Lecture 2: Antipsychiatry Flashcards
When and where did the antipsychiatry movement begin?
It began in the 60s and 70s in the United States.
In what fields/areas did the antipsychiatry movement arise?
Philosophy, history, but also in broader society.
What was the overall criticism of psychiatry by early proponents of the antipsychiatry movement?
That psychiatry was attempting to control people’s minds and trying to make everyone fit a preconceived mould.
What social movement in the 1960s inspired the rise of antipsychiatry?
And what was this social movement in response to?
And what 5 things did this social movement emphasis?
The flower power movement.
This 1960s movement was a counter-reaction to the 1950s, a conservative era concerned with the nuclear family.
This social movement emphasised:
- civil rights (among African Americans)
- questioning of authority
- music
- drugs
- free love (the pill was introduced in 1964).
Who was the first intellectual to embrace the idea of antipsychiatry?
Thomas S. Szasz
Who was Thomas S. Szasz?
- He was the first intellectual to embrace and propagate the antipsychiatry movement.
- He worked at the University of New York in Syracuse as a psychiatrist.
- He writes fantastically well.
- His famous book was called ‘the myth of mental illness’ - the main message that Szasz embraces.
- He fled Hungary in 1956 when the Soviet Union took over.
- He had a healthy hostility toward any forms of authority and saw that psychiatry had been used for social control.
- He believed the USA was not that different to the Soviet Union.
- He was politically very right wing, said that people are ALWAYS responsible for their behaviour, mental illness or not.
Thomas S. Szasz was painfully aware of the role of psychiatry in the Soviet Union. What was that role?
To control political dissidence. If someone hated communism, they were considered sick/insane.
Many dissidents were put into hospitals and given anti-psychotic drugs.
Thomas S. Szasz believed that there were two ways for psychiatry to “mainstream” people who did not meet social expectations and who disturbed social order.
What were those methods?
- lock people into a mental hospital or asylum.
- or giving them psychotherapy and drugs to conform them.
What are the four main points in Thomas S. Szasz’s book, ‘the myth of mental illness’?
- There is no such thing as mental illness (it is a metaphor).
- Hysteria as a model for all mental illness (patients complain - doctor cannot find anything, it is also an escape of responsibility for the patient, a type of manipulation).
- He would argue that mental illness cannot be defined by symptoms, it is not a disease!
- Psychiatry treatment is a way of enforcing conformity, it is a device for managing deviance.
Who was Michel Foucault?
- A historian and philosopher, a very imaginative man.
- He wrote about the history of psychiatry, not based in a lot of fact but deeply original.
The Age of Enlightenment, is also known as the Age of Reason. Michel Foucault has a different analysis of the Enlightenment, what is it? And how does it relate to psychiatry?
What did he call this process?
- The enlightenment is considered an era where reason triumphed over superstition.
- A time where the middle class grew, along with standards of living and cleanliness.
- Michel Foucault saw the enlightenment as an intolerance toward those who lived unreasonably [men who did not have gainful employment, and women who did not have child-rearing capabilities].
- Those who could not meet the standards of the time were put to work or put in an asylum.
- This [to Foucault], was the beginning of psychiatry.
- He called it the ‘great confinement’.
Who was Ronald D. Laing?
What was he famous for?
- A psychiatrist who was considered a guru, a counter-culture hero.
- Thought everyone is conditioned to behave exactly the right way and THAT is sickness.
- Schizophrenia, on the other hand, is an authentic human experience, a journey of discovery.
- He is famous for the thought that ‘we should leave this prison of modern society behind’, which fit the flower power movement really well.
- Believed that mental hospitals should be different, he opened Kingsley House in London.
- Staff would assist the patients on an authentic journey of discovery (painting, etc.).
What was Ronald D. Laing’s motto?
‘Turn on, tune in, and drop out’
… of this big prison of modern society and you will become authentic.
Who was Thomas Scheff?
What was he famous for?
- An American professor of sociology.
- Famous for introducing ‘labelling theory’.
- Believed that mental illnesses and diagnostic categories are labels like those stuck on people who break the rules.
- Once a label has been applied, it is hard to get rid of it.
- This is done to disempower people.
What are the three components of ‘labelling theory’?
And, how does it relate to psychiatry?
- Labels are attached to individuals who break the rules.
- The individual accepts the label.
- They will then join a sub-culture and be segregated.
Thomas Scheff believed mental illnesses and diagnostic categories are labels like those stuck on people who break the rules.
