Man found innocent by reason of insanity in 6 killings to get more freedom to leave hospital

Modesto Bee ^ | 1/8/03 | Kevin O'Hanlon

[hoosierskypilot]

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A deal has been struck to give a man found innocent by reason of insanity in the slaying of six neighbors more freedom to leave the mental hospital where he has lived for 24 years.

Prosecutors agreed to a plan to make it easier for Erwin Charles Simants to occasionally take supervised trips outside the Lincoln Regional Center, Lincoln County Public Defender Bob Lindemeier said Tuesday.

[hoosierskypilot]

Time to expose psychiatric profession for what it is: useless. You've got a better chance (statistically) of recovering on your own than to consult most secular psychiatrists.

[Commander8]

This is in Nebraska, smack dab in America's Midwest. I thought California was looney.

[twigs]

That's really not true. A good psychiatrist is worth their weight in gold. However, there are a lot of frauds out there. Anyone needing help should be very careful who they choose to help them.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I would not be so quick to assume the medical profession is wrong about this. Sometimes the thing that turns a raging psychosis that makes life like one continuous acid trip into a clear head, is one little pill a day. Before Thorazine and similar drugs were discovered, there were a lot more straitjackets used in mental hospitals... there's a good reason for that.

Now if they are proposing to let him go unsupervised that's another story.

[ClearCase_guy]

Well, if he's insane, it's not his fault. Why should he be punished for something that's not his fault? I guess we're just going to have to let him walk the streets, and we'll have to take our lumps if his future performance mimics his past performance. I really don't see any alternative. (/sarcasm)

[Feckless]

This should be good news to family members of the victims. I imagine it would be very difficult to break into a mental hospital, execute a murder, and get back out.

[Xenalyte]

You've got a better chance (statistically) of recovering on your own than to consult most secular psychiatrists.

I fired my last therapist after I did some figuring and realized that in two years, I'd given her almost $12 grand. I figured that with my upper-middle-class upbringing, there was NO WAY I was that screwed up.

Best day's work I ever did. I could tell 'cause when I called her to tell her I wasn't coming in anymore, she wanted me to "come in to discuss it."

[hoosierskypilot]

I minored in psych in college, but learned enough to learn that "therapists" generally don't know squat. To be a therapist in, say, Indiana, you only have to have a Master's level education. That's not much training in psych.

Statistically, if you have a secular based psychiatrist, your odds of recovery are less than 5%. You have a better chance of recovery on your own.

[hoosierskypilot]

Thing is, in my experience, that one little pill a day becomes too much for the paranoic or schizophrenic personality. They invariably stop taking their meds because they don't like the side effects.

You want an education? Try counseling one of these people, then, after about two or three weeks, have them stop taking their meds. It's like a visit from the Twilight Zone.

[Xenalyte]

I have a master's degree in English lit. Can I be an Indiana therapist?

(Hey, Indiana Therapist would be a great name for a band.)

[Fredgoblu]

It's only a matter of time before we see Hinckley and Manson on the streets again, too.

The charge ought to be changed to read "Guilty, but insane" rather than "Innocent by reason of...".

[HiTech RedNeck]

I heard of one called the New Rottics.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Where there's worries about medication compliance, there are shots that last a week. But I doubt if this fellow is going to be out even overnight. They are probably talking about a few hours, WITH Nurse Ratchet constantly at his side.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Hey, "therapists" = "the" + "rapists"

[hoosierskypilot]

Actually, you might be able to be a licensed family therapist in Indiana with only a Master of English degree. At least that was the case when I still lived there ('91). And people are surprised to hear of incompetence in that field?

[facedown]

bump

[twigs]

My mother worked for a psychiatrist when I was a child and she saw a lot of people helped for many, many years. This woman was an excellent psychiatrist! But both she and my mom heard horror stories from other professionals and from patients. Then I worked for a group of psycologists for a while. Some were good; others were questionable. I just don't think it's fair to say that the profession as a whole "don't know squat."

[hoosierskypilot]

Sorry. Figure of speech. Fact is, if psychiatrist is secular based (viz., man is mere animal), patient has very slim chance of recovery. If God based (e.g., Karl Meninger, Whatever Became of Sin? ), has much better chance.

[twigs]

I agree with your assessment that psychiatry needs to be God-based, although I've known of bad Christian psychologists too. My mom's boss was secular, but understood that man was a spiritual being. I think that if man--and churches--regularly practiced what the Bible teaches--ask forgiveness from God and man when we sin and forgive others, do not go to bed angry, etc--Christians, at least, would have far less need of psychological professionals. I realize that medical disorders display emotion effects. In that case, the person needs a psychiatrist rathen than a psychologist anyway.