SISP 230: ANTIPSYCHIATRY
Fall 2015
Mondays & Wednesdays 1:10-2:30pm
Allbritton 103
Instructor:
Office:
Office Hours:
Email:
Phone:
Professor Anthony (Tony) Hatch
214 Allbritton (up on “the Veranda”)
Thursdays 1:00-3:00 pm and by appointment
ahatch@wesleyan.edu
860-685-3991
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will investigate antipsychiatry, the social and scientific movement that has critically
analyzed and opposed psychiatry as a field of medical knowledge and social power. Perhaps no field
of medicine has been more deeply implicated in creating and legitimating human suffering than
psychiatry, from the role that psychiatry has played in managing people's daily lives to the
administration of the criminal justice system. We will ask how psychiatry transforms people’s lived
experiences into psychiatric disorders by interrogating the production of diagnostic criteria as a
political process. We will focus on the social institutions that host psychiatry, the creation and
dissemination of psychotropic drugs, and the ways in which race, gender, social class, and
colonialism shape resistance to psychiatry.
We will raise and partially answer several overarching questions. What does it mean to oppose
psychiatry as a field of knowledge and power? What are the counter-arguments that define the varied
oppositions to psychiatry? How has the antipsychiatry movement shifted in concert with
technological and epistemological changes within the field of psychiatry? Can we reform psychiatry
to address the major concerns of antipsychiatrists or should psychiatry be abolished altogether as a
scientific and medical project?
As we ask these questions, we will keep in the center of our dialogue the material and psychic
suffering of people. Opposing psychiatry does not mean that we reject the lived experiences of
people as ephemeral or imagined. To the contrary, perhaps the most important reason to oppose
psychiatry is based on a recognition that psychiatry limits our conceptions of psychic and spiritual
lives as human beings. Many of us experience directly ourselves or are intimate with other people
who experience problems that would fall under the purview of psychiatry. Psychiatry may serve
some people well and we should always keep this in perspective. It is those who have not been well
served and who may have suffered at the hand of psychiatry who we position as a real human
backdrop to our critical investigations.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
 Understand and analyze the social institutions, scientific practices, and forms of medical
knowledge that encompass the field of psychiatry
 Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the scientific, political, and ethical arguments against
the field of psychiatry
 Describe how social structures of race, gender, social class, and nationality have shaped the
field of psychiatry and the varied oppositions to psychiatry
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COURSE READINGS
Most of our course readings are available in PDF format on Moodle. The readings are organized by
week, the author’s last name, and by year of publication. A number of readings are available online
for free through Wesleyan’s library.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
This course uses both a lecture and a student directed format where we learn from and teach each
other. You will be evaluated in part on your contributions to making the class successful for yourself
and others. This is a reading intensive course where you will have to read a large quantity of
complicated and abstract material in a relatively short period of time. This is also a course that values
you as a person and respects your experience; share your brilliance and experience with everyone
else! Based on these emphases, your grade in this class is calculated out of 500 points distributed
across four elements:
Class Participation
Reading Quizzes
Weekly Reflection Papers
Final Research Paper
10 percent
20 percent
30 percent
40 percent
50 points
100 points
150 points
200 points
Class Participation (10 percent of your grade @ 50 pts)
I expect you to attend every class, on time, prepared to engage fully in your own education. This is a
dialogic course where we will engage in substantive open group discussion with daily prompting and
questioning from me. I expect for you to be an active participant in every moment of every class. If
you have a recurring conflict that interferes with your ability to be here everyday, you should
consider dropping this class. Beyond that: It’s your education. Show up for it.
I will evaluate your participation according to the following criteria.
Exemplary = up to 50 points. This means you have attended every class possible (with
reasonable exceptions for illness, athletics, verifiable emergencies, etc.), openly demonstrate
outstanding preparedness for each class, and make significant contributions to our collective
learning.
Good = up to 40 points. This means you have attended most classes, demonstrate consistent
preparation for each class, and make substantive contributions to our collective leaning.
Fair = up to 30 points. This means you have missed about 3-4 classes, are generally prepared for
each class, and make marginal contributions to our collective learning.
