Review – Crazy, Not Insane

In law school I took a class in mental illness and the law, the often-awkward relationship between an often-inexact science and a system that demands precise proof. The fact that there was a whole class on the subject demonstrates the level of complexity and uncertainty involved. The career of Dorothy Otnow Lewis, the subject of this documentary, proves to be a perfect case in point. Lewis advocated for the unnecessarily-revolutionary noting that many violent criminals are mentally ill, often due to physical and mental abuse and trauma from their childhoods. But of course the question of using mental illness as a defense in a criminal prosecution is a tricky business, especially when a controversial diagnosis such as Dissociative Identity Disorder enters the debate. Thus Lewis and her work make an interesting subject. Mildly amusing