Repressive Psychiatry Flashcards
What dissidents were sent to psychiatric institutions?
Which groups in particular were targeted?
Why?
lesser known dissidents
Protestant Christians + Jehovah’s Witnesses
small + considered heretics by Russian Orthodox Christians
How was this justified?
govt argued that ‘anti-Soviet behaviour = a sign o ‘paranoid reformist delusion’ - a mental disorder
Why was this used as a was to control dissidents?
less likely to attract world media attention
psychiatric records = private
treatment could continue indefinitely
could be prescribed medication that kept them quiet
Did the West find out that dissidents were being controlled in this way?
Rumours about this reached the West in the early 1970s
What did the US do when rumours reached them about repressive psychiatry?
What happened?
a delegation of US psychiatrists visited the Soviet Union to inspect hospitals
Andrei Snezhnevsky, President of the Association of Soviet Psychiatrists, persuaded them that Soviet psychiatry was serving its patients well
