An early scene from this Tuesday's premier of the new Fox series "Mental" (9-10 p.m. ET), a drama about a psychiatric ward in a fictional Los Angeles hospital, is representative of the larger problems that plague this ill-conceived show.

While the administrators and doctors at Wharton Memorial Hospital eagerly await their new director of psychiatric services, a wild-eyed patient (looking very much like a danger to himself and others) arrives with a police escort. Through the miracle of modern television, the viewing audience is treated to a look at the hospital as it appears to this tormented soul: As a police officer explains that they found him "stark naked, no ID, screaming his freakin' head off in the middle of the highway," a reptilian tail unfolds from beneath a doctor's smock; the eyes of workers and cops turn red, sinister, serpent-like; and a forked tongue slithers from a young girl's mouth.

Before you can say lithium this clearly delusional patient is tearing at his clothes, naked once more, menacing the hospital staff with a metal chair. "Look! Flesh! Human flesh!" he cries, obviously convinced he's surrounded by demonic, alien beings disguised as fellow human beings. "You'll never make me like you! . . . You can't have me!" he shouts. The cops draw their guns. Events are spiraling out of control.

What to do? Enter a handsome and terribly fit young man-think Harvey Keitel in his prime-who calmly begins to undress. Naked now, the man yells, "Hey! I'm real, too!" and approaches the patient. "Flesh! Human flesh!" he shouts, pounding his chest. "You're not alone!" We quickly learn, of course, that this man's not really delusional. No surprise here, he's the hospital's new daring and unconventional (but oh so attractive) head of psychiatric services, Dr. Jack Gallagher, played by London-born actor Chris Vance.

What better way to introduce the star of our show than have him disrobe while simultaneously defusing a volatile situation and "earning the trust" of a delusional patient? We're not only given a glimpse of the dashing Dr. Gallagher's brilliance, we're also given a sneak peak of his fabulous body, which the female staff at Wharton Memorial can't stop talking about (there's even video of his psychiatric striptease making the rounds on the "hospital Internet").

The only problem with all this is that it's highly improbable, not to mention smug and ignorant. Play acting in someone else's delusion may sound like a good idea to the writers of "Mental" (the name itself reveals the triteness with which the subject matter is handled), but few psychiatric professionals would encourage or condone such an approach, especially for a patient in a florid state of psychosis. To top things off, Dr. Gallagher-while still naked-cavalierly orders another doctor to "scratch the Haldol," the patient's antipsychotic medication.

This, however, is just the beginning of Dr. Gallagher's merry romp through this patient's life. In the course of the episode, he refuses to release the patient to the sister who has power of attorney for this longtime schizophrenic sufferer. Searching for clues to the patient's mental state, he breaks into the sister's house, where the patient has lived for years, and discovers he's an artist. The patient's name? Vincent. As in Vincent van Gogh. Ugh.

In an effort to restore Vincent's "crippled" creativity, Dr. Gallagher washes all the medications from his system. "Let's get rid of the old chemistry and figure out how sick he really is," he tells his staff. When they ask what his course of treatment will be, he replies: "Megavitamins, neuro-feedback, acupuncture, homeopathic remedies, juggling tomatoes-whatever works."

Eventually, of course, Dr. Gallagher has a miraculous breakthrough with Vincent. After washing the drugs from his system, he brings him an artist's sketchbook, charcoals and other art supplies. They stay up all night together as Vincent rediscovers his passion for his art and somehow finds peace without all those nasty medications. The next morning Dr. Gallagher sends him home with his sister and her two kids. Just before he's released, a calm and clear-eyed Vincent expresses his concern hat he might "lose control again." To which Dr. Gallagher replies, "It's possible, but it's gotta be worth a chance, though, right?"

One way to understand this is to see it as antipsychiatry propaganda disguised as a drama about psychiatry. Yes, Dr. Gallagher says that Vincent may need a "new drug cocktail" in the future, but the nod to the arguments of Dr. Thomas Szasz and other pseudo-libertarian acolytes of "Mental Illness as Myth" (Dr. Szasz's 1960 manifesto) is apparent. Dr. Szasz does not see mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or chronic depression as illnesses at all. Rather, he argues that "mental illness" is simply a "metaphor for disapproved thoughts, feelings, and behaviors" and that the primary function of psychiatry is "to control thought, mood, and behavior" much like Big Brother in Orwell's "1984."

One can easily imagine the iconoclastic Dr. Gallagher echoing Dr. Szaszs's most famous-and perhaps most misguided-line of thinking: "If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia."

There are, thankfully, other characters in "Mental" who don't agree with Dr. Gallagher's radical approach to psychiatry. When he suggests alternative approaches to treating Vincent, the no-nonsense Dr. Veronica Hayden-Jones (Jacqueline McKenzie) replies in disbelief, "You can't treat schizophrenia with aromatherapy." Here's hoping characters like Dr. Hayden-Jones have a lot more lines in coming episodes.

-Mr. Judge is a freelance journalist.

Hmmmm.....does not sound good as far as educating the public though it may be entertaining?