Submitted by Charlton Stanley (Otteray Scribe), guest blogger
Dr. Isaac Ray
The relationship between mental health and the legal system is a turbulent one at best. One major problem is they speak two different languages. For example, ins...
Submitted by Charlton Stanley (Otteray Scribe), guest blogger
Dr. Isaac Ray
The relationship between mental health and the legal system is a turbulent one at best. One major problem is they speak two different languages. For example, insanity is a legal term found nowhere in any psychiatric or psychological diagnostic manual.
There are several key words used commonly by both professions, but which have quite different meanings. The words “validity” and “reliability” are part of the vocabulary of science. To a scientist, the word validity means that a test measures what it claims to measure. When a test is intended to measure depression or anxiety, the user can assume it measures depression and anxiety.
Reliability refers to the repeatability of a test or measurement. If we give the same test to the same subject several times, all the scores will fall within the standard error of measurement 95% of the time.
When an attorney uses the word validity, it means, Binding; possessing legal force or strength; legally sufficient.
The legal interpretation of the word reliability suggests the subject matter is trustworthy, and that one can rely on it. However, when a scientist says something is reliable, it means whatever is being tested will get the same results with every retest, within the Standard Error of Measurement.
An examination of the literature of both professions reminds us of the quip attributed to George Bernard Shaw, “[We] are two peoples divided by a common language.”
When I was in graduate school, a well-known attorney gave an invited lecture to the student body. The speaker made several sweeping generalizations about the mentally ill; all of them displaying a stunning ignorance of facts. Then he turned his venom on those in the mental health professions, referring to mental health professionals scornfully as, “Soul doctors.” I would like to say people like him are rare, but they are not. I have known judges who, quite literally, did not believe in mental illness. We had one of those in our area who, mercifully, retired a few years ago. People like that remind me of those misogynistic knuckle-draggers who don’t believe there is such a thing as rape.
Now, back to the stormy relationship between the legal system and mental illness.
In 1581, Edward II said that under English Common Law, if a defendant had no more understanding than a “wild beast,” then they should not be held responsible for crimes committed in that state. By the 18th century, British courts elaborated on this distinction and developed the “wild beast” test:
If a defendant was so bereft of sanity that he understood the ramifications of his behavior “no more than in an infant, a brute, or a wild beast,” he would not be held responsible for his crimes.
Daniel M’Naghten
That was the standard until 1843, due to one of the most precedent setting trials of all time. In 1838 an American psychiatrist, Dr. Isaac Ray published a book called, A Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity. Five years after the publication of Dr. Ray’s book, Daniel M’Naughten attempted to assassinate the Prime Minister of England, Sir Robert Peel. As luck would have it, Sir Robert decided to ride in the carriage of Queen Victoria that day. The only occupant of the Prime Minister’s carriage was his secretary, Mr. Edward Drummond. M’Naughten leaped onto the Prime Minister’s carriage armed with a pistol “loaded with gunpowder and a leaden bullet.” Mistaking Drummond for Sir Robert, M’Naughten shot him. Drummond languished for a few days, whereupon he expired. M’Naughten was charged with murder. His trial was held in 1843. His attorney, Alexander Cockburn, was one of the best lawyers in England at the time. Cockburn was familiar with Dr. Ray’s seminal work on the legal implications of mental illness and its application to an insanity defense. Cockburn’s brilliant and persuasive defense won an acquittal, standing the ‘wild beast’ principle on its head.