Psychiatry Interrogated

This edited volume is an anthology of institutional ethnography (IE) inquiries into psychiatry—the first ever to be written.  It focuses on a large variety of different geographic locations and constitutes a major contribution to anti/critical psychiatry, as well as institutional ethnography.  Themes include the DSM, the use and protection of problematic psychiatric research, the penetration of psychiatry into the workplace. Adding depth and breath, the contributors, while all are schooled in IE, come from a large variety of walks of life, authors including: academics, psychiatric survivors, investigative reporters, activists, nurses, artists, and lawyers—each bringing their own unique expertise/standpoint to bear. The result is an intellectually rigorous book, contributions to several disciplines, ammunition for activism, and a compelling read that cannot be put down.

“Psychiatry Interrogated is a powerful and compelling work, that demonstrates how common reactions of the how-can-that-happen? variety can serve as springboards to unraveling and exposing the complex, repressive, and inherently destructive nature of psychiatry. Each chapter has an extensive reference list for those who wish to pursue any of the topics in greater depth. The book is dedicated to ‘everyone everywhere who has ever fallen prey to institutional psychiatry.” (Psychiatric Survivors, psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com, February, 2017)“Psychiatry Interrogated is a powerful and compelling work, that demonstrates how common reactions of the how-can-that-happen? variety can serve as springboards to unraveling and exposing the complex, repressive, and inherently destructive nature of psychiatry. Each chapter has an extensive reference list for those who wish to pursue any of the topics in greater depth. The book is dedicated to ‘everyone everywhere who has ever fallen prey to institutional psychiatry.’” (Mad in America, madinamerica.com, January, 2017)

Bonnie Burstow is Associate Professor at University of Toronto, Canada.  She is also a philosopher, feminist therapist, and antipsychiatry activist. Other works include: Psychiatry and the Business of Madness (2015),  Radical Feminist Therapy (1992), Psychiatry Disrupted (2014), ”Toward a Radical Understanding of Trauma and Trauma Work”, and “A Rose by Any Other Name: Naming and the Battle against Psychiatry”