Psychiatry as a tool to rue based on the political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union

Abstract

In my article I would like present issue of using psychiatry to control society. I will be based on thought by Michel Foucault. He is a French philosopher who investigate relationship between power and knowledge.

In his major book Madness and Insanity: History of Madness in the Classical Age he present how European society define madness. He argue that it is a social construct distinct from mental illness. Nowadays we observe the process of medicalization. It means that some human or social matters come to be defined and treated as medical conditions.

As exemplification I will use political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union.