This week’s Blast from the Past is unusual as it is not taken from the Solari Report archives. Rather, we are continuing the theme of the political abuse of psychiatry (see commentary to this week’s movie) by pointing out that this has been used as an effective weapon in the past.

In fact, mental health has been weaponized many times, and if we take a look at historical examples, we may be better able to recognize abuse in our day and age.

Revisiting the historical precedents will help us see the danger at hand and understand the importance of not letting it happen again.

Here are only a handful of examples:

Review: “Political Abuse of Psychiatry—An Historical Overview”

Editorial: “Political Abuse of Psychiatry in Authoritarian Systems”

Article: “The Political Abuse of Psychiatry Against Dissenting Voices”

Article: “Political Abuse of Psychiatry in the Soviet Union and in China: Complexities and Controversies”

Wikipedia: “Abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union”

Wikipedia: “Political abuse of psychiatry” (by selected countries)

Encyclopedia: “Psychiatry, Abuses of”

Report: “China Routinely Using Psychiatric Hospitals to Torture Dissidents”