Poor = up to 20 points. This means you are chronically late and/or absent from class, are rarely
prepared for each class, and either make minimal contributions to our learning or take away
from our learning.
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Ten (10) Reading Quizzes (20 percent of your grade @ 100 pts)
In order to succeed in this class, it is essential that you complete the readings for each class as
indicated on the course calendar and come to class prepared to discuss what you read. Ten (10)
quizzes (10 points each) will count toward your final grade. However, we will take more than ten
quizzes—I will include your ten best scores. The quizzes are based on the readings that are due that
day as indicated on the course calendar. Quizzes will consist of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank
questions, true/false, and/or short answer questions. The best way to prepare for these quizzes is to
read everything that is assigned and take reading notes that identify key terms, shifts, and content in
the readings.
Weekly Reflection Papers (30 percent of your grade @ 150 pts)
You will write five (5) weekly reflection papers (30 points per paper) that discuss synchronies across
course readings, lectures, and discussions. Reflections are synthetic thought statements that signal
your understanding of course content by identifying and critically assessing patterns in the content,
themes, and questions that cut across our course. Your job is to write reflection papers based on
weeks you found especially compelling, problematic, or inspiring. Also, as you make decisions about
what to reflect on, consider that you will have the option of incorporating selected text from your
reflections into your final research paper. Aside from these considerations, each reflection must do
the following:
a)
b)
c)
d)
Reflect on material across any two (2) class periods
Discuss at least one (1) reading from each class period
Discuss at least one (1) of the lectures from either class period
Discuss an element of our actual in-class discussion from either class period.
Remember, you must cite specific ideas from the readings, lectures, and discussions to be
eligible for full credit. You are also invited to introduce information or insights from outside the
course materials into the reflections. Each paper needs to be 2 full pages long (double-spaced, 1-inch
margins, 12-point font) with your name, course name, response number, and the date typed in the
header space. I will deduct five (5) points for improperly formatted papers. Please include footnotes
with complete citations.
Due Dates: These papers are not due on any specific date, but they are due the class period
following the most recent class period upon which you are reflecting. Please print out and turn in
your response papers at the beginning of the class.
Final Research Paper: Emerging Sites of Contestation (40 percent of your grade @ 200 pts)
You will write one ten (10) page final research paper that uses at least one theoretical orientation to
antipsychiatry to investigate and analyze a mental health-related topic of your choice. Upload your
completed papers to Moodle. We will discuss the all of the instructions for the final research paper
assignment in greater detail on Monday, October 12 in class. Do not miss this in-class presentation!
Proposal Due Date: A one (1) page proposal for the paper is due on Monday, November 2 that
informs me of your provisional thinking. This proposal is worth 25 points out of 200 for the final
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research paper. I prefer clearly articulated and well conceived proposals to thin and muddled
proposals. Bring your completed proposal to class with you.
Paper Due Date: 12:00pm on Thursday, December 17th in Moodle (the day and time of the final)
GRADING SCALE
Percent
97-100
93-96
90-92
87-89
83-86
80-82
77-79
73-76
70-72
67-69
63-66
60-63
57-59
53-56
50-52
47-49
44-46
40-43
below 40
Points
485-500
465-484
450-464
435-449
415-434
400-414
385-399
365-384
350-364
335-349
315-334
300-314
285-299
265-284
250-264
235-249
220-234
200-219
below 200
Grade
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF+
F
FE+
E
EF
OTHER VERY IMPORTANT COURSE INFORMATION
This course requires a high level of student preparedness and endurance. I do not expect this to be
an easy course, but I do expect it to be an engaging, enriching, and empowering one. Please review
the following information, as it is essential to your success. You are responsible for all of the
information that follows—please consult the syllabus before you email me with questions about
course policies.
HOW TO CONTACT ME
Please feel free to email me with any questions or concerns about the class, but please note that I
only read and respond to student emails during normal business hours (9-5, M-F) except in rare
cases of actual emergency. Please allow 1-2 days for an email response from me for non-urgent
issues. Be sure to review the syllabus carefully before emailing me about course policies.
I would also love to see you during my office hours on Thursday 1:00-3:00pm and by appointment.
