The author uses the emergence of an image on a photographic negative as a metaphor for the process by which the United States Supreme Court fills in pieces of the picture of mental health law. The author examines the many components of this picture: the extent of the civil and constitutional rights owed mentally disabled individuals facing the involuntary commitment process; the rights owed such persons during institutionalization; the rights owed upon release from psychiatric facilities; the rights owed such persons when they are awaiting trial in jail or following sentence to penal facilities; the impact that mental disability has on the criminal trial process; the limits of legal regulation of mental health providers; the ways that courts assess privilege and/or subordinate mental health professional expertise during the trial process; the constitutional limitations on incompetency to stand trial and insanity defense proceedings; the role of mental disability in capital punishment decision making. Footnotes