Begging the question
Sir: A. M. Daniels, in his article (17 March), exhibits one of the major symptoms of Neo-Liberalus Americanus — an irrational (?) desire to show his native land in the worst possible light. By focusing our attention on the sordid excesses of a few American psychiatrists, he begs the political question. In the Soviet Union, sane people are locked up for the sole reason that they have challenged the Party's monopoly of power. In the United States, the legal profession has merely unloaded the distasteful task of coping with psychopaths, lunatics, and the inadequate on to the medical profession. Nowhere does Mr Daniels offer the slightest evidence that sane people are being locked up in hospitals for any reason — political or otherwise but he still manages to tar the US with the same brush. Why?
Thomas Burkard
30 The High Street, Lowestoft
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