Again, I do not think she is the picture of mental health. (I don't think very many celebrities are, but child stars like Britney often end up extra unstable.) I even think she could benefit from guidance. I don't think her particular family is a good entity to provide such guidance, to put it mildly. And I also don't think that crazy people should involuntarily lose their autonomy, unless they're homicidal or headed in that direction.
I object to the state interfering with people's independence to this degree. Being crazy and squandering one's fortune is legal, even if it's ill-advised, so courts should stay the hell out of it. Yes, there are some special cases where I reluctantly agree that conservatorships can be good things (as I mentioned earlier, I'll cautiously offer that I think Amanda Bynes may constitute one such example). But these should be under constant review, and weird, shady, abusive family **** should NEVER be enabled by the arrangements in the way that it clearly has been with Spears.
People seem to think that the central question here is, "Is Britney Spears sane?" I don't think that's the question at all. I barely even think it's relevant. The question is, "Should the state really be able to do this to someone lucid, whether they struggle with mental illness or not?" Britney is not demented, obviously - that is just absurd. So something stinks with this conservatorship, and possibly the whole concept of conservatorships by extension (as other examples of abuses have shown).
That is the point. I don't see Britney pulling it all the way together in this lifetime, no matter what the judges decide with regard to her fate. She never really had a chance. I'd like to be wrong, of course. But she's had a pretty messed-up road for quite a long time, and as others here have pointed out, she never really had "normal" experiences at any point. This debate isn't just about her, though. She is a face for it - an extreme example, and therefore, a good place to start.