PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT OF THE CALIFORNIA FELON
FRANKLIN H. ERNST M.D.1, and
WILLIAM C. KEATING JR. M.D.2
1 Consultant and staff member, Calif. Medical Facility, Vacaville, Calif.
2 Superintendent, Calif. Medical Facility, Vacaville, Calif.
The medical objective in the psychiatric treatment of the incarcerated felon is to cure him of his psychological and social tactics that eventuate in loss of his behavioral options and then loss of control over his social stimuli and responses; or, if you will, the relearning of how to use previously unpracticed social options for initiating or responding to conversations provides the inmate with a measure of social control previously not available to him.
Two of the major advantages the so-called antisocial person gives up on cure are, 1. Playing "cops and robbers" with its attendant gratifications, and 2. The use of "go-directly-to-jail" to solve external or internal life stresses.
