Psychiatry in Communist Europe

This is the first book to address the history of psychiatry under Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, from the Soviet Union to East Germany. It brings together new research addressing understandings of mental health and disorder, treatments and therapies, and the interplay between politics, ideology and psychiatry. It challenges assumptions about the extent of political control, exploring beyond the instances of punitive abuse of psychiatry, and recognizing the international exchanges which informed the development of research and practice in the region. The authors discuss: • Treatments such as work therapy, insulin shock therapy, antipsychotic medications • International exchanges between the USA, Western Europe, USSR and Central Asia • Environmental, social and biological explanations of mental health and illness • The relationship between psychiatry, ideology and the Communist state • Soviet reponses to antipsychiatry and 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' Sarah Marks is Research Fellow in History and Philosophy of Science at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, UK. She teaches and writes on the history of psychiatry, psychology and mental health. Mat Savelli is Postdoctoral Fellow at McMaster University, Canada. His research encompasses work on the history of psychiatry in Yugoslavia, the history and sociology of addiction, and the global advertising of psychopharmaceutical medications.