Radical Psychiatry Flashcards
What view does it take of the family?
A critical view, particularly of the nuclear family
What are the 3 important radical psychiatrists
Leach, Laing and Cooper
What does Leach argue?
Argues the nuclear family is too isolated and lacks the support of the extended family. This puts too much pressure on the parents who lack emotional support and often take out their anger and frustration on each other and their children.
What does Laing argue?
Argues that the family can cause mental illness such as stress, depression and anxiety because parents and children spend too much time with each other. Parents expect too much of their children and the children feel suffocated. Laing wrote about a girl called Jane who became schizophrenic and thought she was a tennis ball because she was bounced between her parents emotionally.
What does Cooper argue?
Takes a more Marxist approach to the family and focuses on how children are treated. He argues parents teach children to be obedient, so when they go to work they are easily controlled. Parents make children aim at getting ‘respectable’ jobs, and any dreams are stamped upon. Parents are like the capitalists/bosses and the children become the proletariat/workers.
How is Leach criticised?
Ignores the contacts that are maintained between the nuclear and extended family.
How is Laing criticised?
Over states the link between mental illness and the family.
How is Cooper criticised?
Too critical of the relationship between most parents and their children.
How would functionalists criticise them?
For ignoring the positive aspects of family life.
