[ProfoundMan]

There’s nothing you can legally do about someone exhibiting strange behavior until that behavior crosses the line and he actually DOES something dangerous to himself or others. That’s the law. We don’t lock people up pre-emptively. It’s the price we pay for a free society.

Yup, that's correct. We need to be careful about how we go about this. My hope is that we can show that this case, as with Loughner before, shows just how impotent and worthless the psychiatric profession is and that we can use that knowledge to push back their increasing influence over our kids and our lives.

[Jedidah]

I was not, for one moment, arguing against the worth of psychiatric medicine.

I speak as one who has dealt with these issues for three close relatives, two of whom have had multiple hospitalizations for mental illness. I KNOW how hard it is to get treatment and how hard it is on families and friends who are essentially powerless to help someone who doesn’t want help.

Medical treatment, particularly targeted medication, can bring a patient back to reality and a good life. To use your word, psychiatric treatment is impotent only when it is not used.