The psychiatrist's duty
Sir: The last but one item in the Notebook of 15 May makes me feel despondent. True, it has lately become established journalistic practice to hurl abuse at psychiatrists; but that someone of Alexander Chancellor's in- fluence and authority should join in this ill- informed and misguided chorus is sad.
I am not a psychiatrist, though I once passed an academic examination in this field. In 1932 my father was murdered by a man who, let out on parole after a previous attempt, had spent almost 20 years in an in- stitution for the criminally insane. Since then, I have followed these cases with great concern.
The public ought to be told that we face a stark alternative: either we maintain that, contrary to now 'popular' or 'acceptable' views, all paranoid schizophrenics, as potential murderers, should be detained for life as soon as their diagnosis is established — or simply accept that every year a hun- dred or so innocents must die by their hands. Dr Hopper's advice to Hinckley's mother was, quite probably, correct: how would Mr Chancellor have reacted had the insane son murdered his parents?
To blame psychiatrists for the actions of paranoics at large is futile and misleads the public: it may be that Mr Chancellor has more `to answer for' than Dr Hopper. Alfred Alexander
99 Harley Street, London WI
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