Word: yoder
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...schizophrenia and other mental illnesses are "no different" from pneumonia. But the latest neurological research has offered only the roughest idea of the precise mechanism by which a disease such as schizophrenia arises. Scientists are decades away from being able to use a brain scan to diagnose something like Yoder's alleged personality disorders...
...late 1990s, Yoder had immersed himself in such ideas. Because of his views, Szasz is often contacted by disgruntled patients--"there have been thousands," he sighs. But Yoder was different. "He's extraordinary in the amount of information he amassed," says Szasz. The psychiatrist was impressed that Yoder had tried to go to prison rather than Chester, since Szasz has argued for decades that it's more humane to imprison lawbreakers for a set number of years rather than forcibly treat them in a mental hospital indefinitely...
...Yoder's calls and letters touched many. Reporter George Pawlaczyk of the Belleville News-Democrat began writing stories about Yoder, and other papers followed. A columnist for the Natal Witness, South Africa's oldest newspaper, took up Yoder's cause. So did Dr. Patch Adams. Adams worked in the er at St. Elizabeths, a Washington mental hospital, during the '70s and '80s. Previously, in 1963, he was himself a patient at a psychiatric hospital for two weeks. He says he learned more from fellow patients than the distant doctors, and he felt a personal connection to Yoder's case...
Bullied, annoyed--or frightened. Most folks wouldn't appreciate Yoder's insistent calls; he can rant if he doesn't get quick action. Chester now prohibits Yoder from calling at least a dozen people who have complained about his phone manners. Even Equip for Equality, the nonprofit that accused Chester of writing spurious reports on Yoder, reluctantly told the facility earlier this year that Yoder had begun making inappropriate calls. Group officials say he left a message in January in which he promised to "f___ you up the ass in the newspapers" for not fighting hard enough...
...vulgar way, Yoder actually had a point. Although it is a large, federally funded organization designed to monitor institutions like Chester, Equip for Equality has never investigated the facility--even after it discovered those allegedly false reports. For years, some patients' advocates have complained that Chester provides inadequate care. Just in the past year, a state commission has substantiated charges that Chester has improperly confiscated patients' property, denied their privacy and failed to keep one patient from spreading his feces around a bathroom until Chester's human-rights committee got involved. "We've had longstanding, very serious concerns about Chester...