Psychiatric SlaveryIn Psychiatric Slavery, Dr. Thomas Szasz delivers a powerful indictment of coercive mental health practices and their close ties to the American legal system. Challenging the widely held belief that the landmark Supreme Court case O’Connor v. Donaldson marked a victory for civil liberties, Szasz argues that it instead legitimized the state’s power to confine individuals under the guise of psychiatric care. Through rigorous analysis, Szasz reveals how courts, hospitals, and mental health professionals collaborate to strip citizens of autonomy, turning psychiatry into a tool of social control. At the heart of this work is the chilling story of Kenneth Donaldson, who was involuntarily committed to a Florida asylum for 14 years without meaningful treatment. Provocative and uncompromising, Psychiatric Slavery forces readers to confront unsettling questions about freedom, justice, and the moral foundations of involuntary hospitalization. |
Contents
The Case of Kenneth Donaldson | 13 |
The Brief for Donaldson | 34 |
The Brief for OConnor | 59 |
The Supreme Courts Decison in OConnor | 76 |
Interpretations of the Supreme Courts | 89 |
A Right to Treatment or a Right to Treat? | 109 |
Chattel Slavery and Psychiatric Slavery | 133 |
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ACLU actually American Psychiatric Association amicus curiae APA's attorneys Bazelon believe brief for O'Connor Bruce Ennis chiatric chiatrists Christian Scientist civil commitment claims confinement constitutional right Court of Appeals damages dangerous declared defense deprived diagnoses doctors Donald Donaldson decision Doubleday Anchor Ennis fact Florida State Hospital freedom Friedman Health Law Project human Ibid individual insanity defense institutional psychiatry interventions involun involuntary mental hospitalization involuntary mental patients involuntary patients involuntary psychiatry involuntary treatment issue judge judgment judicial justification Karl Menninger Kenneth Donaldson legal champions ment Mental Health Law mentally ill MHLP MHLP's moral nondangerous official opinion Outpatient commitment paranoid schizophrenia parens patriae person prison problem psychia psychiatric coercion Psychiatric Justice psychiatric reform psychiatric slavery psychiatric treatment release responsible right to treat right to treatment rights of mental ruling schizophrenia slave social society Supreme Court Szasz therapeutic therapy tients tion victims voluntary York