Laing Versus Szasz: Antagonists, Kindred Spirits, or a Misconstrued Rivalry?

In the mid-1970s, as the role of institutional psychiatry was being debated, Thomas S. Szasz directed a severe and unexpected critique at the work of Ronald D. Laing, after which there arose an acrimonious debate between Szasz and supporters of Laing in the Philadelphia Association (PA). (Laing himself conspicuously declined to respond to Szasz). This clash of views was initiated by Szasz in The New Review (TNR), which prompted a series of rebuttals from those working alongside Laing in the PA. Pivotal to this dispute were contrasting ideas on how to guide people from breakdown to sanity and the roles to be played by professionals and institutions in engaging with them. The main purpose of this article is to evaluate whether Laing (seen through lens of his then-associates in the PA) and Szasz were “antagonists,” whether they shared a kindred spirit in their view of the psychiatric establishment, or whether their perceived differences on how to treat psychic sufferers stemmed from misrepresentations created by themselves or others. My conclusion is that, even though Laing and Szasz shared an interest in changing conventional psychiatric practice and the mode of understanding and treating psychic suffering, each side misconstrued the position of the other.

Rationality, irrationality and irrationalism in the anti-institutional debate in psychiatry around the second half of the 1970s in italy

The movements and protests of 1968 worldwide criticized the traditional idea of normality. From the 1970s onwards, psychiatry and antipsychiatry became an ideological battleground centered on the boundaries between normality and madness. In this scenario, characterized by a deep cultural and political transformation within the Left, the traditional concept of rationality and its very connection with irrationality was called into question. As a consequence, the very ideal of reason was questioned. This paper will explore the debate on rationality, irrationality and irrationalism within the so-called anti-institutional psychiatry and its reception in the Italian New Left during the second half of the 1970s.

Working in psychiatry in Malta: a personal view

The history of psychiatry in Malta dates back to the 16th century. In the early 1990s, a detailed account of psychiatry in Malta documented the drive from institutional psychiatry to community psychiatry and outlined the difficulties with subspecialisation, staffing and training. Malta has since set up five community mental health teams, introduced new mental health legislation and introduced full postgraduate psychiatry specialisation. Work is continuing towards improvement of the country's mental health services and towards reducing the stigma associated with mental illness.

Creating a new psychiatry: on the origins of non-institutional psychiatry in the USA, 1900–50

This paper examines the early origins of the shift away from institutional psychiatry in the USA. It focuses on the period between 1900 and 1950. Attention is paid to the role of neurologists and disaffected asylum doctors in the early emergence of extra-institutional practice; to the impact of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene and Thomas Salmon; to the limited role of psychoanalysis during most of this period; and to the influence of the Rockefeller Foundation’s decision to focus most of its effort in the medical sciences on psychiatry.

Ken Loach,Family Lifeand Socialist Realism: Some Historical and Theoretical Aspects

This article considers certain historical and theoretical aspects of Ken Loach's 1971 film about mental illness, Family Life. Historically, it explores the film's influences, particularly that of the 1960s ‘anti-psychiatry’ and counter-cultural figure, R. D. Laing. To this end, the article examines in detail a contemporaneous critique of Family Life, namely Peter Sedgwick's hostile review for Socialist Worker in 1972. In the light of this critique, the article then reconsiders, theoretically, Loach's strategies of socialist-realist representation in Family Life, particularly as they relate to, firstly, mental illness and institutional psychiatry; and secondly, the distinction drawn by Raymond Williams between artistic and political forms of representation.

Excerpt from the history of the “Hochschulpsychiatrie Erlangen” (1818–2016): On the history of a connection between University and Institutional Psychiatry, Unique in Germany (1903–1974)

ObjectiveTo examine the more than 70-year history of a connection between University and Institutional Psychiatry.MethodRelevant archival material as well as primary and secondary literature were examined.ResultsAs early as 1818 Johann Michael Leupoldt (1794–1874) held a seminar on “madness” as an assistant professor in Erlangen. But the University Psychiatric Clinic did not begin until 1903 within the association of the mental asylum founded on a contract agreement between the Friedrich-Alexander, University Erlangen and the County Senate of Middle-Franconia. The history of the “Hochschulpsychiatrie Erlangen” reflects part of the history of German psychiatry. The plans to accomplish independence were doomed to impracticability by the social-political situation before, during and after the First and also Second World Wars. Clinic patients were registered as “Institutional residents”, the Clinic had no income of its own, the Head of Department and Director of the Clinic was formally considered as the “senior doctor of the asylum”.DiscussionThe complicated duty dependence of the Head of Department on the Director of the asylum undoubtedly contributed to their decades spanning “mésalliance tradition”. A public scandal arose in 1978 from an accusation of dereliction of duty to the government of Middle-Franconia because of lacking protection of patient documentation and medications during the relocation of the former institution departments to the newly constructed Regional Hospital on the Europakanal.OutlookCooperation between the University Clinic and the Regional Hospital exists in altered form today. The Psychiatric Clinic can thus include patients from the Regional Hospital in scientific studies.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.