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Shea,
P, Defining Madness
(RRP $32.95 including GST) ISBN 1876067128
Michael Sexton, SC, Solicitor-General for NSW describes this
title as a "fascinating history and analysis of mental health
law in New South Wales from its earliest days ... a lucid
and scholarly account of the medico-legal concept of mental
illness. Members of both professions and many others besides
will profit from [Dr Shea's] research and have a much clearer
understanding of the importance of the policy issues involved
and the inherent difficulty of attempting to solve them in
the words of a statute." Dr Shea focuses on the central point
of tension in mental health legislation - the need to balance
an individual's right to liberty and privacy with the need
to protect the general community, including members of the
individual's family. In NSW that debate has been conducted
largely through the definition of a 'mentally ill person'.
A person admitted as 'a mentally ill person' can be confined
for the length of their treatment. The definition, accordingly,
raises a special need for a system of safeguards based upon
generally agreed, if not universal, principles. History has
been to the contrary with complex, continuing and often emotionally
heated debates. Michael Sexton concludes that: "Far from being
a dry legislative history, this is an absorbing account of
the attempt to set out the circumstances that would justify
a person being involuntarily detained in a mental hospital."
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