On 30 March last year, a man suffering from severe mental illness walked out of his flat in north London and stabbed a woman in the back with a knife, inflicting injuries that left her paralysed for life. She was a complete stranger to him, as were the four other people whom he met by...
Read MoreThe criminalisation of the mentally ill is one of the cruellest and most easily avoidable tragedies of our era. In the next few days, the state of Arkansas is intending to execute by lethal injection a 60-year-old man called Bruce Ward who showed signs of insanity at the time of his conviction for murder and...
Read MoreNeglecting the Mentally Ill
Mass killings by a lone gunman lead to speculation about the sanity – or lack of it – of the killer who often turns out to have expressed doubts about his own mental stability prior to the attack. For instance, James Holmes, who shot dead 12 people and wounded 58 as they watched The Dark...
Read MoreLiving With Schizophrenia (Part Three)
Alexander Cockburn writes: In 2002 my nephew Henry was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 20. Harrowing times for Henry, his parents ? Patrick Cockburn and Jan Montefiore ? and his younger brother Alexander followed. Henry was expert at escaping from the various institutions in which he was supposedly secured. He would flee into...
Read MoreLiving With Schizophrenia -- Part Two
Alexander Cockburn writes: In 2002 my nephew Henry was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 20. Harrowing times for Henry, his parents ? Patrick Cockburn and Jan Montefiore ? and his younger brother Alexander followed. Henry was expert at escaping from the various institutions in which he was supposedly secured. He would flee into...
Read MoreDrug Control Imperialism
In 2002 my elder son Henry was diagnosed with schizophrenia. His final breakdown came when he tried to swim Newhaven estuary in mid-winter fully clothed and was lucky to be rescued by some fishermen before he died of cold. He spent the next eight years in and out of mental hospitals, though more recently has...
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About Patrick Cockburn
Patrick Cockburn is the Middle East correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent. He was awarded the 2005 Martha Gellhorn prize for war reporting. His book on his years covering the war in Iraq, The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (Verso) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction.