Is Therapy the New 21st Century "Punishment?"
Years ago, people were subjected to public whippings, put in stocks, or stamped with a Scarlet A if they broke the law. Maybe this was extreme but is going to the other extreme of sending people to "counseling" in order to duck responsibility really the answer? The answer seems to be "yes." If you are disgraced and play your cards right, you may be sent to therapy rather than held fully responsible for your actions (via Classical Values):
Don't you just love how therapy is now being used as the new 21st century "punishment" for those who have broken the law? FWIW, I am for legalizing prostitution, but it was against the law at the time Spitzer decided to partake in it--and given how he has ruined others in a similar vein, I can't get too high on my libertarian bandwagon for him here. Anyway, it seems to me that therapy is the new punishment that people the authorities do not really want to hold totally responsible for their actions fall back on to make it look like "something" is being done.
Have you taken note of the trend? If you are a politician or celebrity who has broken the law, you are subjected to--horrors!--addiction counseling. If you are a woman who commits a heinous crime such as murder, you may be able to spend part of your 7-month sentence in something as atrocious as....mental health counseling! I have even worked cases where juveniles have committed severe crimes such as carjacking and had attorneys want to send a social worker to the teen's house for counseling rather than send them to a correctional facility. As John Stossel says, "Give me a break!"
Therapy should not be used as a punishment for those who commit crimes. It should certainly be used to assist people in getting better and turning their behavior around while paying for their crimes, but it is not a substitute for being held responsible for one's actions.
Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has gone into therapy in the wake of the hooker scandal that swept him out of office, a Spitzer insider told The Post yesterday.
As part of the therapy, Spitzer will explore whether he has an addiction to sex, the source said.
Don't you just love how therapy is now being used as the new 21st century "punishment" for those who have broken the law? FWIW, I am for legalizing prostitution, but it was against the law at the time Spitzer decided to partake in it--and given how he has ruined others in a similar vein, I can't get too high on my libertarian bandwagon for him here. Anyway, it seems to me that therapy is the new punishment that people the authorities do not really want to hold totally responsible for their actions fall back on to make it look like "something" is being done.
Have you taken note of the trend? If you are a politician or celebrity who has broken the law, you are subjected to--horrors!--addiction counseling. If you are a woman who commits a heinous crime such as murder, you may be able to spend part of your 7-month sentence in something as atrocious as....mental health counseling! I have even worked cases where juveniles have committed severe crimes such as carjacking and had attorneys want to send a social worker to the teen's house for counseling rather than send them to a correctional facility. As John Stossel says, "Give me a break!"
Therapy should not be used as a punishment for those who commit crimes. It should certainly be used to assist people in getting better and turning their behavior around while paying for their crimes, but it is not a substitute for being held responsible for one's actions.
posted by Helen at 9:04 AM
34 Comments:
If the therapists in government mandated facilities are anything like other government employees and contractors of health care, I'm going to go out on a limb and say, yeah, it sure sounds like punishment to me!
What ever happened to public stocks? You could take your lumps and be done with it. Now, you have to talk about it for years and years. Gah.
Spitzer's crime is not that he used hookers. I give a crap about that. His crime is that he purposely destroyed lives for doing exactly the same thing he was doing at the time. He can't even use the obfuscation that he changed his mind.
His real crime is the act of seeing himself above and separate from those he ruled -- uh, pardon, those he served.
The man is slime, pure and simple.
Well, look at it this way. At least he hasn't been sentenced to "spend more time with his family."
For which they are probably deeply grateful.
I don't see where anyone associated with law enforcement has asked Mr. Spitzer to attend therapy. Is Mr. Spitzer attending therapy because he simply wants to attend therapy? If so, I don't have a problem with it.
He is probably entering therapy to aid in his defense. Then he can caim that he wasnt responsible for committing the crime of beinga John. See, he was too sick in thebrain to be responsible for his actions.
This is a move dictated to Spitzer by the legal A-team he has probably hired by now.
I think danny's got the idea. Prominent folks who are caught breaking laws run to therapy quickly - before criminal charges are filed. They can then assume the posture of a person with a DISEASE for whom they are not accountable.
