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Civil Commitment Arguments

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An Argument Toward the Reformation of Civil Commitment
Alexander S. Earp
SECTION I – Introduction The following paper contains an argument toward the reformation of the civil commitment system in the United States. In this context, civil commitment is in reference to those who are legally committed to inpatient care by a third party, it does not necessarily need to be against the will of the patient. Civil commitment, commonly referred to as involuntary commitment, has a stigmatic and controversial history, and is in need of refinement for the modern world. To support this thesis, this paper will be divided into several sections. Section II will discuss the history and development of the civil commitment system. Section III will discuss …show more content…
The simple reasoning as to why media almost universally portrays stereotypical asylum life as unpleasant is because human beings natural crave interaction (Lieberman, 2013). Society being presented with involuntary social isolation under the guise of care has evoked a lot of casually negative artistic presentations. It’s important to note the lackadaisical nature of the presentation of inpatient psychiatric care, as the content creators are not making a statement as much as they are sharing what they believe to be a realistic interpretation of life inside of mental healthcare facility. For example, the second Terminator film has a chase scene inside of a mental hospital, which is solid white, with padded rooms, and bars on the doors and windows. The theme of staff in white coats is furthered in the popular idiom “Men in white coats” which references psychiatric hospital employees in a predatory …show more content…
That said, there are few mental illnesses that upon inception are debilitating, more often, it is only after development due to continued neglect that the individuals function is crippled. If both institutions and mental health care in general were less stigmatized, perhaps more people would be likely to seek out care earlier. That said, mending the unhealthy public attitude toward mental health care has proven a near unsurmountable task, that can only be challenged by a combination of rigorous education and time (Hughes, Hayward & Finlay,

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