How to make a Kathy

  Ingredients: 3 parts pride 1 part self-sufficiency 5 parts empathy

  Method: Layer ingredientes in a shot glass. Add a little cocktail umbrella and a dash of fitness

  Username:
  
  Personality cocktail
  

  AND  *hehee*:
  From Go-Quiz.com
  You are very psychic.You are very likely to feel that you are psychic
  and many other people around you may have even confirmed this belief.
  If you’re not pursuing classes or learning more about developing your
  skills, it’s only a matter of time before you embark on a new adventure
  into the realm of the paranormal.
  http://www.sixthsearch.com/rupsychic/index.asp 

  • 10:14 pm
  • 11 Comments