Debunking Antipsychiatry: Laing,Law, and Largactil

The term “psychiatry” refers to two radically different ideas and practices: curing–healing “souls” and coercing–controlling persons. It is important that critics of psychiatry clarify whether they object to the former or the latter or both, and why. Because I believe coerced psychiatric relations are like coerced labor relations called “slavery,” and like coerced sexual relations called “rape,” I spent the better part of my professional life criticizing involuntary-institutional psychiatry and the insanity defense. In 1967, my effort to undermine the medical-political legitimacy of the term “mental illness” and the moral-legal legitimacy of depriving individuals of liberty by means of psychiatric rationalizations suffered a serious blow: the creation of the antipsychiatry movement. Despite their claims, “antipsychiatrists” rejected neither the idea of mental illness nor coercion practiced in the name of “treating” mental illness. Sensational claims about managing “schizophrenia” and pretentious pseudophilosophical pronouncements diverted attention from the crucial role of the psychiatrist as an agent of the state and as an adversary of the denominated patient. The legacy of the antipsychiatry movement is the creation of a catchall term used to delegitimize and dismiss critics of psychiatric fraud and force by labeling them “antipsychiatrists.”

Critics and dissenters: reflections on "anti-psychiatry" in the United States

During the 1970s various professionals and social activists adopted an explicitly anti-psychiatry position which was perceived by many as a new phenomenon. Hostility to psychiatry actually predates the establishment of psychiatry as a profession in 1844, and organized opposition to psychiatric practices appeared in the late nineteenth century. The deinstitutionalization of the 1970s, which was aided by development within psychiatry, had a strong anti-psychiatry component, but the novel aspect was the organization of ex-mental patients themselves. By the 1980s the decline of psychiatric power, dissension among ex-patients, and new social trends vitiated the anti-psychiatry movement.     

Jews,race, and capitalism in the German-Jewish context

The Shoah has effectively brought to an end attempts to define the Jews racially. Yet in the half century before the 1930s, for German Jewish scholars, the racial identity of the Jews was an open question. These scholars were deeply engaged in debates over Jewish collective identity and the contemporary Jewish condition, and in these debates race played a critical role. For these scholars, race and racial theories were normative, and they exploited them for their own intellectual, political, and social purposes. Of special interest is the normative nature of racial discourse as German Jewish scholars adopted it and applied it to examine the nexus of Jews and capitalism. These scholars accepted the notion of a Jewish racial disposition for capitalism, including this notions negative aspects, while they also used it to construct a positive Jewish identity. The history of Jewish engagement with race suggests the need for a more radically historicist approach to the Jewish past, albeit this will be a most difficult scholarly challenge.Id like to thank Gil Anidjar, Nina Caputo, Steven Zipperstein, and an anonymous reviewer for their comments and criticisms of this essay.     

Selfishness and capitalism 1

Richard Schmitt's case against the psychological defense of capitalism (Inquiry, Vol. 16, No. 2) has merit, but in stating it he attributes to a defender of capitalism the argument that capitalism suits people's innate selfishness. The position more plausibly attributed to the author in question is not only resistant to Schmitt's own arguments but is worth consideration in itself.     

Late capitalism and postmodernism: Educational problems and possibilities

This work analyzes certain aspects of postmodernist thought in terms of the challenges it presents to the secular, radical democratic project to which the author subscribes. It is argued that much of postmodernist thought has been effective in attacking foundationalism, as well as supporting marginalized persons and ideas, but holds little promise with regard to building an integrative democratic community. Postmodernist radicalism has not usually been directed against capitalist power; therefore, it is not clear how this form of radicalism can be useful to a project that is predicated upon the incompatibilities between capitalism and bona fide democracy.     

Illusion and Reality in R. D. Laing

R. D. Laing never fully brings together his extraordinary empathy for schizophrenic individuals and his critical view of schizogenic families. In his writings, family and social interactions increasingly dissolve into subjective "scenarios," and ultimately, "inner space" becomes the source of the redeeming light. This development has unfortunate psychiatric, philosophical, and political implications.     

Chinese philosophy and western capitalism

It is commonly supposed that people of Asia, particularly the ethnic Chinese, subscribe to values which are not conducive to economic progress. The gap between the capitalist West and Asia is often attributed to the ‘cultural’ factor. Behind such perception is the supposition that capitalism is wholly a product of the West, alien to Asia and cannot be successfully embraced without doing violence to its cultural traditions. Against this position, I argue that classical capitalism is perfectly compatible with the key elements of Chinese philosophy. Whether or not there is anything in the suggestion of some historians that Quesnay borrowed from Confucianism, I argue that his economic doctrine could have developed from the fundamentals of Chinese philosophy. If I am right, the economic gap between the West and Asia has to be explained in terms other than the ‘cultural’ factor, such as, perhaps, colonialism and post‐colonialist ideologies.