« Psychiatrist discusses Alzheimer's treatment | Main | Psychoanalysts Look at Films at the Baltimore Museum of Art »

December 05, 2007

U.S. Army outlines criminal case against reservist recovering from suicide attempt

On its front page, the Washington Post (12/2, A1, Priest, Hull) reported that despite the U.S. Army's "highly publicized effort to improve treatment of Iraq veterans and change a culture that stigmatizes mental illness," the military still often relies "on the judgment of combat-hardened commanders whose understanding of mental illness is vague or misinformed."

Last week in a preliminary hearing, Army prosecutors outlined a "criminal case" against 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside, a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed, charging the Army reservist with "attempting suicide and endangering the life of another soldier while serving in Iraq." Although "[m]ilitary psychiatrists at Walter Reed who examined Whiteside after she recovered" from a "self-inflicted gunshot wound diagnosed her with a severe mental disorder, possibly triggered by the stresses of a war zone," her "superiors considered her mental illness 'an excuse' for criminal conduct, according to documents" obtained by the newspaper.

Should she be tried and convicted, Whiteside "faces the possibility of life in prison." Under current "military law, soldiers who attempt suicide can be prosecuted under the theory that it affects the order and discipline of a unit, and brings discredit to the armed forces."

Posted by admin at December 5, 2007 04:37 PM