AND HERE, I think, the book is at its most
effec- tive; in showing how a perfectly sane and in- telligent young man can be trapped. If he behaves himself, and makes no trouble, he may be released in ten years' time—if he is lucky. If he fights— by writing to MPs, say—he is being 'uncoopera- tive'; the authorities will recommend 'in his own interest' that he should be detained a little longer. What is worse, they use this as a threat to secure docility. And it is not an empty threat; the most unpleasant episode in the whole book is when the then Minister for Health—acting presumably on information received—tries to prevent White- head's release by describing him as 'a weak im- pulsive psychopath of inferior intelligence who was quite unfit to survive in society . . . quite capable of violence and a potential danger to himself and others.' Yet this was the same White- head who was to be released four months later; with the Rampton Deputy Medical Superin- tendent recommending 'the maximum degree of freedom' for him. Whitehead was relatively lucky : the whole bureaucratic machinery is ready to go into action against an individual on such occasions—backed by politicians like Dr. Edith Summerskill, who recently dismissed criticism of Rampton as an irresponsible stunt. I hope Dr. Edith (and the present Minister of Health) reads Sentence Without Cause—something may then be done about translating the recent Mental Health Report into legislative action—for the recent de- cision to allow voluntary admission to mental deficiency institutions, sensible though it is, takes us only a little way forward.
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