Mr. Spitzer is a cunning politician and is probably doing whatever he can to make himself look good before he goes before judgment, I agree. But judges aren't under any obligation to view Spitzer's therapy as a road to redemption or cut him a break for making the effort. Spitzer can spend every waking moment in front a certified team of therapists if he chooses. It isn't a punishment unless a judge makes it so.
I bet his therapist won't give him any Kleenex. And his hour will only really be 50 minutes.
"Don't you just love how therapy is now being used as the new 21st century "punishment" for those who have broken the law?"
No. I hate it. I will see a person who is court referred one time. But if they have no agenda for change, I tell them to go see someone else as I only work with people who want to change.
Trey
cham --
"But judges aren't under any obligation to view Spitzer's therapy as a road to redemption or cut him a break for making the effort."
But they do and he knows it.
Olig, the sentencing will be interesting on this one. Spitzer made a great deal of enemies over the years and New Yorkers are furious. If I were responsible for handing this guy a sentence, I'd lock him up and throw away the key. They have therapists in prisons these days.
Its always someone elses problem, someone elses fault. they dont take responsibility for their own actions anymore.
The idea of a lot of these obviously guilty people, are sick, is exactly like using the devil made me do it routine.
It wasnt me that killed 250 women, it was pornography, it was me listening to the devil music of judy garland.. and so on..
The use of the blame game, can be linked indirectly to the feminist movement. Its ok to kill men, because all men are rapists, and they must have deserved to die, because they are dead QED. or they are part of the patriarchy and killing men is a sign of girl power.
No one accepts blame for their own actions. its always something else made me do it.
(i have think they should legalise it, and tax it, and make sure people are healthy, it would take the drugs, the abusive people, out but of course they dont want that, it gives them an excuse to blame all sick men from visiting prostitures..)
If they find the "right" therapist, spending an hour in the same room with them can be quite painful.
cham --
I didn't say it would work, I was merely giving a reason he's doing it.
I hope the bastard does a long time in hard pen and then never works again.
It's mandatory for those who don't commit crimes!
I elected to take a semester off from college because of the stress I had with dealing with a crooked landlord. (I later sued him and won, to my mind vindicating it all) I wanted to regoup and regather and just return more focused a few months later once the effort of dealing with the idiot was over.
In order to return to college, despite my saying NOTHING of anger or hostility towards this person I was instructed to go to anger management. And when I argued about it, my medical records showed that I was hostile and berated the staff, and I was instructed that the 4 weeks was not suffecient - but I needed an additional 8 weeks - despite remaining calm and focused.
Punishment? Hell, yes. But not always for the deserving. It's for anyone not agreeing with the status quo.
As a law-abiding citizen who has benefited greatly from therapy, I really resent 1) it being used as punishment for those who are deficient in empathy and morality; and 2) it being associated with these criminal losers. It's hard enough getting normal-but-unhappy people to open up to a competent therapist - it can really help, for example, to figure out that the reason you keep choosing wildly unsuitable romantic partners is that you're trying to recapture your relationship with your father or mother - without these bozos muddying the waters further. Grrrr.
bill: Ugh. Sorry you had to go through that.
Maybe they want to move all our criminals into therapy here so they can make room for all the terrorists at guantanamo. I shudder to think how they will free up lawyers for them.
I see a different outcome.
If everyone is SICK, who arent responsible for their actions, then the government will take charge. Stopping the smoking, stopping the drinking, stopping eating. If everyone is not responsible for their actions, the government will be.
The idea that being online is a disease, as i sent to dr helen, it just gives psychologists (a lot of whom are paid by the state), and the government more reasons to curb human freedoms.
They want to make everyone "SICK", we are the worried well society. And you will see that denial of human rights, will be seen as being The right thing to do. because humans are not and never responsible for their actions.
There is sweet poetic justice to Spitzer's fall from grace. My libertarian tendencies make me quite willing to see the same exacting standard applied to him, that was used by him against everyone else. People forget that the other half of "judge not or you will be judged" is "by the standard you mete out to others, so shall it be meted out to you."
The fastest way to make defenders of individual rights out of these people is to hold them and their children accountable. Imagine Gore's stances on the War on Drugs if his son gets sent to prison for several years, no matter how much pleading, for his next drunk/stoned driving incident.
