Introduction
Often grouped together as “anti-psychiatry,” a new generation of challenges to the authority of psychiatry and psychiatric treatments arose in the 1960s. Intellectuals – critical of society, capitalism, and dominant ideas about mental health and illness – developed radical theories that took aim at conventions in the field. From this academic foment, many kinds of activists found resonant values and ideas. Amongst them were former patients and progressive practitioners who, inspired by their own experiences, engaged in efforts to reform, transform, and even abolish psychiatry.
Whether there was an intentional and centralized anti-psychiatry movement is contestable. Complicating the matter, many prominent “anti-psychiatry” figures eschewed the label entirely. Acknowledging the amorphous nature of the category, the historian Norman Dain (1994) suggests, “Anti-psychiatry can perhaps be best understood as a variety of groups and individuals who believe that psychiatry was either a vehicle for or an obstacle to attaining the certain goals that they valued, goals that often went beyond concern about the plight of mental patients or the faults of psychiatry” (p. 415-16).
Viewed comprehensively as both an intellectual commentary on mainstream psychiatry and a flurry of real-world organizing against established norms and institutions, anti-psychiatry was nonetheless impactful. The assertions of its founding thinkers constituted a scholarly shake up; and actors in liberatory movements adapted its principles to suit their own agendas both within and beyond psychiatry. This exhibit draws upon resources from the Oskar Diethelm Library. Largely focused on North America, it explores patient voices in the collection, as well as anti-psychiatry’s origins and 20th century expressions.
Curated by Lily Susman and Nicole Topich. Please contact the Oskar Diethelm Library with any questions or for more information at nrt4001@med.cornell.edu or (212) 746-3728.