AN OUTSIDE OPINION

How unkind of you and your staff to further stigmatize people who suffer the agony of chronic mental illness (“The Outsiders,” by Tessa DeCarlo and Susan Subtle Dintenfass, Oct. 11). Your exploitative approach was surprising and unconscionable, from your choice of the sensational subhead (“The Art of the Insane”) to your use throughout the article of pejorative terms (“lunatics,” “mad artists,” “madhouses,” “more than a little crazy”) and smug quotes (“A lot of these people, to be honest, looked strange.”)

The result of stereotyping is always the same: It dehumanizes. That permits easy dismissal of another’s pain and paves the way for human cruelty.

GLENN COTHAM, PRESIDENT

ALLIANCE FOR THE MENTALLY ILL

Van Nuys