Your Life is Waiting*

The discussion will be held in English with simultaneous translation to Czech. Admission free. 

The nature of madness has been debated since antiquity. Mental illness, however, is an invention of modern times, coupled with the institutionalization of psychiatry. According to Michel Foucault, it was the need of the 18th century bourgeoisie to remove unruly individuals from the public sphere that led to the introduction of special institutions for the so-called insane. Within these ‘cells for the undesirables’, psychiatry then developed into a scientific discipline.

Today, the psychiatric field is richer than ever, as the number of problems that are considered illness is rapidly increasing. The globally disseminated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association, has grown from its original 134 pages (in 1968) to 947 pages (in 2013). With the creation of a classification system with which symptoms are labeled and categorized as features of mental disorders, a wide range of behaviors have been pathologized. Western society is said to be becoming increasingly mentally ill, plagued by disorders such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), a syndrome also described as one of the epidemics of our century.

However, it is well known that psychiatric diagnoses are a reflection and reinforcement of the ruling ideology. In 1975, for example, homosexuality was removed from the DSM, and thus ceased to constitute a psychiatric disorder due to the change in status. The individualization of social problems led to an increased medicalization of human problems and a reinforcement of the pharmaceutical approach, which aimed to put individuals “right” rather than change problematic social structures.

In this discussion, we will examine the sociopolitical factors shaping the psychiatric ethos in the Czech context and beyond. How are psychiatric disorders invented and constructed as scientific facts? What role do state institutions play in this process? How does the psychiatric ethos influence social structures and the narrative of the self that is produced within them? Is psychiatry a symptom of capitalism and patriarchy? What are the alternatives? And is madness in the form of the rebellious unknown the voice we truly wish to eliminate?

“Your life is waiting” is the slogan of the advertising campaign for Paxil/Seroxat, the psychiatric anti-anxiety drug.

This panel discussion is organized by the Anxiety Institute in collaboration with Alma Lily Rayner.

Guests

Christopher Lane (Ph.D., University of London) teaches literature and intellectual history at Northwestern University near Chicago, and also specializes in 19th and 20th century psychology and psychiatry. He is a former Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and winner of the Prescrire medical journal prize (France). He is the author of six books, including Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness (Yale, 2007), now translated into six languages. He writes a blog for Psychology Today called “Side Effects.

Guests

Christopher Lane (Ph.D., University of London) teaches literature and intellectual history at Northwestern University near Chicago, and also specializes in 19th and 20th century psychology and psychiatry. He is a former Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and winner of the Prescrire medical journal prize (France). He is the author of six books, including Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness (Yale, 2007), now translated into six languages. He writes a blog for Psychology Today called “Side Effects.

Lisa Forestell hears voices, is a mental health activist and certified peer specialist working in Massachusetts. She is the Statewide Development Coordinator for the WMass Recovery Learning Community (RLC)/Recovery Learning Community in Western Massachusetts and a facilitator/trainer for the Hearing Voices Network (HVN). She serves on the boards of HVN-USA and Intervoice. In her international work, Lisa promotes a humane approach to emotional distress using a human rights and social justice framework.

Jakub Černý is a psychologist, social worker and therapist who has worked in the non-profit and government sectors in the areas of drugs, addictions and mental health. As a supervisor, lecturer and activist he supports projects related to social change and emancipation of people with his own experience, for example in the Street support project. Jakub is one of the founding members of Narativ, with which he has long been involved in the development of collaborative and dialogic practice in the Czech Republic, structural and political aspects of mental health and the related support system.

The project is realized with the support of the City of Prague and Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.