Anti-psychiatry is a term used to refer to a configuration of groups and theoretical constructs that emerged in the 1960s hostile to most of the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R. D. Laing, Thomas Szasz and, in Italy, Franco Basaglia. The term was first used by the psychiatrist David Cooper in 1967. Some now prefer the term critical psychiatry to avoid connotations that may appear...
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Anti-psychiatry is a term used to refer to a configuration of groups and theoretical constructs that emerged in the 1960s hostile to most of the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R. D. Laing, Thomas Szasz and, in Italy, Franco Basaglia. The term was first used by the psychiatrist David Cooper in 1967. Some now prefer the term critical psychiatry to avoid connotations that may appear oppositional merely, though the two concepts are distinct.
Two central contentions of the anti-psychiatry movement are that:
Other key criticisms of psychiatric claims to authority include the:
Individual mental health professionals as well as academics profess anti-psychiatry views, as have a number of former and current users of psychiatric services. Some critics focus their attention on what is known as biological psychiatry. It is sometimes contended that some species of anti-psychiatry have in reality merely promoted forms of psychiatry...
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