In this issue
No. 132 February 1984

LettersUpdate

Taking Issue - Ashok Mitra

Madness and badness
Debbie Taylor visits a mental hospital to discover whether it is punishment or treatment that we offer the mentally ill.

Mental Health: the facts

Taking liberties
Larry Gostin analyses the uses and abuses of psychiatry in the East and the West.

Killing with kindness
A million US children are taking drugs to treat their hyperactivity. David Ingleby asks whether this treatment is for their benefit or ours.

Through the maze to happiness

Bedlam and beyond
How can a poor country hope to provide for the mentally ill? A progress report by Professor Neki.

‘What do hospitals know about witches?’
Wendy Holiway reports on the difficulties in creating a new mental health care system for Zimbabwe.

And worth reading on... MADNESS

Chinese puzzle
One of China’s great leaps forward has been in mental health. A success story by Anuradha Vittachi.

A consumer’s guide to therapy

A shot in the arm
Phil Richardson exposes a major con trick: many drugs have no physical effect at all.

The birth of the blues
If you are poor, unemployed, female, middle-aged, likely as not you are depressed. Keith Oatley explains.

Mother’s little helper
Valium is to tranquillisers what Hoover is to vacuum cleaners. Ron Lacey looks at the dangers of a drug that has become a household name.

Idea for ACTION

Reviews: New books and a classicCountry profile: Puerto RicoFront cover illustration: This month's front cover is a painting clone by someone diagnosed as mentally ill. The hospital at which she is an outpatient asked, on our behalf, for her permission to use the painting. But in keeping with the prevailing attitude towards those who are considered mentally ill. they refused to let us talk to her, negotiate a fee, or use her name. Though undoubtedly they had her best interests at heart, we were not allowed any contact with her as an independent person and artist.