![]() ![]() Those women who did not behave “properly” risked ending up in psychiatric care and possibly chemically sedated, or worse. Radicals criticized psychiatry for reinforcing notions of the dutiful mother and obedient housewife, suggesting psychiatry (and pharmaceuticals, yes) were a means to regulate women. Critics drew from second-wave feminism to refocus on the role of women in mental health. These changes occurred because of the actions of both patients and doctors.īack then, psychoanalysis and psychopharmacological interventions were criticized both Freud’s focus on sexual fantasies and the use of “mother’s little helpers” (benzodiazepines) came under fire. And transformative change was the result. Feminism and sexual politics in the late 1960s and 1970s led to a reassessment of gender-based hierarchies in the mental health establishment. Sound familiar?Īs we reflect on the #MeToo era, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, and other deeply unseemly characters in 2020, it’s important to note that women’s issues and mental health were embedded in radical mental medicine fifty years ago. The caucus also worried about the United States as a whole. The group, while somewhat small, felt that mental medicine needed to undergo change. A half century ago a “radical caucus” formed in the American Psychiatric Association. ![]()
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