Media
The Ottawa Sun
November 4, 2001
McRae's World - Dear Mentally Ill
I was appalled to read Earl McRae's article entitled "Dear Mentally Ill." That Mr. McRae would liken the acts of terrorism and senseless mischief with mental illness is insulting, degrading and dehumanizing. You missed the mark, Mr. McRae and it wasn't funny.
Persons with mental illness do not choose their fate. Sadly they are victims of it. They fight and struggle for community acceptance and support. They live with the constant torment and torture of stigma perpetuated by thoughtless, uninformed attitudes. As for your tasteless analogy between mental illness and terrorism it is well known that persons with a mental illness are actually more likely to be victims rather than perpetrators of violence.
What you have done is equate the ideology of willful malevolence that has taken the form of biological terrorism with the biochemical terror and victimization of having a mental illness.
Approximately 1 in 4 individuals in Canada will suffer a serious mental illness in their lifetime that will require some form of treatment. Given these statistics Mr. McRae, one of your family members will likely become one of the "terrorists" to which you have alluded.
Mr. McRae: No one will argue that senseless acts of terrorism are disturbing to us all. In fact it is almost impossible to comprehend. Perhaps what your article truly underscored is this: because we cannot believe the magnitude of hatred and disregard for human life that gives rise to such terrorist acts, we seek to explain it in the rational terms we understand such as sickness and disease. We refuse to accept that the perpetration of evil is a conscious choice or that sane people would do such things.
The insanity you should have described here is not about mental illness it is about the horrible depravity of the human condition.
Say you're sorry, Mr. McRae.
Jude Bursten
Patient Advocate
Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office
Brockville Psychiatric Hospital
