Comments on: The Case Of The Famous Physicist http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/03/the-case-of-the-famous-physicist/ In a mad world, all blogging is psychiatry blogging Thu, 23 Jul 2015 23:36:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3 By: Lauren http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/03/the-case-of-the-famous-physicist/#comment-220727 Tue, 21 Jul 2015 03:52:08 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=3687#comment-220727 Thanks for your response – I thought it was pretty strange as well. I wasn’t sure if there was some kind of “admit-seeking behavior” (similar to drug-seeking behavior perhaps?) that you might see in psychiatric hospitals, or some other indicators of which people are seeking some kind of validation/attention vs those who are a genuine threat to themselves.

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]]> By: Scott Alexander http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/03/the-case-of-the-famous-physicist/#comment-220699 Tue, 21 Jul 2015 01:38:03 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=3687#comment-220699 I wouldn’t expect that to happen. Maybe to some people “person comes to hospital and says they are suicidal” might potentially be taken less seriously than “friend overhears them say they are suicidal” or “person makes suicide attempt” because it shows they’re still trying to avoid reaching that point and have decent judgment.

I would expect the hospital to have a lot of legal liability in that case, and I agree the legally correct thing to do would be to send them another hospital. But I don’t know the law in any state other than Michigan.

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]]> By: Lauren http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/03/the-case-of-the-famous-physicist/#comment-220694 Tue, 21 Jul 2015 00:57:59 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=3687#comment-220694 Scott,

I know I am immensely late to the party, but I’m hoping that you’re still monitoring this comment thread.

After reading this and The Right to Waive Your Rights, I’m getting the impression that psychiatrists are only releasing people who they are exceedingly sure are not going to kill themselves. However, I have a friend who once attempted to check himself into a psychiatric hospital because he was feeling actively suicidal, but after psychiatric evaluation they turned him away. Can you tell me anything about why this might happen? He claims that they said it was because he didn’t have a precise, enactable suicide plan, and they needed the space for more serious patients. Can psychiatric hospitals be “full”, and does that absolve them of this liability, or would they be required to send the patient to another hospital? Couldn’t being turned away as “not suicidal enough” only fuel their depressive thoughts more (RE: Reverse Psychology post from 6/18)?

Thanks

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]]> By: Luke Somers http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/03/the-case-of-the-famous-physicist/#comment-219548 Mon, 13 Jul 2015 17:39:21 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=3687#comment-219548 We generally didn’t wear lab coats unless we were doing chemical work at the time – nanophysics requires some chemistry, and sometimes moderately nasty stuff – and it wasn’t in the clean room. Like, if I was doing a KOH etch in the lab rather than the clean room, that was a good time for a lab coat.

We certainly didn’t wander the halls that way.

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]]> By: adana evden eve http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/03/the-case-of-the-famous-physicist/#comment-219375 Sun, 12 Jul 2015 10:11:49 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=3687#comment-219375 thank you

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]]> By: Douglas Knight http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/03/the-case-of-the-famous-physicist/#comment-218112 Wed, 08 Jul 2015 04:41:13 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=3687#comment-218112 No, Perelman was not an autodidact. For example, he acquired a PhD.

Perhaps his education was more self-directed than most mathematicians (which is hardly exceptional among top mathematicians), but he had a community to bounce ideas off of, not to mention an advisor to check that he knew what he was talking about.

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]]> By: Acheman http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/03/the-case-of-the-famous-physicist/#comment-217606 Tue, 07 Jul 2015 09:10:01 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=3687#comment-217606 And I agree with you about psychologists and psychiatrists, but when one is in hospital one doesn’t always get to pick and choose, particularly with the former – I was in groups run by a variety of different therapists, most of whom thought my considered ethical positions were completely determined by (or possibly the cause of?) my illness.

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]]> By: Acheman http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/03/the-case-of-the-famous-physicist/#comment-217605 Tue, 07 Jul 2015 09:07:59 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=3687#comment-217605 I agree, Kohlberg’s stages are a massive oversimplification – I used them as a shorthand to express what sorts of position are tabooed, but I’ve realised that there was a connotation of superiority there which I didn’t consciously intend. I don’t think a psychiatry that pathologised anything that Kohlberg would have classed as being below Stage Four would be a good idea either.

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]]> By: Who wouldn't want to be Anonymous http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/03/the-case-of-the-famous-physicist/#comment-217501 Tue, 07 Jul 2015 04:25:04 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=3687#comment-217501 Oh yeah, I forgot to come back to this.

So, she was involuntarily committed where the doctors were pretty vocal about her being delusional, so she’s crazy.

Her total disregard for firearm safety in that picture makes a strong case that she is dangerous.

Since her car was confiscated in Harlem, she’s apparently a NYC resident. However, NYC and neighboring counties have a stringent de facto ban on firearm ownership. Unless she’s a police officer or a judge in disguise, it is incredibly unlikely that she has a license for that pistol. IIRC, NYS also recently passed a law that significantly strengthened the duty to report requirements for mental health professionals, so it is entirely possible–likely, even–that as a result of her commitment she is now a prohibited person (at least in NY) by reason of mental defect. So if she currently possesses (or maybe ever possessed) a firearm in NYC or its outlying areas, it is very likely to be unlawful. So she’s a criminal.

That makes her a crazy, dangerous criminal.

Gotta love how that works, right?

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]]> By: Lambert http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/03/the-case-of-the-famous-physicist/#comment-217437 Mon, 06 Jul 2015 21:09:41 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=3687#comment-217437 if she was using a gun like that, the conservatives & libertarians would be concerned too. Cooper’s rules 2&3.

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