After this, Butch was transferred on an emergency basis to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric evaluation. But one also sensed an overwhelming loneliness and a great need to be loved and have someone to love. At the time, American psychiatrists tended to overuse the diagnosis of schizophrenia, assigning it to almost anyone who was hallucinating or hearing voices, as Butch said he was. It was not yet recognized that young people with Butch's symptoms might be suffering from some other disorder, such as manic depression. But the Bellevue doctors had also taken a bold stand, considering the way Butch and other members of his family would be treated in the following years.
Psychiatrists are often reluctant to deal with violent children.
They are dangerous, not very likable, and they are considered hard, if not impossible, to treat. It is easier to find that they have no emotional disorder and send them into the juvenile justice system, to a reformatory instead of a mental hospital. Now, because Bellevue diagnosed Butch as schizophrenic, he was transferred to Rockland State Hospital, ninety-five miles northwest of Manhattan. He arrived there on Christmas Eve. He was in good contact, cooperative, however, he was rather hostile and on his defensive.