Students’ Mental Health
Sir,—Several years ago I was asked, “What is paranoid schizophrenia?” The question arose because a doctor’s fears of a patient were rejected by tbe police and mental hospital authorities. Three weeks later the doctor was battered to death. About that time, the University of Canterbury assessed the value of student counselling at £3OO a year. Practical day-to-day counselling and case work are the most valuable aids to mental health. There is a place for medication, electro-convulsive treatment, and even L.S.D. in psychiatry, but too often these measures are applied capriciously by people lacking basic qualifications, and without adequate diagnosis, consultation, or follow-up. The crazed student who slaughtered innocent strangers from a university tower first warned his psychiatrist in vain. A fig for the diagnostic “powers” of vested “specialists.”— Yours, etc., VARIAN J. WILSON. December 6, 1966.
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Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31236, 7 December 1966, Page 20
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139Students’ Mental Health Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31236, 7 December 1966, Page 20
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