The last two podcasts have shown how mad people are different before the law. Psychiatry has certain legal privileges in how it handles patients. The implications of these two facts have stimulated debate for at least the last three centuries. I’d like to confront them this week and discuss the charge that psychiatry and the law conspire to oppress certain sections of the population. The podcast revisits some of the themes of anti-psychiatry and shows how they influence modern perceptions of the practice of mental medicine.
Image of the week: Man in restraint chair, West Riding Lunatic Asylum, Wakefield, Yorkshire, c. 1869
Full Bibliographic Record: Wellcome Library Catalogue L0019069
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