Difference between revisions of "Psikhushka (FSU)"

[[File:Photograph of the Chernyakhovsk Special Psychiatric Hospital.jpeg|300px|thumb|left|Photograph of the Chernyakhovsk Special Psychiatric Hospital, where a General Grigorenko was interned. This photograph is from 2006, but everything looks exactly like in Soviet times. Artist: Robert Van Noren]]

[[File:Photograph of the Chernyakhovsk Special Psychiatric Hospital.jpeg|300px|thumb|left|Photograph of the Chernyakhovsk Special Psychiatric Hospital, where a General Grigorenko was interned. This photograph is from 2006, but everything looks exactly like in Soviet times. Artist: Robert Van Noren]]

The political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union came to an end during the last years of the country’s existence, yet for many people the ''psikhushka'' remained a terrifying institution, which they took measures to avoid at all cost. In some of the former Soviet republics this perception is slowly changing, but it will take decades to undo the damage caused by the Soviet regime. At the present time in Russia and other former Soviet republics like Belarus and Kazakhstan there is yet again concern that political opponents are being sent to the ''psikhushka'' or being given a psychiatric diagnosis. Recent cases in Russia include the prosecution case against members of the feminist protest band Pussy Riot in 2012, who were put on trail for “blasphemy” and in the course of the investigation psychiatrically examined. The psychiatrists claimed they suffered from ‘personality disorders’, with symptoms almost identical to the Soviet diagnosis of “sluggish schizophrenia”. Also the arrest and subsequent psychiatric diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia in the case of anti-government protestor Mikhail Kosenko attracted much international attention. He was eventually released from hospital but still put on compulsory out-patient treatment. Regrettably, in many former Soviet republics attempts to humanise psychiatry have stalled altogether or failed and progress made over the past twenty-five years is gradually being undone (Van Voren 2016<ref>Van Voren, R. 2016. ‘Ending Political Abuse of Psychiatry: where we are at and what needs to be done’, Psychiatric Bulletin 40 (1).</ref>).  

The political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union came to an end during the last years of the country’s existence, yet for many people the ''psikhushka'' remained a terrifying institution, which they took measures to avoid at all cost. In some of the former Soviet republics this perception is slowly changing, but it will take decades to undo the damage caused by the Soviet regime. At the present time in Russia and other former Soviet republics like Belarus and Kazakhstan there is yet again concern that political opponents are being sent to the ''psikhushka'' or being given a psychiatric diagnosis. Recent cases in Russia include the prosecution case against members of the feminist protest band Pussy Riot in 2012, who were put on trail for “blasphemy” and in the course of the investigation psychiatrically examined. The psychiatrists claimed they suffered from ‘personality disorders’, with symptoms almost identical to the Soviet diagnosis of “sluggish schizophrenia”. Also the arrest and subsequent psychiatric diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia in the case of anti-government protestor Mikhail Kosenko attracted much international attention. He was eventually released from hospital but still put on compulsory out-patient treatment. Regrettably, in many former Soviet republics attempts to humanise psychiatry have stalled altogether or failed and progress made over the past twenty-five years is gradually being undone (Van Voren 2016<ref>Van Voren, R. 2016. ‘Ending Political Abuse of Psychiatry: where we are at and what needs to be done’, Psychiatric Bulletin 40 (1).</ref>).