Please have respect for the fact that I’m a writer and work in my office daily. If you come to my
office unannounced, I will politely ask you to come on Thursday or to email me for an appointment.
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DISCLAIMER
This syllabus provides a general plan for the course: deviations may be necessary.
EXTRA CREDIT
I reserve the right to offer extra credit during the semester at my discretion. I also reserve the right
not to offer extra credit.
LATE WORK
WE TAKE QUIZZES WITHIN THE FIRST 10-15 MINUTES OF CLASS—YOU WILL NOT
BE ABLE TO MAKE UP QUIZZES IF YOU ARE LATE! READ THAT AGAIN.
If you have an excused absence from class when we take a quiz, you can make up your quiz during
my weekly office hours. You should not have any planned absences or any obvious scheduling
problems. I will not hunt you down asking you to make up your work—it is your responsibility to
email me to tell me when you are going to be absent (also tell me the reason for your absence).
Repeat: I am not keeping track of whether or not you missed your work. You will not be able to
make up weekly reflections. I retain the right to offer and/or deny make-ups based on my
assessment of your situation and any relevant documentation.
USING MOODLE
Many of the required PDF readings for this course will be posted in Moodle. I will also make use of
the “News” feature to communicate with the entire class. It is your responsibility to monitor Moodle on a
daily basis for any announcements!
TECHNOLOGY USE IN CLASS
You are NOT permitted to use laptops, smart phones, or tablets during class without explicit
permission from me. Explicit permission from me looks like you signing a written pledge to only use
note-taking applications on a laptop or tablet. We are in class for 1 hour and 20 minutes each day—
this is exceptionally valuable time in our lives and I’d rather not waste it with you being in two or
more digital “places” while you are with us. Using devices during class is disruptive to the class and
disrespectful to me personally. Be digitally unavailable to your people during class time (that’s what I
do). Be on notice: I favor public humiliation if you violate this ethic. However, if you must make or
take an EMERGENCY phone call during class, please step outside to do so.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY IS SERIOUS
I treat all forms of academic honesty with the utmost seriousness and strongly encourage you to
comply with Wesleyan’s Honor Code which you can review within the student handbook
(http://www.wesleyan.edu/studentaffairs/studenthandbook/20152016studenthandbook.pdf)
Violations of the Honor Code may result in an F in the course and possible academic and
disciplinary action. All violations will be reported without exception.
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DISABILITY RESOURCES
Wesleyan University is committed to ensuring that all qualified students with disabilities are afforded
an equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from its programs and services. To receive
accommodations, a student must have a documented disability as defined by Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, and provide documentation of
the disability. Since accommodations may require early planning and generally are not provided
retroactively, please contact Disability Resources as soon as possible. If you believe that you might
need accommodations for a disability, please contact Dean Patey in Disability Resources, located in
North College, Room 021, or call 860/685-5581 for an appointment to discuss your needs and the
process for requesting accommodations.
COURSE EVALUATION
Your honest and constructive assessment of this course plays an indispensable role in shaping the
future of education at Wesleyan and my prospects for future employment here (for real). Upon
completing this course, please take time to fill out the online course evaluation.
COURSE CALENDAR
1. Monday, September 7: Introduction and Course Overview
Part I: Histories and Epistemologies of Antipsychiatry
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. Wednesday, September 9: A Slice of Controversy
Gerald Grob. 1983. "American Psychiatry: A Specialty Adrift," pp. 30-45 in Mental Illness and
American Society, 1875-1940. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Angell, Marcia. “The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why?” The New York Review of
Books, June 23, 2011. (Available online for free)
Angell, Marcia. “The Illusion of Psychiatry.” The New York Review of Books, July 14,
2011. (Available online for free)
3. Monday, September 14: Problematizing Psychiatry
E. Fuller Torrey. 2014. "Dimensions of the Present Disaster: 2000-2013," pp. 115-138 in American
Psychosis. New York: Oxford University Press.
Charles Rosenberg. 2006. “Contested Boundaries: Psychiatry, Disease, and Diagnosis.” Perspectives
in Biology and Medicine 49(3): 407-424.
