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1 Meg Olin Professor Flom WRD 104 January 28, 2013 Schizophrenia In a New Light For years, mental disorders have been overlooked, pushed under the rug and believed to be less important compared to other worldly issues. There has always been research regarding the different mental disorders and how they work but for one reason or another, it was seen as something that did not need to be given as much attention. With the recent and terribly tragic school shootings, America as a whole has realized just how extremely necessary it is to regulate these disorders and the people afflicted with them. In Paul Steinbergs New York Times article Our Failed Approach to Schizophrenia (December 2012) he explains the rising importance of understanding and figuring out schizophrenia and other mental disorders, as well as the attached stigmas that the public has with them. Unfortunately, Steinberg has an overabundance of examples to use to his advantage when setting the scene for what can go wrong when mental disorders are wrongly diagnosed or not diagnosed at all. In the past ten years, three horrifying public shootings have occurred, all that have shooters suspected to have a mental disorder, most likely schizophrenia. This article was published just 11 days after the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, which resulted in the death of 26 students and faculty. Steinberg most likely wrote this article as a plea for the public to begin to recognize the dangers of

Olin 2 mental disorders and how they can put literally anyone at risk. He wanted his readers to understand the pattern in all the shootings that have happened over the years and to start to talk about it openly, as opposed to acting like these things have not happened. If they began to talk about how these patterns, they may be able to better understand just what having a mental disorder means. It is true; the general public has a very loose grasp on what exactly mental health is and even a looser hold on schizophrenia. Steinberg remarks that schizophrenia has nothing to do with multiple personalities or split minds like many associate it with, but is actually a physiological disorder caused by changes in the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that is essential for knowledge, abstract thinking and appropriate social behavior (Par. 3) This could come as a surprise to readers, who believed schizophrenia to be something they had seen in movies, read in fictional books or heard about one way or another. It is rhetorically effective because it makes readers realize they were wrongly informed about this subject and want to know what schizophrenia really is, which is the main claim of the article. Another claim Steinbergs article emphasizes is the sworn to secrecy rule that psychiatrists are forced to deal with.
The 2001 movie, "A Beautiful Mind showcases a

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schizophrenic man with split personalities

An incongruous and binding law, the Goldwater Rule makes it illegal for psychiatrists to discuss their patients mental state if they have not gotten permission to do so. This rule-adopted by the American Psychiatric Association in the 1970s--makes things more dangerous because psychiatrists, who know more about the subject of mental health than anyone else, are forced to remain silent in times when direction is needed the most. Steinberg is a psychiatrist himself, therefore he establishes credibility for the article by knowing first hand the difficulties people in his profession struggle with everyday. Without the Goldwater Rule, psychiatrists like Steinberg would be able to offer their opinions on a plethora of psychology-related issues, such as the earlier mentioned shooting in Newtown. Adam Lanza, the man who killed 26 people and then himself is not at all thought of as a victim but in actuality, he was a victim of unstable mental health without treatment, like so many other people in the United States. If things were different and schizophrenia was not something people tried to hide, maybe Lanza could have gotten the help he needed and 26 lives would have been spared that December day, just 11 days before Christmas. Real life examples that are very well known and discussed often, such as the shooting in Newtown, are great to spark an emotion from the reader, as well as establish credibility for the writer. When Steinbergs audience reads this section about the shooting and Adam Lanza, they will feel some sort of emotion. They will probably remember watching news reporters on T.V talk to the parents and children affected or possibly talking to their own children about it. Emotional connections are incredibly effective in terms of rhetoric because they provide an example for the readers to better connect and understand what is being discussed. On top of emotional appeal, examples

Olin 4 of school shootings in the recent past give Steinberg credibility because they show proof that without education of mental disorders, the unthinkable has happened time and time again. A world in which these sorts of things did not happen, seems to be somewhat of a fantasy but Steinberg points out that clues from past schizophrenics prove that these outburst do not have to continue. Steinberg explains, the vast majority of people with schizophrenia, treated or untreated, are not violent, though they are more likely than others to commit violent crimes (Par. 9). He adds that people who have committed these violent crimes, such as John Lennons killer and Ronald Reagans would-be assassin, have shown signs of schizophrenia and after being treated, have shown penitence in what they did. This means that when schizophrenia is diagnosed and correctly treated every time, these sort of killers can be stopped in their tracks and learn how to deal with their disorders in a safe way. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world and not every person is going to be able to be correctly diagnosed but if doctors, researchers, school counselors and parents of children with mental disorders come together and begin to talk and understand just what schizophrenia is, the world will be a safer place for everyone.

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Works Cited Steinberg, Paul. Our Failed Approach to Schizophrenia. NYTimes.com. New York Times, 25 December 2012. Web. 20 January 2013.