Not Far Enough

I saw this on The Writer's Almanac:

It's the birthday of one of the founders of psychiatry, Philippe Pinel, born in Saint-Andre, France (1745). He studied mathematics, theology, and internal medicine before becoming the chief physician at a Paris insane asylum in 1792. Before Pinel arrived, conditions at the asylum were horrible: Among other things, patients were chained to the walls, and people could pay a fee to come in and watch them.

and I sent it to my psychiatrist friend. He wrote back: in some places, people paid money to poke the patients with long sticks.

Holy smokes. What scares me is that we are not far enough away from this now. Understanding of and compassion for mental illness are not part of the national dialogue as much as I wish it were. Perhaps compassion is still too subtle to stand up to the heat of anger. I know that as soon as I am angry my compassion flies out the window. Yet the understanding is better than it used to be. We have more awareness about mental illness and its relationship to domestic abuse, sexual abuse, animal abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, and violence. So perhaps attitudes are changing , slowly.

In their immaturity people want, at the same time, peace and the things which make war.
-Peace Pilgrim