Being a graduate from 3 years of studying psych and with an active experience of mental illness, I can say that no amount of studying theory and doing therapy+ taking meds for years helped me realize the root of my problems and my worth as a human. more than Marxist analysis. I live to be a part of the revolution, and as long as psychotherapy reinforces the client to believe in themselves and to accept the realities of it is what it is, it will never achieve its job of liberating the person. There is a need for psychology to gain a Marxist perspective, more so from modern day leftists in the mental health field.
This is not shocking considering that both professions are easily 20 years behind the rest of the other medicine fields.
EDIT: In Nazi Germany, some 250,000 people were murdered on the basis of eugenic psychiatry that became popular in America and resulted in the sterilization of about 60,000 people. Eugenics in Nazi Germany was heavily influenced by the movement in America and many psychiatrists who continue to have major influence over the field were supporters, like Adolf Meyer.
That is blatantly untrue. Psychiatry was founded in the US before even the Civil War in 1844, when the American Psychiatric Association was set up in Philadelphia where they set up the first American psychiatric hospital and set up some of the world first effective lithium treatments for depression.
Yes psychiatry had horrible fall throughs and it was used for evil, but as a medical practice it was generally an institution for good.
You’re right, I got some things conflated. Nazi Germany were actually using eugenic ideas pushed first by psychiatry in the US in the early 20th century to mass murder up to 250,000 people. Many of the most prominent psychiatrists in the early 20th century in the US were eugenicists, some who have major legacies to this day. I remember reading something previously that linked these eugenicist ideas to modern psychiatry but I can’t find it. I’ll edit my post.
Source?
I conflated some things. In Nazi Germany, some 250,000 people were murdered on the basis of eugenic psychiatry that became popular in America and resulted in the sterilization of about 60,000 people. Eugenics in Nazi Germany was heavily influenced by the movement in America and many psychiatrists who continue to have major influence over the field were supporters, like Adolf Meyer. I could have sworn I read an article more directly drawing comparisons between the eugenic psychology in early 20th century America to the practice today, but I can’t find it so I can’t claim a super strong connection there.