The evolution of psychiatry in Russia

Measuring judiciarization of people with mental illnesses

“…Communist psychiatry, apart from being a form of political repression, was characterized as centralized in its policymaking, Pavlovian and anti-Freudian, occupationally therapeutic, and isolated from the Western community of psychiatrists (Raikhel & Bemme, 2016). However, the Russian system of public health has significantly changed since those times (Kolpakova, 2019;Morozov, 2018;Neznanov & Vasileva, 2015;Polubinskaya, 2000). Despite this, the historical memory of this period has not disappeared and still underlies some clinical practices (Raikhel & Bemme, 2016) and explains public anti-psychiatric attitudes in Russia (Poloshij & Saposhnikova, 2001).…”

“…Further problems include a lack of coordination between psychiatric and medical institutions and the hyper-centralization of psychiatric services. Scholars mainly link these difficulties to the overhaul of the psychiatric system in Russia alongside the multiple economic crises in Russia in the'90 s (Morozov, 2018;Raikhel & Bemme, 2016). In addition, Kolpakova (2019) analyzed the policy documents in Russia and the scientific literature and showed that, although Russia is moving towards the European models of mental health care, the topics of social inclusion, stigma, and independent patient living remain underdeveloped.…”

“…The analysis that we carry out in this article is methodologically novel and therefore valuable for judiciarization research. In addition, our paper adds to the literature on the development of the Russian psychiatric system because, compared to previous papers on this topic, for example Kolpakova (2019), Morozov (2018), and Neznanov and Vasileva (2015), we examine the formal features of the production of legal documents in the historical context and analyze how people with poor mental health are treated at the textual level (linguistically). Investigating only one aspect of the legal discourse on mental health leads to an incomplete view and unreliable conclusions about the way the Russian legal system treats people with mental illness.…”