Shed Light on Psychiatric Woes
USA Today
August 5, 2001
by Alen J. Salerian, MD
In the months since Robert Hanssen’s February arrest for spying, there’s been plenty of second-guessing and finger-pointing, most directed at either the FBI, which failed to identify him as a security risk, or at the priest who chose not to divulge a confession the former FBI agent made betraying his country.
But it would be wrong to suggest that only the right priest or good FBI psychiatric oversight could have helped thwart Hanssen’s criminal behavior. A third institution also failed by perpetuating the myth that discussing psychiatric disorders is somehow shameful: the mental health community itself.
I refuse to buy into that myth. So after I was hired in April by Hanssen to do a psychiatric evaluation for his defense, I shared with Bonnie Hanssen how her husband’s suffering from childhood demons and psychological wounds caused his treachery. For this, I was fired by Hanssen’s lawyer Plato Cacheris in May. When I explained in a BBC interview that Hanssen was a wounded soul, I was criticized harshly by some in the psychiatric community for what they felt was a breach of confidentiality, even though I never revealed Hanssen’s diagnosis or specific details of his past.
Privacy impeded truth and treatment. The same was true of the other institutions that shielded Hanssen:
* The church: The church’s failure to counsel Hanssen to seek psychiatric help compromised our national security.
I based that assessment on 30 hours I spent with Hanssen in a tiny prison cell, plus a significant amount of time spent with his family. In 1979, Hanssen confided to his priest that he had sold national secrets to the Russians. The priest counseled him to send the KGB’s money to Mother Theresa and to pray more fervently. And he prayed. But while prayer heals many ills, his medical condition also required psychiatric treatment that he should have been told to get.
* The FBI: The agency also failed Hanssen because it had no reasonable, organized method to oversee the mental health of its agents.
The FBI, like the church, played a critical role in Hanssen’s life for decades. Like the church, it has hallowed traditions demanding self-discipline and loyalty. Unfortunately, it also was like the church in that it neglected Hanssen’s psychiatric disorders.
* The mental health profession: Its willingness to maintain a professional silence underscores something alarming about our society’s view of psychiatric disorders. One would not think that psychiatrists and psychologists are prejudiced against the people they treat. But thousands of mental-health experts practice as if helping someone with a psychological problem is something to be ashamed of and disguised at all costs. It doesn’t matter that more than 30,000 people in this country commit suicide each year and that so many Americans suffer from diagnostically provable psychiatric disorders.
My colleagues will protest my accusation, probably using the familiar argument of the sanctity of confidentiality as the reason for secrecy. But doctors and health-care workers are not so diligent about hiding other problems people seek treatment for, especially if those problems explain unusual behavior. Would they be so secretive, for instance, if a FBI agent’s aberrant actions were caused by brain cancer?
The biases against psychiatric disorders and mental illnesses will only go away if we confront them. So far, no one is brave enough to go up against them — not the church, not the FBI, not even the mental health profession itself.
Despite the negative attention my work with Hanssen brought me, my convictions have only been strengthened. More than ever, I believe all clergy should be trained to recognize psychiatric disorders and to refer anyone they’re counseling to experts when appropriate. I also believe the FBI should begin a program to monitor all agents’ psychiatric stability on a regular basis. And the mental-health profession must confront its own prevailing prejudice.
But most critically, we all need to understand and accept the truth: Psychiatric disorders are common and treatable — and nothing to hide.