The WHO Draft Manual on Mental Health Legislation

From the Editor: Dr. Levav chides me for failing "to fully investigate the facts" in Dr. Stone's Taking Issue. First, I don't think editors are investigators; they make decisions on submissions based on the reviews of peers when peer review is a requirement, but they also invite or accept all sorts of material for editorial or news sections that is not peer reviewed.

Taking Issue has been a unique feature of this journal since January 1986. It was begun at the suggestion of a distinguished psychiatrist, Harold Visotsky, an internationalist who was active in the WPA and who felt that there needed to be a forum for ideas that were not mainstream—what we now label "not politically correct." Indeed, the first Taking Issue, by Ezra Griffith, M.D., another distinguished psychiatrist and internationalist, was entitled "Blacks and American Psychiatry" and held nothing back. Right below Dr. Griffith's contribution is the following statement: "This is the first in a series of commentaries presenting provocative viewpoints intended to stimulate discussion and debate."

Over the years we have published a good number of pieces that have gotten under some readers' skin. I regret that Dr. Levav feels that Dr. Stone went too far, but the purpose of Taking Issue will remain unchanged, and the editor will leave investigating to those so credentialed.