Alexander The Great

Alexander, unidentified street in the LA Garment District. Alexander is a homeless man living within the LA area suffering from one or more mental illnesses. Alexander asked me what I was photographing, and we got to talking. I silently gathered that he was a victim of deinstitutionalization and suffered from some sort of mental illness. He was very friendly and polite but insisted that people (me included) wear their shirts inside-out for the sake of protection. I didn't stick around long enough to find out from what but bid him goodbye and walked away from one of the most well-mannered and interesting strangers I have yet to meet.

During the Reagan administration, advances in antipsychotic medications and psychotherapy led to a a government-sponsored movement called deinstitutionalization. Deinstitutionalization was intended to allow for better and more affordable mental care for patients outside traditional large centralized hospitals. It succeeded in that it negated the need for archaic and costly state-run sanatoriums but however, failed in its treatment of psychopathology by dismissing patients with serious needs onto the streets just like Alex.