Presumed Crazy relates the story of an elderly disabled former fishing guide who was ensnared in his state's civil commitment (court-state hospital - nursing home - guardianship) quagmire, what the author calls the "mental health gulag." Because he had stopped taking a drug that was making him ill, he was placed on a 72 hour hold for so-called "noncompliance" and for using God as a consultant to decide what to do (praying). He was spirited away to a hospital 50 miles away from his home where commitment procedures were improperly carried out. The county probate court dismantled his home, consigned his property, income and bank account to a company acting as a "guardian." They forced him into locked confinement in a state hospital where he experienced psychological abuse, assaulted him with a drug that caused him severe adverse side effects, deprived him of therapy that had been effective in maintaining his physical functioning, and squandered an estimated quarter of a million dollars or more in federal funds on ineffective custodial care that wasn't even needed. There was nary so much as a "Sorry about that" when the commitment was rescinded after a new psychiatrist declared that he did not have an Axis I disorder and therefore did not meet the requirements for compulsory incarceration As a result of his confinement, his physical condition deteriorated and he had to be discharged to a series of nursing homes that provided inadequate care under unsanitary conditions.More than a chronicle of one man's misfortunes, Presumed Crazy is a book about a mental health system that can be arrogant, unjust, incompetent and inhumane in its treatment of those who fall into its clutches. The author indicts laws, lawyers and the courts, psychiatrists and the mental illness industry, drug companies, social service agencies, for-profit nursing homes, and the guardianship "business," all of which plague this entire country and its citizens. The author provides statistics, research evidence, history, personality theory, relevant state, federal and international law, and commentary by people who have been victims of the system as well as experts in the field, within his narrative of the plight of Bill Tollefson, his friend of over six decades who suffered and died in the gulag.
About the Author: Gerald D. Otis was born in Northfield, Minnesota. He graduated from Northfield High School, attended St. Olaf College for two years, worked as a cab driver to save money so that he could graduate from the University of Minnesota in 1961. After completing a clinical internship at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Palo Alto, California he earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Arizona in 1966. Dr. Otis joined the University of New Mexico School of Medicine where he taught classes, maintained a clinical practice, and headed a research team in a longitudinal study of the career decision making process in medical students and physicians, . For 10 years after Dr. Otis left the University, he combined a private practice with the design and construction of sculptural furniture and computer programming. During his years as a psychologist he published results of research on incidental learning, interaction of stress and personality, family psychotherapy, physician career choice, psychological type and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, post-traumatic stress disorder, and trends in violent death. He has received two awards from the Association for Psychological Type and several awards for his efforts at fine woodworking. Following 16 years working for the Veterans Administration in Medford, Oregon, where he specialized in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, Dr. Otis retired from clinical practice and now lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico with his wife Connie. He has authored two books: Joseph Lee Heywood: His Life and Tragic Death and Paroxysm: Love, Murder and Justice in Post Civil War Washington, DC. He has also edited, with his wife, a collection of poems: Words of Grace: The Poetry of Grace McCrea Lindahl.