Please scan selectively before class:
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Ronald Kessler et al. (2012). Twelve-month and lifetime prevalence and lifetime morbid risk of
anxiety and mood disorders in the United States. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research
21(3), 169-184.
4. Wednesday, September 16: Defining Antipsychiatry I
Nick Crossley 1998. “R.D. Laing and the British anti-psychiatry movement: A socio-historical
analysis.” Social Science & Medicine 47(7):877-89.
Marcelo Berlim, Marcelo Fleck, and Edward Shorter. 2003. “Notes on Antipsychiatry.”
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 253 (2): 61-67.
5. Monday, September 21: Defining Antipsychiatry II
Peter Sedgwick. 1982. "Anti-Psychiatry, Illness, and the Mentally Ill," pp. 3-42 in Psychopolitics. New
York: Harper & Row Publishers.
Thomas Szasz. 2008. “Lying,” pp. 97-111 in Psychiatry: The Science of Lies. Syracuse: Syracuse
University Press.
6. Wednesday, September 23: Psychiatric Power
Michel Foucault. 1974 [2006]. “Lecture Eight: January 9, 1974,” pp. 173-200 in Jacques Lagrange
(editor) and Graham Burchell (translator) Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the College of France, 1973-74.
New York: Picador.
7. Monday, September 28: Asylums
Michel Foucault. 1969. “The Birth of the Asylum,” pp. 241-278 in Madness and Civilization: A History
of Insanity in the Age of Reason. New York: Vintage.
Andrew Scull. 1981. "The Discovery of the Asylum Revisited: Lunacy Reform in the New American
Republic," pp. 144-165 in Andrew Scull (editor) Madhouses, Mad-Doctors, and Madmen. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
8. Wednesday, September 30: Critical Psychiatry
Franco Basaglia. 1987. "Peacetime Crimes: Technicians of Practical Knowledge, pp. 143-223 in
Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Anne M. Lovell (editors) Psychiatry Inside Out: Selecting Writings of
Franco Basaglia (Translated by Teresa Shtob). New York: Columbia University Press.
***Focus on 143-162; 179-186; 202-223 and skim the remaining portions
Part II: Matrices of Domination
_____________________________________________________________________________
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9. Monday, October 5: Colonial Dynamics
Frantz Fanon. 1952 [2008]. “The Fact of Blackness” “The Negro and Psychopathology,” in Black
Skin, White Masks. (trans. Charles Lam Markmann). London: Pluto Books. (Available online through
Wesleyan Library)
Maitra Begum. “Postcolonial Psychiatry: the Empire strikes back? Or, the untapped promise of
multiculturalism, pp. 183-204 in Liberatory Psychiatry Carl Cohen and Sami Timimi (editors). New
York: Oxford University Press.
10. Wednesday, October 7: Gendered Preoccupations
Elaine Showalter. 1981. "Victorian Women and Insanity," pp. 313-336 in Andrew Scull (editor)
Madhouses, Mad-Doctors, and Madmen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Jane Ussher. 1992. "The feminist critiques," pp. 160-209 in Women's Madness: Misogyny or Mental Illness.
Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press.
11. Monday, October 13: In-class Presentation of Final Research Paper Assignment
12. Wednesday, October 14: Antiracist Formations
Jonathan Metzl. “A Racialized Disease,” pp. 95-108 in The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a
Black Disease. New York: Beacon Press. (Available online through Wesleyan Library)
Benjamin Reiss. "Saneface Minstrelsy: Blacking Up in the Asylum," pp. 51-78 in Theaters of Madness:
Insane Asylums and Nineteenth Century American Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
13. Monday, October 19: Class Consciousness
Joanna Moncrieff. 2008. Neoliberalism and biopsychiatry: a marriage of convenience,” pp. 235-256
in Carl Cohen and Sami Timimi (editors) Liberatory Psychiatry. New York: Oxford University Press.
Andrew Lakoff. 2004. “The Anxieties of Globalization: Antidepressant Sales and Economic Crisis in
Argentina.” Social Studies of Science 34(2): 247-269.
