That Guy: The Distortions of Pete Earley

Last night on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Pete Earley, author of Crazy, made an appearance to answer some general questions about mental health treatment and access to the same. Earley's book makes the argument that we are jailing the mentally ill instead of treating them, which is true, and that all that's needed is for the stigma to go away and for funding to be found for treatment programs and psych beds and all will be well again. That's the essential argument of the Treatment Advocacy Center and NAMI, both of whom Earley is ideologically aligned with (and whom he leans on in his reporting), and it's the biggest half-cure I have heard of. I've spent too much time going into this elsewhere to repeat myself here. Except I will.

On the show, Earley said, "This is a lifetime illness." He referred to his son, who has bipolar disorder.

OK, where are the studies of the lifetime course of bipolar disorder? Where are the replicated studies proving that bipolar disorder, or depression for that matter, are lifetime and forever illnesses? I don't know of any actual scientific studies on this point--if others do, pass them along--but I know that researchers, advocates, clinicians, families and patients all say it.

But absent such studies what Earley and others are saying is a political statement, a statement of collective social belief and religion. When I meet someone who has been bipolar for 80 years and has been bipolar the whole time, then I will believe it a bit more. Until then, no dice.

Earley also said, "People are not being treated....It's a lack of funding."

That's not true. People are taking meds at a rate never seen before in human history. Not everyone who has issues is of course, but the prevalence of people with psych diagnoses receiving treatment is much higher than it once was.

A lack of funding? True, that's been a constant problem and is the hallmark of any social service system. But what's lacking our mental health system isn't a lack of money so much as it is a lack of treatments that work, that are effective in the long term not in the immediate crisis, and do not wreck patients cognitively and physically in the deal.

When we get there, then we can talk about funding and people getting treatment. Until we get there, we are really talking in half-cures, ones that benefit researchers, advocates, clinicians, families and authors like Earley, but are maybe of half-benefit only for far too many patients.