Australian doctor assessing Sri Lanka patient

| by GajalakshmiParamasivam

( September 06, 2012, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I read with surprise, Dr. Brian Senewiratne’s analysis of Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary’s mental health in Sri Lanka Guardian’s article ‘Gota: A possible psychiatric disorder'. An analysis of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’ I am very sensitive to such labeling, due to my own painful experience here in Australia where I was labeled a mentally ill person when I was in prison for Peaceful Assembly at the University of New South Wales. This was made worse when relatives of mine when sued by me through Due Process, chose to use that report, in their attempts to have me banned as per their claim that I was a vexatious litigant. The Government did it and they followed the government. To me that was delusional action in the Court of Natural Justice.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Dr. Senewiratne writes in the above article ‘In a dvd I am just recording of a talk I gave in New York, Sydney and several other places in Australia, “Mental Disorders as seen by a Physician in Internal (General) Medicine”, I have set out the dangers and the traps. I have stressed that patients who seem, at first blush, to have a mental illness, must first be checked by a Physician, if serious problems are to be avoided.’

Dr. Senewiratne is an Australian and claims to fight for self governance for Tamils of Sri Lanka. I am an Australian Tamil and I went to prison due to my fight for Racial Equality. Yet, Dr. Senewiratne did not write to our Australian/New South Wales Government recommending that I ought to have been checked first by a Physician before being treated for mental illness through this ‘project.’ The specialist who assessed me wrote:

“I note that as a result of her assessment provided by Dr. Conor O’Neil on 6 June she was sent on a Section 31A of the Mental Health (Criminal Procedures) Act 1990 to the psychiatric unit at Caritas Hospital where she was found to be mentally ill and to be suffering from a paranoid psychotic disorder. However the assessing doctor at the time did not deem it necessary to keep her in hospital on the basis that her condition was likely to be prolonged and difficult to treat. Mrs. Paramasivam has a paranoid psychosis. This condition has been present for several years and is characterized delusions of grandiosity, passivity and persecution and probable visual and auditory hallucinations, In addition she has prominent obsessional traits in her personality with a tendency to be quite moralistic, rigid and somewhat inflexible in her manner in relating to the world. There is no indication that she has a drug and alcohol problem or that she is developmentally disabled.”

In parallel, Dr. Senewiratne says about the condition of the Defence Secretary ‘One thing is certain: the Defence Secretary has delusions of grandeur. ………A psychosis is a disturbance in the perception of reality as evidenced by hallucinations, delusions and thought disorder. Psychotic states have a high incidence of agitation, aggression in particular, and other behavioural dysfunction. ……..Paranoid Personality Disorder is suspicion and paranoia. For example, the Tamil Tigers are re-grouping and ready to pounce. Hence the “need” to double the Armed Forces from170,000 during the war to 230,000 now, with a request for 300,000 to ‘defend’ the country from an imaginary enemy, internal and external. The external ones being the expatriate Tamils and the likes of myself.’

Various sections of the Australian Government and the President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission engaged with me over many policy issues since the above report. That in itself is a serious demotion of the standards of our Medical and Legal Professions. I have since then assisted many other victims (including of Sri Lankan Tamil origin) successfully establish their claims in relation to workplace issues.

When the mental condition of a person is separated for a particular purpose – on project basis – one would come up with all the wrong answers. Mind is an ongoing program. The mind of the reader is very much connected to the mind of the person being read. The stronger person could influence the mind of the other and this ‘other’ could be the doctor!

I have written in my book in relation to this ‘The information to memory cells happens from the ‘outside’ as well as ‘inside’. The outside information is registered through my five senses by Seeing, Hearing, Touching, Tasting and Smelling. These are the five doors through which my body receives messages/information from the outside. With no processing at all – this to me is what is referred to as hearsay. When combined together – to form one picture – it is a fact. When my whole being feels the experience – it represents my belief.

Then there is information from the inside. Through my direct experience I register information / judgments in my own memory. This information in my case is usually not ‘raw’ data as registered through the body senses. It is a combination of a feeling (without form) and information previously received from the outside – the net results being registered as processed information in my memory. To me, when this net result that we have registered from the inside is based on hearsay and is therefore without our own work and/or sacrifice based Truth, it is simple addition and subtraction to give majority and it has no value in a different environment. Hence we have Common Principles and Values; Laws and Judgments, through which we could regulate and carry forward the essence of our experiences in one environment, to another. To me, I am a successful migrant from Sri Lanka / India to Australia / Britain – because I carried the essence of my work / judgments through self assessment – using Common Principles of Sri Lanka / India. I did not carry the raw data as unsuccessful migrants tend to do.’

The psychologist wrote also about my ‘attitudes’:

‘Up until she was charged with the current offences Mrs. Paramasivam had no prior contact with any psychiatric services. As a requirement of her bail she has attended the Maroubra Community Health Centre where she was assessed by Dr. Tissa, a psychiatric registrar who is of Sri Lankan nationality. She said that he had recommended that she take Risperidone, an atypical anti-psychotic. She does not believe that she needs medication and has not taken any. She said she was prepared to keep seeing Dr. Tissa because she did not want to disrespect the Court order.’

Dr. Tissa was in training and when he spoke to me and me alone – he said he saw nothing wrong with me. But when his supervisor came over – he changed and wrote as per her expectations. To my mind this could be happening to Dr. Senewiratne too.

To me Dr. Senewiratne needs to ensure that only the essence of his ‘Australian’ experience is carried through to current Sri Lanka – in assessing Sri Lankan leaders. Sri Lankan psychiatrists have the first right to assess the Defence Secretary’s state of mind. They are the Defence Secretary’s first medical relatives and not Dr. Senewiratne. Just because we are Australians (and part of a country carrying heavy burdens of misjudging those of Sri Lankan origin) we do not have the right to discard due protocols. Tamils have a duty of care to preserve the ethical values that our medical ancestors have invested in. TGTE needs to ensure that this is carried forward and is not left on the wayside in its haste to ‘show’ independence.