Anti-psychiatry facts for kids
Anti-psychiatry is a name for different movements that question some ways psychiatry is practiced. Psychiatry is a field of medicine that deals with mental health. These movements believe that some psychiatric treatments or ideas might not always be helpful. They also think that mental health issues might be understood in different ways.
One of these movements started during the French Revolution in 1789. It was inspired by ideas from a time called Romanticism. Another movement began in Germany around 1900. A third big movement started in the United States and Europe in the 1960s. This movement questioned if conditions like Schizophrenia should always be seen as a mental illness needing psychiatric treatment. It also wanted to show problems that existed in psychiatric hospitals.
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Understanding Anti-Psychiatry
Anti-psychiatry is not against helping people with mental health challenges. Instead, it questions some of the ways that mental health care has been given. It looks at how society and power can affect how we understand and treat mental health.
When Did Anti-Psychiatry Ideas Start?
Ideas that question traditional psychiatry have appeared at different times in history.
Early Movements
The first ideas appeared during the French Revolution in 1789. This was a time of big changes in France. People started to think differently about many things, including how society treated those with mental health issues. These ideas were also influenced by Romanticism. This was a movement that valued emotions and individual freedom.
Around 1900, another movement began in Germany. People there also started to question some of the common practices in mental health care.
The 1960s Movement
A very important movement happened in the 1960s. This was in the United States and Europe. People in this movement had several main ideas:
- They questioned if certain conditions, like Schizophrenia, were always best treated by traditional psychiatry.
- They wanted to show problems in psychiatric hospitals. Sometimes, these hospitals were not good places for patients.
- They believed that mental health issues could be linked to society or a person's life experiences, not just brain problems.
Important Thinkers in Anti-Psychiatry
Several people helped shape the ideas of anti-psychiatry.
Michel Foucault's Influence
Michel Foucault was a French thinker who greatly influenced the 1960s movement. He wrote a book called Madness and Insanity: History of Madness in the Classical Age. This book explored when and how society decided what "madness" was. He looked at how people with mental health issues were treated throughout history.
David Cooper and the Term
A psychiatrist from South Africa named David Cooper was the first to use the term "anti-psychiatry." He used this word in 1967. He wanted to describe the movements that questioned traditional psychiatric practices.
Images for kids
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Anti-psychiatry symbol
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The Woodilee Hospital was opened in 1875 in Scotland.
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Graveyard attached to the Church of St. Thomas in West Yorkshire, England, where thousands of internees from Storthes Hall Hospital are buried in unmarked graves
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Scientologists on an anti-psychiatry demonstration
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Anti-psychiatric movement in Poland.
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A madness of civilization: the American physician Samuel A. Cartwright identified what he called drapetomania, an ailment that caused slaves to be possessed by a desire for freedom and a want to escape.
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Whitchurch Hospital.
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A Bergonic chair "for giving general electric treatment for psychological effect, in psycho-neurotic cases", according to original photo description. World War I era.
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With the decline of industrial age psychiatric hospitals, efforts to rehabilitate them have begun, like the Traverse City State Hospital becoming the Village at Grand Traverse Commons, complete with homes, offices, and businesses, including a wine bar
See also
In Spanish: Antipsiquiatría para niños