Part III: Sites of Contestation
______________________________________________________________________________
14. Wednesday: October 21: Attacking the DSM
Eileen Gambrill. 2014. “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as a Major Form
of Dehumanization in the Modern World.” Research on Social Work Practice 24(1): 13-36.
Bonnie Burstow. 2005. “A Critique of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and the DSM.” Journal of
Humanistic Psychology 45(4): 429-445.
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Owen Whooley. 2010. “Diagnostic Ambivalence: Psychiatric Workarounds and the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.” Sociology of Health & Illness 32(3): 452-469.
Fall Break: Friday, October 23 through Tuesday, October 27
15. Wednesday, October 28: Psychiatry as a Political Strategy
Michael Staub. 2011. “The Insanity Trip,” pp. in Madness is Civilization: When the Diagnosis Was Social,
1948-1980. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Peter Schrag. 1978. "Ultimate Weapons," pp. 148-186 in Mind Control. New York: Pantheon Books.
16. Monday, November 2: Techniques of Control
*** Proposal due in class
Andrew Scull. 2006. "Psychiatry and social control in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries," pp.
107-128 in The Insanity of Place/The Place of Insanity: Essays on the history of psychiatry. New York:
Routledge.
Robert Whitaker. 2002. "Too Much Intelligence,” pp. 73-106 in Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad
Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill. Cambridge: Perseus. (Available online through
Wesleyan Library)
17. Wednesday, November 4: Torture
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/jul/11/american-psychological-association-torture-report
Other Reading TBA
18. Monday, November 9: Depression
Allan Horowitz and Jerome Wakefield. 2007. “Depression in the Twentieth Century,” pp. 72-103 in
The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder. New York: Oxford
University Press.
David Healy. 2007. “Let Them Eat Prozac,” pp. 254-283 in Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy
Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression. New York: New York University Press.
19. Wednesday, November 11: Psychopharmacology I
Jonathan Metzl. 2003. "Anxiety, the Crisis of Psychoanalysis, and the Miltown Resolution, 19551960" pp. 71-126 in Prozac on the Couch: Prescribing Gender in the Era of Wonder Drugs. Durham: Duke
University Press.
20. Monday, November 16: Psychopharmacology II
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Peter Schrag. 1978. "The Chemistry of Liberation," pp. 106-147 in Mind Control. New York:
Pantheon Books.
Robert Whitaker. 2002. "Not So Atypical, "pp. 253-286 in Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine,
and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill. Cambridge: Perseus. (Available online through
Wesleyan Library)
21. Wednesday, November 18: Psychopharmacology III
Jackie Orr. 2006. “Performing Methods: Cybernetics, Psychopharmacololgy, and Postwar
Psychiatry,” pp.165-210 in Panic Diaries: A Genealogy of Panic Disorder. Durham: Duke University
Press.
22. Monday, November 23: Addiction
Marc Lewis. 2015. “Defining Addiction: A Battleground of Opinions,” pp. 1-26 in The Biology of
Desire. Canada: Doubleday
Nancy Campbell. 2007. “Framing the “Opium Problem”: Protoscientific Conceptions of
Addiction,” pp. 12-28 in Discovering Addiction: The Science and Politics of Substance Abuse Research. Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
“Thanks-taking” Break: Wednesday, November 25 through Sunday, November 29
23. Monday, November 30: Prisons
Lorna Rhodes. 2004. “Custody and Treatment at the Divide,” pp. 131-162 in Total Confinement:
Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Jessica Mitford. 1973. “Treatment,” pp. 95-117 in Kind and Usual Punishment: The Prison Business. New
York: Knopf.
Part IV: New Pathways
_____________________________________________________________________________
24. Wednesday, December 2: Holistic Interventions
Readings TBA: Selection(s) from http://www.madinamerica.com
25. Monday, December 7: Postpsychiatry
Patrick Braken and Phillip Thomas. 2001. “Postpsychiatry: A New Direction for Mental Health.”
British Medical Journal 322(7288): 724-799.
Pat Bracken et al. 2012. “Psychiatry beyond the current paradigm.” The British Journal of Psychiatry
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(201): 430-434
26. Wednesday, December 9: Last Day of Class
Thursday, December 17: Final Research Papers Due at 5:00pm in Moodle
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