lenical Center, 750 E Adams Street, yracuse, New York 13210.
Sir: On • ; e Might say that William Sargent
*.r_ In fundamental agreement with PS Szasz when he says, "But syrelliatrY must not mix with politics." , Y this is the basis of the Szasz mesis.
is The use of a doctor to prevent a crime ,:u""xurig the function of the doctor and the Policeman. The use of a psychiatrist
to prevent and treat a potential criminal is a political interference. Dr Sargent is a delightful and sophisticated writer; however, not even he can deny the physical treatments he mentions have had any success in prevention of crimes of violence. Graham Young and Ian Ball had been treated and 'cured' of their impulse to violence by orthodox physical psychiatry as propounded by Dr Sargant. Surely Dr Szasz's desire to return both crime and punishment to the law and judiciary is preferable to the present situation in Great Britain. The claim that under the 1959 Mental Health Act a very small percentage of mental patients are incarcerated involuntarily falls down once one is aware that as long as a voluntary patient may be converted to an involuntary patient by the stroke of a pen on the ward, the net result is the same.
D. B. Gaiman The Church of Scientology, Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex
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