Spikeyness in the mental health profession ---

Val's Take:  I met Daniel Boorstin in the early 1980s in Washington D.C. when he was Librarian of Congress and I was a Ewing Fellow from the University of Oklahoma (Boorstin was born in Oklahoma).

I didn't know anything about him at that time --- but he is a mental association that I have had --- and I've learned more about him and his books.  He actually had done some work on the history of the Legal Profession in the US.

I talked with Boorstin and his wife for some time around the pool about what I wanted to do -- be a lawyer -- the nature of time -- etc.  ---- I think he concluded pretty quickly that I was not well suited for the current legal profession I would be walking into and advised I should be a philosopher.

I became a lawyer anyway --- and it has made me the philosopher I am today.

Back in the early 1980s --- "The Future Was So Bright I Had To Wear Shades" ----- I had no idea what awaited me.  I would not wish it on my worst enemy.

It is sometimes said of Neuro-Diverse people that we are "Spiky" --- we have big strengths and big weaknesses.  The same could be said of the Mental Health Profession.

​CNN
Holmes Had A Psychiatrist Before the Attack (2012)

​CountyOffice.org
What Is The Daubert Standard For Expert Testimony? (2025)

​9 News
How a Colorado murderer bounced from 2 hospitals and a jail cell before the crime (2022)

​"A day after a Boulder County judge released Brian Murray on a PR bond, he went to the Denver home of a man he knew, looking for money – and killed him.

"Stu Hoebel's wife found him beaten to death in his basement.

"It's a case study in how the US health care and criminal justice systems continue to have cracks wide enough for someone like Brian Murray to fall through."

​Denver Post
Colorado murder victim’s husband sues hospital, says staff should have recognized suspect’s mental illness (2025)