Professor Sun Dongdong’s (孙东东) Comments on Mental Illness Draw Ire in China (Updated with Videos)
Peking University Professor Sun Dongdong’s (孙东东) comments that 99% of China’s petitioners are mentally ill have drawn criticism. From Sky Canaves of the Wall Street Journal’s China Journal:
Sun Dongdong, head of the university’s forensics department, told China Newsweek magazine (no relation to the American publication) that he thinks at least 99% of China’s petitioners are mentally ill, even if the vast majority of them do not show symptoms. He also expressed support for the forced hospitalizations of mentally ill petitioners.
“When [a petitioner] insists on his particular point of view, that point of view is a symptom of paranoia,” he said, according to the report (in Chinese).
“Hospitalization of [a mentally ill person] is the greatest safeguard,” he said. “He’s a danger to society and also a danger to himself. We must bring such a person in for treatment and speed up his mental recovery. In this way his human rights will be protected.”
Sun’s comments have found little popular support in China, instead sparking another outcry.
Update 4/6/2009:
Since making those comments, Sun has submitted an apology. Part of the written apology, as posted on Sina:
Some of the content [of what I said in the magazine] was inappropriate, and brought forth controversy and misunderstandings. I deeply regret this. If some of the content hurt some people’s feelings, then I wish to extend my deepest apologies. I also truly hope that they [petitioners] would be able to go through legal channels to solve their issues.
其中一些内容因我语言表述不当，引起一些争议和误解，对此深表遗憾。如果因这些内容伤害了一些人的感情，在此我诚恳地向他们致以深深的歉意。也衷心的希望他们能够通过法定程序解决自己的问题。
[This was originally posted on April 4, 2009.]
Update 2: 4/7/2009 From SCMP (pay site), “Petitioners Decry ‘99pc Mentally Ill’ Remark”:
Hundreds of mainland petitioners have condemned public claims by a prominent Beijing psychiatrist that “99 per cent of professional petitioners are mentally ill” and demanded he apologise for the remarks.
By late yesterday, 332 people nationwide, mostly petitioners and some former “patients” of the mainland mental-hospital system, had signed an open letter prepared by mainland-based Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch.
The letter described the comments by Peking University professor Sun Dongdong as shocking and irresponsible coming from a mental-health professional.
Protesters met at Peking University’s west gate today to protest Sun’s remarks. Below are photos and YouTube clips of protesters and police from Boxun:
POSTED COMMENTS: 11 Responses
At least 1% is sane, that’s more than the government goons.
If the definition of insanity is to continue the same behavior but after repeatedly getting nowhere still to expect a different result, then perhaps they are crazy to continue their petitions to the PRC government to redress wrongs.
i’ll wager that the diagnosis is “sluggish schizophrenia,” which was the same given to dissidents in the former ussr & not recognised by any practitioners in the free world
It seems it is Professor Sun
Who is the schizophrenic one
For now his mind has changed, it seems,
Tomorrow what will be his dreams?
Those who stray from off the path
They really make him want to laugh
If they can’t mend their ways, he says
In hospital they’ll spend their days
But hospitals are hard to find
And to pay for, but never mind
For our Prof Sun is like Lei Feng
He’ll pay for their treatment to be done
beida is already a decaded degraded lackey of the communist party.
asylum is used by the fascist as a best way to clean the troublesome petitioners. The communist party is fascist.what could you expect from them.
Excerpt from South China Morning Post, April 9, 2009
Petition drive to strip professor of licence –
Wan Yanhai – founder of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute, which specialises in non-profit social work – said he had filed a request with the Ministry of Health and Beijing’s Health Bureau on Sunday to bar Professor Sun from practising psychiatry and dismiss him from the drafting committee for China’s Mental Health Law, which is expected to be implemented this year.
“Sun’s remarks have violated the rule and the code of ethics of professional medical practitioners … and have ruined the reputation of psychiatrists and health authorities,” Mr Wan said.
Professor Sun was quoted in the March 23 edition of China Newsweek as saying that 99 per cent of “professional” petitioners were mentally ill. He suggested petitioners should be sent to mental hospitals for compulsory treatment to prevent them from disrupting social order.
Mr Wan’s petition was posted on some blogs and major forums such as netease.com yesterday, even though the Internet Monitoring Centre had issued a notice asking webmasters to delete any call to action relating to Professor Sun’s comments, a source said.
Mr Wan said he had not had any reply from health authorities but was considering a second petition.
“I will ask health authorities to draw up standards for psychiatrists in order to prohibit them from abusing psychiatry to hurt others, especially petitioners, political dissidents and religious people,” he said.
“I will also call on them to investigate the situation in China – how psychiatry is being abused and how many people have been hurt.”
But a Ministry of Health spokesman said yesterday that he was not aware of Mr Wan’s request.
Mr Wan said he also sent a letter to Professor Sun. The professor apologised earlier this week, saying he “felt deeply sorry for improper expressions that had sparked controversy and misunderstanding”.
Mr Wan said: “[In the letter] I asked Professor Sun what on earth his standpoint was and how we could possibly have misunderstood him.”
Various campaigns have been organised by outraged petitioners in response to Professor Sun’s remarks.
Nearly 300 petitioners gathered around Peking University’s gates for hours on Monday and Tuesday.
Mr Su himself strongly emphasizing a point of view without any statistical back up, he must be mentally ill and really dangerous to well being of general public, he needs to visit PLA hospital and mentally treated!
[...] his mental recovery. In this way his human rights will be protected” (China Digital Times oppure http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/04/sun-dongdong-comments-on-mental-illness-draw-ire-in-china/). In Cina I dissidenti vengono spesso internati forzatamente in ospedali psichiatrici (Fonte [...]
[...] teachers are always going to be guarded, self-censorship will always lurk, and there will always be panderers to the Party line. So if Chinese officials are wondering how to push Beida and Qinghua up into the top ten of global [...]