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14 - A new psychiatry?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2009

By
Carl I. Cohen ,
Sami Timimi  and
Kenneth S. Thompson
Edited by
Carl I. Cohen  and
Sami Timimi
Carl I. Cohen
Affiliation:
Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, New York, NY, USA, Email: [email protected]
Sami Timimi
Affiliation:
Lincolnshire Partnership, NHS Trust, Bracebridge Heath, Lincoln, UK, Email: [email protected]
Kenneth S. Thompson
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Carl I. Cohen
Affiliation:
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Sami Timimi
Affiliation:
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Trust
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Summary

If you come here to help me, then you are wasting your time. But if you come here because your liberation is bound up in mine, then let us begin.

Lily Walker, an Australian Aboriginal Women's leader

The reader of this volume will quickly grasp that there are no general agreements about the form or content of a liberatory psychiatry. This is not surprising since several of the contributors view themselves as postmodernists. Thus, “grand narratives” or universal truths and rules will be avoided. Having said that, we believe that there are some broad agreements about liberatory psychiatry. Although the authors' emphasis may be different, there are at least four themes in which the contributors to this volume are on common ground: (1) the political and psychological sphere are inseparable; (2) dominance and oppression are pervasive within the political sphere; (3) the physical and social world are inseparable; (4) there needs to be an understanding of the interactions between “the general” and “the particular.” We shall review these items below.

A warning light should probably go on whenever complex concepts are combined into one word; however, Isaac Prilleltensky's notion of “psychopolitical” does capture some of the basic concerns of the writers of this volume. Namely, that the political and psychological spheres are inseparable. This means that we cannot explain the development of individuality or subjectivity apart from its political and cultural context, nor can we understand political and cultural structures without considering its psychic dimension.

Type
Chapter
Information
Liberatory Psychiatry
Philosophy, Politics and Mental Health
 , pp. 275 - 285
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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References

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Timimi, S. (2006). While you retain the power you are unlikely to challenge the assumptions that keep you powerful. Mental Health Today. March, 19.Google Scholar

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