February 25, 2001

To the Editor:

Re "China's Crackdown on [group] Stirs Alarm Over Psychiatric Abuse" (front page, Feb. 18):

It is true, as a psychiatrist says in your article, that China has many work camps and prisons in which to incarcerate political dissidents and Falun Gong practitioners. But the Chinese government also strives to demonstrate that ideological and philosophical positions not in accord with Communist Party doctrine stem from irrationality or psychosis. As was the case in the former Soviet Union, the mechanism used to attain this objective is involuntary hospitalization of non-mentally-ill political protesters considered to be "dangerous."

One hopes that the World Psychiatric Association will act expeditiously and forcefully to protest this blatant misuse of psychiatry.

ABRAHAM L. HALPERN, M.D.

Mamaroneck, N.Y., Feb. 18, 2001

The writer is professor emeritus of psychiatry, New York Medical College.