The Cruelty We Mistake for Compassion

Original Pub: Psychology Today
Publish Date: May 14, 2026
Author: Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman (Reviewed by Michelle Quirk for Psychology Today)

Mental Health Awareness Month arrives every May with familiar appeals: reduce stigma, raise awareness, speak openly, show compassion. But awareness is not treatment. And compassion means little when people with untreated severe mental illness are left to sleep on sidewalks, cycle through emergency rooms, languish in jails, or die prematurely from neglect, exposure, suicide, addiction, and preventable disease.

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