Mental health care and the opposition movement in the Netherlands

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In The Netherlands, there is a more or less recognized movement in the field of mental health care which is referred to as the psychiatric opposition movement or the patients movement. The nucleus of the dutch movement consists of patients and ex-patients. As far as mental health professionals are participating in the movement, they do so as more or less passive supporters of a movement dominated by patients and ex-patients. This article is dealing with two questions. The first question is how and to what degree the opposition movement in The Netherlands has succeeded in breaking through or at least questioning the closed nature of Dutch mental health care system. The second question will be whether the dilemma between resistance and dependence in the position of patients and ex-patients is visible in the activities of the opposition movement, and whether this dilemma acted as an obstacle to their efforts to influence the mental health care debate in The Netherlands. An effort is being made to answer this question by describing the position of the opposition movement with respect to the Insanity Law and with respect to the organization of mental health care. In conclusion, three stages were found to be crucial in the development of Dutch opposition movement. 1. (1) In the 1970s, the opposition movement appeared to operate within the borders of a closed system in which the medical profession had a high degree of autonomy. 2. (2) By the end of the 1970s, a shift could be detected in the opposition movement from the old desire to work within the system to a new desire to alter the system as such. 3. (3) Since 1980, it has been possible to detect a third development. The existence of the mental health care system as a social institution has been critically appraised to propagate the de-institutionalization of the existing system of clinical psychiatry.