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Psychiatric survivors, who have experienced mental health care, campaign for reform against modern psychiatric practices, promoting freedom of choice and human dignity. Forced treatment conflicts with the right to safety and protection from undesirable punishments. Some survivors campaign for better policies, laws, and practices, while others are in the recovery stage.
Psychiatric survivors don’t fit under one umbrella. In general terms, they usually all share a background as mentally ill patients who have experienced psychiatric or mental health care. For some individuals, this distinction has evolved into a movement against modern psychiatric practices. Such ex-patients may campaign for the reform of psychiatric attitudes and practices, or they may simply condemn psychiatry as a whole. In other cases, the term “survivor” is understood in a psychiatric sense: individuals who have experienced and are dealing with significant emotional trauma.
The movement for psychiatric survivors can be seen as a human rights movement. Individuals involved in this movement feel that mentally ill individuals are regularly discriminated against by society. This discrimination often manifests itself in psychiatric treatment approaches. Primarily, psychiatry survivors claim to promote freedom of choice, freedom from cruel and unusual punishments, and the right to human dignity.
A major complaint of psychiatric survivors is the loss of independence and choice. Primarily, this conflict arises in cases of forced treatment and involuntary commitment. If individuals are legally considered a danger to themselves or others, these individuals may be forcibly admitted to a mental health hospital in many regions. Additionally, resistant individuals may be forced to ingest drugs or may even be forcibly restrained with devices such as straitjackets.
Forced treatments can open up the debate on another rights issue: the right of individuals to safety and protection from undesirable punishments. Many psychiatry survivors, for example, speak out against their drug regimens, arguing that the effects of psychiatric drugs are worse than any disease. Others may have had negative experiences with practices such as electroconvulsive therapy or with negative perceptions of medical personnel. Depriving both choice and security, psychiatry survivors argue, robs individuals of basic dignity.
While some psychiatric survivors condemn psychiatry as a whole, others campaign for better policies, laws, and practices. This movement has deep historical roots, as better understanding and activism has significantly helped the general perception of psychiatric patients change from fundamentally flawed or even evil to individuals in need of medical care. Additionally, advocacy has helped abolish practices such as lobotomy and asylums in many regions. Several books and organizations devoted to psychiatric survivors have sprung up in the 20th century.
The word survivor can also be used in psychiatry itself. In most cases, this term describes patients who have experienced some type of trauma and are currently in the recovery stage. For example, an individual who has been attacked or who has endured the emotional effects of witnessing wartime combat may be referred to as a survivor.
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