Millett’s ‘Attacks’ Do a ‘Disservice’ to Many

Author Kate Millett’s attacks on psychiatry and the “myth” of mental illness do a disservice to the millions of mentally ill Americans and their families. Mental illness does exist and tends to be genetic (“In a Mind Field,” June 13).

I suffer from the same illness Millett was diagnosed with: manic depression. However, I have a strong desire not to be victimized by this horrendous condition, which led to the suicide deaths of my grandmother and great-aunt, and contributed to the deaths of my mother and brother.

For the past year, after 10 years of suffering and missed diagnoses, I have been taking lithium, which has improved the quality of my life 100%. Only someone who has suffered the anguish of being a victim of one’s own emotions and thoughts can fully realize the difference freedom from this condition brings.

Millett says she should have been able to pursue her divorce, her search for a lesbian lover, her activism on behalf of a Trinidad prisoner, her public breakdowns, her political forays to Ireland and Iran, and her attempt to kill herself without the intervention of family and psychiatrists. She denounces psychiatrists as frauds and says madness is a myth.

In an extreme emotional state, Millett tried to poison herself with gas, but thankfully was unsuccessful. My brother, in a manic state, drove all night through the countryside and caused an accident that killed him and two other people. He, like Millett, had denounced all psychiatrists as phony and had rebelled against taking medication.

Can society afford the ramifications of mentally ill people who refuse to be treated? More importantly, can they themselves afford it? My brother, understandably, did not want the stigma that comes with mental illness. Americans’ idea of mentally ill people are those who shoot assault rifles into crowded schoolyards or who are otherwise undependable and untrustworthy. Only my husband and a few close friends know about my condition. I cannot afford the employment discrimination and other societal sanctions that would be imposed on me if my manic depression was known.

NAME WITHHELD

Pasadena