If we look at extreme cases carefully, we can see that the signs can be quite plain sometimes, but that those close to the person lack the nerve to consult law enforcement or medical professionals, but other times the mentally ill person can conceal the true breadth of her disease even from those who live with her.

My point is more that mental health and mental illness are open to quite a bit of interpretation in the diagnostic area.

We still have a criminal justice system that requires a crime to be committed before a person can be arrested. Likewise, our civil justice system requires that involuntary hospitalization or medical treatment must be accompanied by considerable evidence that the person is a danger to himself or others. While my family's experience with this part of the system has produced a good amount of frustration and anxiety, because someone who's crazy can also be smart as hell, still I wouldn't want people to be imprisoned in hospitals based on flimsy hearsay and inconvenient temperament.

Who watches the watchmen? Where's the line? Don't forget, in the later days of the Soviet Union, after the gulags were exposed, political dissidents were diagnosed as mentally ill so they could be kept confined in hospitals.