They don't care because right now it doesn't apply to them. It's a real shame that the criminal justice system doesn't put more resources into making airtight cases against the rich and connected.
Psychology is a good tool for understanding why something happened, but it is misused when it excuses inappropriate behavior. That is a misapplication from defense attorneys who want to explain away behavior rather than understand it.
Lots of us had crappy childhoods, many of us were abused, most of us who were vow and manage to not do to others what was done to us.
Too many psychologists have become high priests of the cult of victimhood.
Trey
Sadly, this is not a twenty-first century phenomenon...we can go back to the seventies when the military was dealing with troops returning from Vietnam with drug problems.
It was pretty much understood that drug problems were forced on people, and the individual really had no chance of not getting involved. Rather than court-martial and kick them out of the service, regardless of whether they served in Vietnam or not, it was decided to send them into rehab with the possibility of turning them around and placing them back in the ranks.
Too many of them were not returned to active duty, but were given a general discharge, that did not infer any laws having been broken.
So, we must be seeing some evolutionary progression here, but I just don't see it...
Bill,
"It's for anyone not agreeing with the status quo."
I agree, it seems that therapy is given to those who disagree with the powers that be and those who truly need it are often overlooked or not monitored such as Cho at Virginia Tech.
bill --
How the hell did they know the reason you took time off?
Oligonicella,
The college needed me to justify a medical leave. As I had insurance through the college I was using their health clinic so they had access to everything anyway.
I had to provide them with the reason for the paperwork, regardless.
Helen,
It seems to me that it's well-meaning at times, but oblivious of the possible consequences. Other times it just seems like another form of control.
It may cover the college's rear with insurance or make the administrators feel better that they've socialized everyone with the slightest inclination of a temper, but having a anger management class in your medical record seems it would be an issue with some employers. (Such as law enforcement.)
Hypothetically speaking, would this effect your ability to apply for a handgun permit?
A little bt of stress, wanting to take some time off and 10 years down the road you can't get a handgun because of a bueracrats over-reaction to the situation.
I agree with you that therapy should not be used as punishment for a crime. I also do not like when people say something that is sexist or racist and then they are forced to apologize to some left-wing minority group and also go through therapy.
Cham - If they are looking into whether he has addictive behaviors, then yeah I think they are going to use this as an excuse.
bill --
Sounds like they were performing psychological determinations without a session or a license.
What say you, Helen? Actionable?
Oligonicella and Bill,
If you had a fight with a landlord, this really has nothing to do with your school career--I would not think a college could "make you" go to counseling for that. If on the other hand, there were anger issues at school, then it is within their right to ask you to seek counseling although hard to make sure that you go. Typically in that case, at most, there might be records that let the school authorities know that you went to counseling but no one would have the right to see those records without your permission unless you were a risk to yourself or others.
Helen
Isn't the goal of both punishment and therapy to modify the behavior of the criminal/patient in some socially prescribed direction? So what is your complaint with counseling, that it doesn't accomplish the behavioral change at all or that it isn't the cost-effective technique?
Personally, I want to bring back public whippings, although this is very much a minority opinion. They are fast, temporarily both physically and psychologically painful, unlikely to permanently incapacitate the criminal, and relatively inexpensive for society to administer.
BobH,
My complaint is that therapy should not be used as a punishment for wrongdoing. Is killing one's husband like Mary Winkler really such a "small" crime that mental health counseling was all the restitution she should do?--I grant you she stayed in jail for a short time. But it was way too short. Should a juvenile receive counseling as a substitute for a real consequence for committing a severe crime like carjacking? I think counseling is fine to have in addition to serving one's time but I do not think that it should be a substitute for punishment in these cases.
I seem to recall the Soviet Union using "psychological problems" as a catchall way of getting dissidents and inconveniences out of the way without the bother of a trial.
The "new" Russia is still doing it:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=502382&in_page_id=1811
I can't tell you how many insurance reviews I get with patients (and facilities) demanding a 30 day inpatient rehab stay, even when they haven't used any substances in months, simply because their lawyers told them it would help their cases - DUI, possession, etc.
In this case and others (Mel Gibson etc) the more apt word to describe therapy is "penance." It is something the individual does to secure absolution as opposed to justice affixed by someone outside the individual.
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