Psychiatry in Communist Europe

Sarah Marks is Research Fellow in History and Philosophy of Science at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, UK. She teaches and writes on the history of psychiatry, psychology and mental health. Mat Savelli is Postdoctoral Fellow at McMaster University, Canada. His research encompasses work on the history of psychiatry in Yugoslavia, the history and sociology of addiction, and the global advertising of psychopharmaceutical medications.

• Table of Contents1. Communist Europe and Transnational Psychiatry; Sarah Marks and Mat Savelli2. The Dialectics of Labour in a Psychiatric Ward: Work Therapy in the Kaschenko Hospital; Irina Sirotkina and Marina Kokorina3. Insulin Coma Therapy and the Construction of Therapeutic Effectiveness in Stalin ' 's Soviet Union, 1936-1953; Benjamin Zajicek4. Soviet Psychiatry and Drug Addiction in Central Asia: The Construction of ' 'Narcomania ' '; Alisher Latypov5. Psychiatry & Ideology: The Emergence of ' 'Asthenic Neurosis ' ' in Communist Romania; Corina Dobo?6. The History of the Hungarian Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology between 1948 and 1968; Melinda Kovai7. Ecology, Humanism, and Mental Health in Communist Czechoslovakia ; Sarah Marks8. Beyond the Therapeutic Revolution: Psychopharmaceuticals Crossing the Berlin Wall; Volker Hess9. Blame George Harrison: Drug Use and Psychiatry in Communist Yugoslavia; Mat Savelli10. Over theCuckoo ' 's Nest: Russian Variations on a Psychiatric Theme; Rebecca Reich

“Challenging standard interpretations of psychiatry in communist-era Europe, this collection offers important contributions to the social history of medicine. The ten chapters illustrate a rich variety of topics, particularly around treatment options, national-cultural differences, and contest within the Soviet psychiatric profession. … the extensive array of primary sources cited, and the variety of topics and settings offered, demonstrates the scope for continuing study in this sphere.” (Susan Burch, H-Net Disability, netoworks.h-net.org, January, 2016)“Psychiatry in Communist Europe is important reading for anybody interested in the relationship between science and ideology. Not only does it offer thick descriptions of how politics impacted psychiatric knowledge in various national contexts in eastern Europe, it also importantly moves the study of psychiatry in this region beyond the well-known theme of politically motivated psychiatric abuse. … this collection could be avery effective learning tool in undergraduate courses on the global history of medicine.” (Maria Cristina Galmarini-Kabala, Slavic Review, 2016)“This is the first book to address the history of psychiatry under Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, from the Soviet Union to East Germany. It brings together new research addressing understandings of mental health and disorder, treatments and therapies, and the interplay between politics, ideology and psychiatry. … The study deconstructs a predominant totalitarian interpretation frame and embeds the history of psychiatry in Communism in a broader context.” (Felicitas Söhner, pol-int.org, July, 2015)