The psychiatric hegemon and the limits of resistance

Abstract

The social critic Jeffrey Masson recently recalled of the psychiatric survivor movement that: [t]hey had a great deal to teach those of us who were training to become some sort of mental health professional (psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, even social workers and therapists from other schools). Yet I learned that by and large their voices were not heard, or if heard, were immediately discounted. When they tried to talk to us, we did not listen. During my entire eight years [of training to be a psychoanalyst] never once were they called in to speak to us of their direct experience with psychiatry. In fact, I can’t remember the movement ever even being referred to by our teachers. (Foreword in Cohen, 2015, p. xi)