We're Not All Mad -- Just Half of Us

Perhaps your eyes glazed over like mine at the story in today's New York Times that suggested half of all Americans will suffer from mental illness during their lifetimes. You had to read far down into the story to learn that this "government survey" was partially funded by the pharmaceutical industry, which is tireless in its efforts to put the entire nation on psychotropic drugs.

One is tempted to respond that with George Bush as president, of course half of us are permanently depressed. But I tip my hat to Vera Sharav of the Alliance for Human Research Protection for posting this quote from Dr. Paul McHugh, former chairman of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and a member of the President's bioethics commission:

"Fifty percent of Americans mentally impaired - are you kidding me? The problem is that the diagnostic manual we are using in psychiatry is like a field guide and it just keeps expanding and expanding. Pretty soon we'll have a syndrome for short, fat Irish guys with a Boston accent, and I'll be mentally ill."