‘Therapeutic community’,psychiatry’s reformers and antipsychiatrists: reconsidering changes in the field of psychiatry after World War II

Abstract

In addition to outlining some core characteristics of the therapeutic community — an approach developed during World War II — this article describes the achievements of reformist psychiatrists in the field of the therapeutic community during the 1950s and also discusses the appropriation of this model by the antipsychiatrists during the 1960s. By emphasizing the proximity of their respective contributions, rather than their generally accepted radical differences, this article is an invitation to renew the way historians consider the dynamics of change in psychiatry after WWII.

Keywords

Antipsychiatry Britain Italy psychiatric reforms therapeutic community USA 20th century

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abrahamson D. ( 2007) R. D. Laing and long-stay patients: discrepant accounts of the refractory ward and ‘rumpus room’ at Gartnavel Royal Hospital . History of Psychiatry, 18 (2): 203-215.

Andrews J. ( 1998) R. D. Laing in Scotland: facts and fictions of the ‘rumpus room’ and interpersonal psychiatry. In: Gijswijt-Hofstra M and Porter R (eds) Cultures of Psychiatry. Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 121-150.

Basaglia F. ( 1966) La ‘communauté thérapeutique’ base d’un service psychiatriques, réalités et perspectives . L’information psychiatrique 5 (mai): 413-428.

Basaglia F (ed.) (1970) L’Institution en négation. Rapport sur l’hôpital psychiatrique de Gorizia. Paris: Le Seuil; originally published in Italian, 1968.

Barnes M. and Berke J. ( 1973) Mary Barnes. Un voyage à travers la folie . Paris: Le Seuil; originally published in 1971 as: Mary Barnes. Two Accounts of a Journey through Madness .

Berke J. ( 1980) Therapeutic community models: II Kingsley Hall . In: Jansen E The Therapeutic Community. London: Croom Helm, 95-101.

Bleandonu G. ( 1970) Les Communautés thérapeutiques. Paris: CEMEA, Editions du Scarabée .

Bloch C. ( 1962) Aspects de l’assistance psychiatrique en Grande-Bretagne . L’information psychiatrique 3: 233-248; 4: 355-363; 5: 435-439.

Blok G. ( 2004) Baas in eigen Brein [Master of one’s mind] . ‘Antipsychiatrie’ in Nederland, 1965-1985. Amstderam: Uitgeverij Nieuwezijds.

10.

Blok G. (in preparation) La thérapie de famille au Pays-Bas (1965-2004). Une carrière socialement déterminée? In: Fussinger C and Barras V (eds) La Psychothérapie comme pratique professionnelle. Pour une histoire croisée. Lausanne: éditions BHMS.

11.

Bloor MJ ( 1986) Social control in the therapeutic community: re-examination of a critical case. Sociology of Health and Illness 8 (4): 305-324.

12.

Bloor MJ and Fonkert JD ( 1982) Reality construction, reality exploration and treatment in two therapeutic communities. Sociology of Health and Illness 4 (2): 125-140.

13.

Bola RJ and Mosher LR ( 2005) The legacy of Kingsley Hall I: treatment of acute psychosis without neuroleptics: two-year outcomes from the Soteria Project . In: Raschid S R.D. Laing. Contemporary Perspectives. London: Free Association Books, 249-272.

14.

Briggs DL ( 1959) Social psychiatry in Great Britain. American Journal of Nursing 59 (2): 215-220.

15.

Busfield J. ( 1986) Managing Madness: Changing Ideas and Practice. London and Dover, NH: Hutchinson.

16.

Bueltzingsloewen I Von ( 2007) L’Hécatombe des fous. La Famine dans les hôpitaux psychiatriques français sous l’Occupation . Paris: Aubier.

17.

Bueltzingsloewen I Von (forthcoming) Soigner l’individu et/ou le collectif ? Les premières expériences de psychothérapie sociale dans les hôpitaux psychiatriques français (1945-1952). In : Fussinger C and Barras V (eds) La psychothérapie comme pratique professionnelle au 20e siècle. Pour une histoire croisée . Lausanne: BHMS.

18.

Ciompi L. ( 2005) The legacy of Kingsley Hall II: the Soteria-Concept. Theoretical bases and practical 13-year experience with milieu-therapeutic approach to acute schizophrenia (the Swiss Soteria Bern Project). In: Raschid S R.D. Laing. Contemporary Perspectives. London : Free Association Books, 272-295.

