Essay On Anti Psychiatry

Every 30 seconds, someone is involuntarily admitted into a psychiatric facility, each year, over a million people are electroshocked as part of treatment for their mental illness. 120 million people are prescribed psychotropic medication, 20 million of whom are children, whose brains aren`t fully developed yet (Burns, 2006; Nasraliah, 2011). The psychiatric pharmaceutical industry earns 320 billion, but even the psychiatric body cannot say that there is a single cure to mental illness. Looking at the American population, in the past 40 years, nearly twice as many people have died in government psychiatric hospitals than in all US wars in the same amount of time. It is no wonder that there is a strong movement of anti-psychiatry emerged. The movement, however, is not new and has existed for a long time, rising in power when needed.

The anti-psychiatry movement was not the first to openly share their critique of the discipline, however. Throughout history, each ‘cure’ psychiatrist had come up with; there had always been a group of critics of it. As all disciplines do, psychiatry faced these challenges. As a discipline, it has become very strong, especially in the past 50 years, considering it is still a well standing discipline after going through so much opposition. Anti-psychiatrists do however have some strong arguments against it. It is difficult to discuss the anti-psychiatry movement without following the evolution of psychiatry as it has been deeply imbedded in the history of psychiatry (Tantum, 1991).

The first criticisms of psychiatry occurred towards the end of the XVII century (Norman, 1940). At this time, the mentally ill were put in mental institutions to be alienated and separated from society, because they were se...

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...critical psychiatry is beneficial (Thomas & Bracke, 2010). it advances more and strives to get better. It is constantly in search for better diagnostic models and treatment options.

Clinical psychologists have more freedom in their discipline (Boyle, 1990; Benatll, 1990) and should use it to their advantage.

Psychiatrists have to be prepared to face a great amount of criticism, as there are and always were numerous critics to the discipline. It is best that they work on their professional integrity and aim to progress in the discipline.

Anti psychiatry has helped establish the psychiatry that we have today, it has shaped it. Although its critique still stands, in most likely always will. In a discipline where there are so many uncertainties and where the human mind is the core, it will always be difficult to have clear answers and solutions to mental health.