Editing Anti-psychiatry (section)

== Law ==
{{Globalize|date=January 2010}}
In the US, critics of psychiatry contend that the intersection of the law and psychiatry create extra-legal entities. For example, the [[insanity defense]], leading to detainment in a psychiatric institution versus a prison, can be worse than criminal imprisonment according to some critics, as it involves the risk of compulsory medication with neuroleptics or the use of electroshock treatment.<ref>{{cite book|last=Szasz |first=Thomas |title=Law, Liberty, and Psychiatry: An Inquiry into the Social Uses of Mental Health Practices |publisher=Syracuse University Press; Reprint edition |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-8156-0242-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stopshrinks.org/yoder/index.htm |title=Mental Illness On Trial: The Rodney Yoder Story |website=Stopshrinks.org |access-date=2006-03-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210120915/http://www.stopshrinks.org/yoder/index.htm |archive-date=2009-02-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=January 2014}} While a criminal imprisonment has a predetermined and known time of duration, patients are typically committed to psychiatric hospitals for indefinite durations, an arguably outrageous imposition of fundamental uncertainty.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Szasz |first=Thomas |title=Patient or Prisoner? |journal=Ideas on Liberty |volume=52 |pages=31–32 |year=2002}}</ref> It has been argued that such uncertainty risks aggravating mental instability, and that it substantially encourages a lapse into hopelessness and acceptance that precludes recovery.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

=== Involuntary hospitalization ===
{{Main|Involuntary commitment|involuntary treatment}}
Critics see the use of legally sanctioned force in involuntary commitment as a violation of the fundamental principles of free or open societies. The political philosopher [[John Stuart Mill]] and others have argued that society has no right to use coercion to subdue an individual as long as they do not harm others. Research evidence regarding violent behavior by people with mental illness does not support a direct connection in most studies.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2009/January/elbogen/ |title=UNC study: Mental illness by itself does not predict future violent behavior |publisher=UNC Health Care |date=February 2, 2009 |access-date=July 2, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090414194347/http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2009/January/elbogen/ |archive-date=April 14, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Bower |first=B. |date=16 May 1998 |url=http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc98/5_16_98/fob1.htm |title=Study tracks violence among mentally ill |magazine=Science News |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990506160815/http://sciencenews.org/sn_arc98/5_16_98/fob1.htm |archive-date=1999-05-06}}</ref> The growing practice, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, of [[Care in the Community]] was instituted partly in response to such concerns. Alternatives to involuntary hospitalization include the development of non-medical crisis care in the community.

The American [[Soteria (psychiatric treatment)|Soteria]] project was developed by psychiatrist [[Loren Mosher]] as an alternative model of care in a residential setting to support those experiencing psychiatric symptoms or extreme states. The Soteria houses closed in 1983 in the United States due to lack of financial support.<ref>{{Cite web |first=Loren R. |last=Mosher |title=Soteria-California and Its Successors: Therapeutic Ingredients |url=http://akmhcweb.org/ncarticles/soteriasuccessingredients.htm |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=akmhcweb.org |archive-date=2023-05-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522090609/http://akmhcweb.org/ncarticles/soteriasuccessingredients.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Similar programs were established in Europe, including in Sweden and other North European countries.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ahrp.org/infomail/04/07/13.php |title=Dr. Loren Mosher, 1933–2004 |access-date=2014-01-13 |date=13 July 2004 |publisher=Alliance for Human Research Protection |archive-date=2014-12-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141201230034/http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/04/07/13.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> More recently{{year needed|date=June 2015}}, a Soteria House opened in Vermont, US <ref>{{Cite news |last=Remsen |first=Nancy |title=Dream House: Soteria Vermont Welcomes Mental Health Patients |url=https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/dream-house-soteria-vermont-welcomes-mental-health-patients/Content?oid=2643104 |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Seven Days |language=en |archive-date=2023-05-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522090608/https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/dream-house-soteria-vermont-welcomes-mental-health-patients/Content?oid=2643104 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The physician [[Giorgio Antonucci]], during his activity as a director of the ''Ospedale Psichiatrico Osservanza'' of Imola in Italy from 1979 to 1996, refused any form of coercion and any violation of the fundamental principles of freedom, questioning the basis of psychiatry itself.<ref name="Antonucci 1986" /><ref>{{citation |first=Massimo |last=Paolini |date=6 December 2017 |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/giorgio-antonucci-life-for-liberation-of-powerless/ |website=openDemocracy |title=Giorgio Antonucci: a life for the liberation of the powerless |access-date=26 February 2022 |archive-date=26 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220226155109/https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/giorgio-antonucci-life-for-liberation-of-powerless/ |url-status=live }}</ref>