Political abuse of psychiatry in the United States  

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Political abuse of psychiatry in the United States.

Instances

• Drapetomania was a supposed mental illness described by American physician Samuel A. Cartwright in 1851 that caused black slaves to flee captivity. In addition to inventing drapetomania, Cartwright prescribed a remedy. His feeling was that with "proper medical advice, strictly followed, this troublesome practice that many Negroes have of running away can be almost entirely prevented." In the case of slaves "sulky and dissatisfied without cause"—a warning sign of imminent flight—Cartwright prescribed "whipping the devil out of them" as a "preventative measure". As a remedy for this disease, doctors also made running a physical impossibility by prescribing the removal of both big toes.

• In the United States, political dissenters have been involuntarily committed. For example, in 1927 a demonstrator named Aurora D'Angelo was sent to a mental health facility for psychiatric evaluation after she participated in a rally in support of Sacco and Vanzetti.
• When Clennon W. King, Jr., an African-American pastor and activist of the Civil Rights Movement, attempted to enroll at the all-white University of Mississippi for summer graduate courses in 1958, the Mississippi police arrested him on the grounds that "any nigger who tried to enter Ole Miss must be crazy." Keeping King's whereabouts secret for 48 hours, the Mississippi authorities kept him confined to a mental hospital for twelve days before a panel of doctors established the activist's sanity.
• In the 1964 election, Fact magazine polled American Psychiatric Association members on whether Barry Goldwater was fit to be president and published "The Unconscious of a Conservative: A Special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater." This led to the banning of diagnosing public figures when you have not performed an examination or been authorized to release information by the patient. This became the Goldwater rule.
• In the 1970s, Martha Beall Mitchell, wife of U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell, was diagnosed with a paranoid mental disorder for claiming that the administration of President Richard M. Nixon was engaged in illegal activities. Many of her claims were later proved correct, and the term "Martha Mitchell effect" was coined to describe mental health misdiagnoses when accurate claims are dismissed as delusional.
• In 1972 Thomas Eagleton was forced to withdraw as a vice presidential candidate for being treated for depression.
• In 2010, the book The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease by psychiatrist Jonathan Metzl (who also has a Ph.D. in American studies) was published. The book covers the history of the 1960s Ionia State Hospital located in Ionia, Michigan and now converted to a prison and focuses on exposing the trend of this hospital to diagnose African Americans with schizophrenia because of their civil rights ideas. The book suggests that in part the sudden influx of such diagnoses could be traced to a change in wording in the DSM-II, which compared to the previous edition added "hostility" and "aggression" as signs of the disorder.
• Clinical psychologist Bruce E. Levine, argues that Oppositional Defiant Disorder, which can be easily used to pathologize anti-authoritarianism, is an abuse of psychiatry.
• In 2014, Mercury News published a series of articles detailing questionable use of psychotropic drugs within California's foster care system where bad behavior is attributed to various mental conditions, and little care is provided besides drugs. Likewise, many experts questioned the long-term effects of high dosages on developing brains, and some former patients reported permanent side effects even after stopping the meds.
• According to law professor Jonathan Turley and Newsweek magazine, in June 2015, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman ordered conservative film maker and activist Dinesh D'Souza to continue psychological counseling for a four-year period despite numerous recommendations to the contrary by well-respected private and court appointed mental health personnel. D'Souza pleaded guilty to a single count of making illegal contributions in the name of others as part of the campaign of Wendy Long for New York Senate. This occurred during a post-confinenment hearing. D'Souza was seeking to reduce the four-year community service sentence by reference to his home confinement period. Berman balked and said that he said the two periods as distinct—a position that courts would likely take in similar cases. In referring to the psychological counseling aspect, D'Souza's counsel submitted evidence that the court-ordered psychiatrist found no indication of depression or reason for medication. His own retained psychologist also provided a written statement concluding there was no need to continue the consultation. However, Judge Berman disagreed and said that he thought more counseling will help while noting that this is not punishment: "I only insisted on psychological counseling as part of Mr. D'Souza's sentence because I wanted to be helpful. I am requiring Mr. D'Souza to see a new psychological counselor and to continue the weekly psychological consultation not as part of his punishment or to be retributive." The court insisted "I'm not singling out Mr. D'Souza to pick on him. A requirement for psychological counseling often comes up in my hearings in cases where I find it hard to understand why someone did what they did."

California

• "5150 (involuntary psychiatric hold)" – There are many instances of usage of California law section 5150, which allows for involuntary psychiatric hold based on the opinion of a law enforcement official, psychological professional (or many other individuals who hold no qualification for making psychological assessment), which have been challenged as being unrelated to safety, and misused as an extension of political power.

New York

Whistleblowers who part ranks with their organizations have had their mental stability questioned, such as, for example, NYPD veteran Adrian Schoolcraft who was coerced to falsify crime statistics in his department and then became a whistleblower. He was forcibly committed to a psychiatric hospital.

See also

• Antipsychiatry
• The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease
• Global Initiative on Psychiatry