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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-psychiatry | 13/13 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:08:59.919288+00:00 | kb-cron |
Critics of this view from an anti-psychiatry perspective are quick to point to the industrial aspects of psychiatric treatment itself as a primary causal factor in this situation that is described as "deteriorating". The numbers of people labeled "mentally ill", and in treatment, together with the severity of their conditions, have been going up primarily due to the direct efforts of the mental health movement, and mental health professionals, including psychiatrists, and not their detractors. Envisioning "mental health treatment" as violence prevention has been a big part of the problem, especially as you are dealing with a population that is not significantly more violent than any other group. On 7 October 2016, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto announced that they had established a scholarship for students doing theses in the area of antipsychiatry. Called "The Bonnie Burstow Scholarship in Antipsychiatry", it is to be awarded annually to an OISE thesis student. An unprecedented step, the scholarship should further the cause of freedom of thought and the exchange of ideas in academia. The scholarship is named in honor of Bonnie Burstow, a faculty member at the University of Toronto, a radical feminist, and an antipsychiatry activist. She is also the author of Psychiatry and the Business of Madness (2015). Some components of antipsychiatric theory have in recent decades been reformulated into a critique of "corporate psychiatry", heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. A recent editorial about this was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry by Moncrieff, arguing that modern psychiatry has become a handmaiden to conservative political commitments. David Healy is a psychiatrist and professor in psychological medicine at Cardiff University School of Medicine, Wales. He has a special interest in the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on medicine and academia. In the meantime, members of the psychiatric consumer/survivor movement continued to campaign for reform, empowerment and alternatives, with an increasingly diverse representation of views. Groups often have been opposed and undermined, especially when they proclaim to be, or when they are labeled as being, "anti-psychiatry". As of the 1990s, more than 60 percent of ex-patient groups reportedly support anti-psychiatry beliefs and consider themselves to be "psychiatric survivors". Although anti-psychiatry is often attributed to a few famous figures in psychiatry or academia, it has been pointed out that consumer/survivor/ex-patient individuals and groups preceded it, drove it and carried on through it.
== Criticism == A schism exists among those critical of conventional psychiatry between radical abolitionists and more moderate reformists. Laing, Cooper and others associated with the initial anti-psychiatry movement stopped short of actually advocating for the abolition of coercive psychiatry. Thomas Szasz, from near the beginning of his career, crusaded for the abolition of forced psychiatry. Believing that coercive psychiatry marginalizes and oppresses people with its harmful, controlling, and abusive practices, many who identify as anti-psychiatry activists are proponents of the complete abolition of non-consensual and coercive psychiatry. Critics of antipsychiatry from within psychiatry itself object to the underlying principle that psychiatry is by definition harmful. Most psychiatrists accept that issues exist that need addressing, but that the abolition of psychiatry is harmful. Nimesh Desai concludes, "To be a believer and a practitioner of multidisciplinary mental health, it is not necessary to reject the medical model as one of the basics of psychiatry", and admits: "Some of the challenges and dangers to psychiatry are not so much from the avowed antipsychiatrists, but from the misplaced and misguided individuals and groups in related fields."
== See also ==
== References ==
== Works cited == Foucault, Michel (1997). "Psychiatric Power". In Rabinow, Paul (ed.). Ethics, subjectivity and truth. Translated by Hurley, Robert and others. New York: The New Press. ISBN 978-1-56584-352-3. OCLC 46638170.
== Further reading == Antonucci, Giorgio (1986). Coppola, Alessio (ed.). I pregiudizi e la conoscenza. Critica alla psichiatria [The prejudices and knowledge. Critics of psychiatry] (in Italian). Preface by Thomas Szasz (1st ed.). Apache Cooperative Ltd. Antonucci, Giorgio (1994). Critica al giudizio psichiatrico [Critique of psychiatric judgment] (in Italian). Sensibili alle Foglie. ISBN 978-88-89883-01-3. Berlim, Marcelo T.; Fleck, Marcelo P. A.; Shorter, Edward (2003). "Notes on antipsychiatry". European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. 253 (2): 61–67. doi:10.1007/s00406-003-0407-8. PMID 12799742. S2CID 21245730. Cording-Tömmel, Clemens (1986). "Antipsychiatrie". In Müller, Christian (ed.). Lexikon der Psychiatrie. Gesammelte Abhandlungen der gebräuchlichsten psychiatrischen Begriffe (in German) (second ed.). Springer-Verlag. pp. 54–58. ISBN 978-3-642-87356-0. Frank, K. Portland (1979). The Anti-Psychiatry Bibliography and Resource Guide (2nd ed.). Press Gang. Kisker, K.P. (1979). "Antipsychiatrie (AP)". In Kisker, K.P. (ed.). Psychiatrie der Gegenwart. Forschung und Praxis (in German). Springer-Verlag. pp. 811–825. ISBN 978-3-540-08725-0. Laing, R.D. (1965). The Divided Self. An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. Penguin Books. (Original edition: Tavistock Publications, 1960) Laing, R.D. (1967). The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise. Penguin Books. Rechlin, Thomas; Vliegen, Josef (1995). Die Psychiatrie in der Kritik. Die antipsychiatrische Szene und ihre Bedeutung für die klinische Psychiatrie heute (in German). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-642-79092-8. Rocca, Adolfo Vásquez (2011). "Antipsiquiatría: Deconstrucción del concepto de enfermedad mental y crítica de la 'razón psiquiátrica'" [Antipsychiatry: Deconstruction of the concept of mental illness and critique of psychiatric reason] (PDF). Nómadas. Revista Crítica de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas (in Spanish). 31: 321–338. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022. Szasz, Thomas (1997) [1970, Harper & Row]. The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-0461-7. Glasser, William (2003). Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-053866-X.
== External links ==
"Anti-Psychiatry and its Legacies (video)". Nottingham Contemporary. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2013. 12–13 February 2013