Political abuse of psychiatry

Birley, Jim

doi:10.1383/psyt.3.3.22.30675

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Volume 3, Issue 3 , Pages 22-25, 1 March 2004

Political abuse of psychiatry

Jim Birley worked at the Maudsley Hospital, London, UK, from 1960 to 1990. He was at various times Dean of the Institute of Psychiatry, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and President of the British Medical Association. He was in charge of the World Psychiatric Association's investigation into the Soviet Union in 1991, and was chairman of the Geneva Initiative on Psychiatry from 1995 to 2000. His main interests have been in social psychiatry and, since retirement, the revival of psychiatry in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Abstract

Abusive practices of all sorts, arising from ignorance, neglect, poverty, demoralization, exhaustion, cruelty or criminality, have always haunted psychiatry. This contribution is concerned with one specific abuse only: its use as a means of ‘neutralizing’ healthy people who are regarded as a threat to the existing political system, by admission to a psychiatric hospital, thus damaging their power and reputation. This abuse has occurred in two large countries, the Soviet Union and China, both under totalitarian rule, where public dissent was disapproved and often punished, though in other respects they are different.

Keywords: political abuse , psychiatry

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