ANTI-PSYCHIATRY MOVEMENT:D.L. Rosenhan, R.D. Laing, Aaron Esterson

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History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

Lesson 40

ANTI-PSYCHIATRY MOVEMENT

Anti-psychiatry refers to approaches which fundamentally challenge the theory or practice of mainstream

psychiatry in general and biological psychiatry in particular. Anti-psychiatric criticisms of mainstream

psychiatry include that it uses medical concepts and tools inappropriately, that it treats patients against their

will or inappropriately dominates other approaches to mental health, that its medical and ethical integrity are

compromised by its financial and professional links with pharmaceutical companies, and that it uses a

system of categorical diagnosis that is stigmatizing and is perceived by too many of its patients as

demeaning and controlling.

A significant minority of mental health professionals and acsademics profess anti-psychiatry views, and even

some psychiatrists hold such views in regard to mainstream (biological) psychiatry. Psychiatrists generally

view anti-psychiatry as a fringe movement with little or no scientific validity, although it is difficult to

quantify the proportion of the general public or professionals involved, or the range of views held.

D.L. Rosenhan

Anti-psychiatry movement can be understood by looking at an experiment undertaken by an American

psychologist D.L. Rosenhan. The experiment was that, three women and five men who were perfectly

normal and most of them were well educated, entered in 12 mental institutions of different places in U.S.A.

They posed as mental patients saying that they hear voices, but apart from this, offered completely correct

information about themselves. These "patients" remained in hospitals for 19 days on the average. Based

upon the experiences of these posing patients, Rosenhan concluded that:

It is impossible to distinguish between normal people and patients according to the rules and

procedures of mental hospitals.

Mental hospitals leave extremely negative effects on inmates.

Mental hospitals treat patients without pity and with cruelty.

That the overall environment of mental hospitals needs great improvement.

Further, research showed in this context that up to 80% patients released from mental hospitals went back

and are re-admitted.

So a realization arose among psychologists that the methods of treatment being used by psychiatrists were

inadequate and inappropriate for the treatment of mental disorders. Some psychologists and psychiatrists

rejected these methods, and that is why their approach is called Anti-Psychiatry.

R.D. Laing

R.D. Laing was a British psychiatrist, who was born in 1927 and died in 1989. Laing wrote extensively on

mental illness and particularly the experience of psychosis. He is being noted for his views, influenced by

existential philosophy, on the causes and treatment of mental illness, which went against the psychiatric

orthodoxy of the time by taking the expressions or communications of the individual patient or client as

representing valid descriptions of live experience or reality rather than focusing on symptoms of some

separate or underlying disorder. He is often associated with the anti-psychiatry movement, although like

many of his contemporaries also critics of psychiatry, he himself rejected this label. He made a significant

contribution to the ethics of psychology.

His book "The Divided Self" appeared in 1959 and is considered to represent the basic view of anti-

psychiatry movement. Laing used the existential philosophy to understand and explain the concept of

History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

mental illness, thereby trying to look at schizophrenia from the patient's point of view. He was against

labeling mental diseases, because he thought that from the patient's view, he is not suffering from a disease.

In his opinion labeling was used to control people. In other words, in his own view no patient was sick. All

that he was suffering from was labeled on him by the people who are treating him. Therefore, Laing

suggested that the patient's point of view should be kept in mind while treating mental diseases.

In his view the cause of mental disease was division in the self and the therapy suggested by Laing is known

as "Metanoia." Metanoia means a change in the mind. This could be achieved in various ways such as arts,

discussions, seminars, etc. He established a place called Kingsley Hall where activities such as seminars,

discussions, dance, yoga, painting, stitching were carried out to create and achieve metanoia.

Aaron Esterson

Another prominent psychologist in anti-psychiatry movement was Aaron Esterson who was born in 1923

and died in 1982.

Esterson focused on family therapy and showed that the family picks up a person and then labels that

person "mad." This is called scapegoating. In his book he relates the case of a young girl who was thought

by her parents to be mentally sick but in reality she was healthy. Therefore Esterson showed that madness

or schizophrenia is an expression of scapegoating of the family. His method of treatment was to expose the

mechanisms of scapegoating to the patient and make the patient realize that he or she was not sick but was

just being called sick. In that way the patient would be able to deal with any future labeling upon him.

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