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Democrat Judge Orders Psych Counseling for D’Souza

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At a hearing Monday in Manhattan in which he ruled filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza must continue community service for four more years, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman said he considers D’Souza’s violation of federal campaign-finance laws to be evidence of a psychological problem and ordered further counseling.

D’Souza’s defense counsel Benjamin Brafman provided evidence to the court that the psychiatrist D’Souza was ordered to see found no indication of depression or reason for medication. In addition, the psychologist D’Souza subsequently consulted provided a written statement concluding there was no need to continue the consultation, because D’Souza was psychologically normal and well adjusted.

But Judge Berman, who was appointed by Bill Clinton, disagreed, effectively overruling the judgment of the two licensed psychological counselors the U.S. probation department had approved as part of D’Souza’s criminal sentence.

“I only insisted on psychological counseling as part of Mr. D’Souza’s sentence because I wanted to be helpful,” the judge explained. “I am requiring Mr. D’Souza to see a new psychological counselor and to continue the weekly psychological consultation not as part of his punishment or to be retributive.

D’Souza has become known for his two popular films critical of President Obama. “2016: Obama’s America” was released during the 2012 presidential campaign and “America: Imagine the World Without Her” came out in July 2014, ahead of the midterm elections. (Read more from “Dem Judge Orders Psych Counseling for D’Souza” HERE)

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Facebook Causes ‘Psychotic Episodes and Delusions’, Claims Study

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Photo Credit: Mike KempFacebook and other social networking sites can actually send you mad, according to scientists in Israel.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have linked psychotic episodes in patients to internet addiction and delusions caused by virtual relationships cultivated on social networking sites.

Although all the participants had underlying problems of loneliness, none had any history of psychosis or drug abuse, the team say.

Lead researcher Doctor Uri Nitzan of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Shalvata Mental Health Care Centre said: ‘As internet access becomes increasingly widespread, so do related psychopathologies.

‘Computer communications such as Facebook and chat groups are an important part of this story.’

Read more from this story HERE.

American Psychiatry in Shambles: Two More Children Killed

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Thursday night, Marina Krim, a mother on the Upper West Side of Manhattan opened the door to her apartment to find her two children dead. They had been stabbed to death allegedly by their nanny Yoselyn Ortega, who then slit her wrists in an apparent failed suicide attempt.

This horrific act of violence, like so many seemingly inexplicable ones, will likely turn out to have roots in unrecognized and, perhaps, untreated mental illness. While the Krim children did not die in a movie theatre showing of Batman at the hands of a man dressed like the Joker, they died at the hands of someone who must have been battling demons no less dark and no less commanding.

If we learn the truth about Yoselyn Ortega, it is possible we may learn that she could have been showing signs of a mental disorder and sharing them—either with a clinician or with others around her, in the days or weeks before this tragedy.

I have said this before, but will keep saying it on every occasion it fits: The mental health care system in America is in shambles. It barely even exists. That’s how bad it is. It leaves very, very ill people under-treated and many not treated at all. The system makes almost no attempt to educate the public about signs and symptoms of the most severe psychiatric conditions, as though such conditions still embarrass us or still define those suffering them as weak or depraved.

Read more from this story HERE.