19.

Clark DH ( 1964) Administrative Therapy. The Role of the Doctor in the Therapeutic Community. London: Tavistock Publications.

20.

Cooper D. ( 1967) Psychiatry and Anti-Psychiatry. London and elsewhere: Tavistock Publications.

21.

Fussinger C. (2010) Éléments pour une histoire de la "communauté thérapeutique" au sein de la psychiatrie occidentale de la seconde moitie du 20e siècle . Gesnerus 67 (2): 217-240.

22.

Gale D. ( 2001) Far out. The Guardian (8 Sept.); accessed (28 Apr. 2008) at: www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2001/sep/08/weekend7.weekend/print .

23.

Grob G. ( 1994) The Mad Among Us: A History of the Care of America’s Mentally Ill. Cambridge & London: Harvard Univ. Press.

24.

Harrison T. ( 2000) Bion, Rickman, Foulkes and the Northfield Experiments: Advancing on a Different Front. London and elsewhere: J. Kingsley.

25.

Henckes N. ( 2007) Le nouveau monde de la psychiatrie française. Les psychiatres, l’État et la réforme des hôpitaux psychiatriques de l’après-guerre aux années 1970. Thèse de doctorat en sociologie, Ecole des hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris (unpublished).

26.

Hinshelwood RD ( 1989) The therapeutic community in a changing cultural and political climate. International Journal of Therapeutic Communities 10 (1): 63-69.

27.

Jones E. ( 2004) War and the practice of psychotherapy: the UK experience 1939-1960. Medical History 48: 493-510.

28.

Jones K. ( 1972) A History of The Mental Health Services. London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

29.

Jones K. and Poletti A. ( 1986) The ‘Italian Experience’ reconsidered . British Journal of Psychiatry 148: 144-150.

30.

Main T. ( 1983) The concept of the therapeutic community: variations and vicissitudes. In: Pines M (ed) The Evolution of Group Analysis London and elsewhere : Routledge & Kegan Paul, 197-217.

31.

Manning N. ( 1989) The Therapeutic Community Movement: Charisma and Routinisation . London and New York: Routledge.

32.

Martin DV ( 1962) Adventure in Psychiatry. Social Change in a Mental Hospital . Oxford: Bruno Cassire .

33.

Millard DW ( 1996) Maxwell Jones and the therapeutic community. In: Freeman H and Berrios GE (eds) 150 Years of British Psychiatry, Vol. 2: The Aftermath. London: Athlone Press, 581-604.

34.

Rapoport RN ( 1974) La Communauté thérapeutique. Paris: Maspéro ; originally published in 1960 as: Community as Doctor. New Perspectives on a Therapeutic Community.

35.

Rose N. ( 1986) Psychiatry: the discipline of mental health. In: Miller P and Rose N (eds) The Power of Psychiatry. Cambridge : Polity Press.

36.

Rose N. ( 1989) Gouverning the Soul. The Shaping of Private Self . London and New York: Routledge .

37.

Rose N. ( 1998) Inventing our selves. Psychology, Power and Personhood . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

38.

Sharp V. ( 1975) Social Control in the Therapeutic Community. Farnborough: Saxon House.

39.

Slavich A. ( 1970) Mythe et réalité de l’autogouvernement . In: Basaglia F (ed.) L’Institution en négation. Rapport sur l’hôpital psychiatrique de Gorizia. Paris: Le Seuil,155-169; originally published in Italian, 1968.

40.

Spandler H. ( 2006) Asylum to Action. Paddington Day Hospital, Therapeutic Communities and Beyond. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

41.

Stanton A. and Schwartz M. ( 1954) The Mental Hospital. A Study of Institutional Participation in Psychiatric Illness and Treatment. New York: Basic Books.

42.

Thalassis N. ( 2007) Soldiers in psychiatric therapy: the case of Northfield Military Hospital 1942-1946. Social History of Medicine 20 (2): 351-368.

43.

Wiley J. ( 1986) Role blurring in a holistic therapeutic community. An intermediary response to institutionalization and deinstitutionalization . Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 178 (1): 3-39.

44.

Woodbury M. ( 1966) L’équipe thérapeutique. Principes de traitement somato-psycho-social des psychoses. L’Information psychiatrique 10: 1035-1142.