HLTHAGE 2G03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Thomas Szasz, Biological Psychiatry, Anti-Psychiatry
16 Dec 2014
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Document Summary
Climate: psychiatry at a crossroads (asylums/psychopharm rev. , radical 1960s attacks on authority of all types, rise of counterculture, newfound position of psychiatrists as real doctors how biology changed practice. Mental illness a social and cultural construction of 18th c. Psychiatrists seeking own fortune, locking up unreasonables who didn"t fit into new social system based on capitalist work ethos. Growing state authoritarianism - confinement an attempt to stamp out deviancy. Laing (cont"d: heralded for unparalleled empathic connection to mentally ill furthered attack on biological psychiatry, founded the philadelphia. Association with david cooper a novel approach to treatment with patients and doctors living together to break down barriers, no use of pharmaceuticals, etc : celebrity figure guru to the. Role of family (laing and cooper: agreed with double bind. Illness is not individual but a network of people. Institutions the worst place to actually test someone"s sanity. One crucial additional element though it"s also inferiority.
