Deinstitutionalisation and After

The book relates the history of post-war psychiatry, focusing on deinstitutionalisation, namely the shift from asylum to community in the second part of the twentieth century.After the Second World War, psychiatry and mental health care were reshaped by deinstitutionalisation. But what exactly was involved in this process? What were the origins of deinstitutionalisation and what did it mean to those who experienced it? What were the ramifications, both positive and negative, of such a fundamental shift in psychiatric care? Post-War Psychiatry in the Western World: Deinstitutionalisation and After seeks to answer these questions by exploring this momentous change in mental health care from 1945 to the present in a wide range of geographical settings. The book articulates a nuanced account of the history of deinstitutionalisation, highlighting the constraints and inconsistencies inherent in treating the mentally ill outside of the asylum, while seeking to inform current debates about how to help the most vulnerable members of society.

Despo Kritsotaki is a historian of mental health and healthcare in twentieth-century Greece.
Vicky Long is Senior Lecturer in History at Glasgow Caledonian University, UK.
Matthew Smith is Professor of Health History at the University of Strathclyde, UK.

IntroductionDespo Kritsotaki, Vicky Long and Matthew Smith, Deinstitutionalisation and the Pathways of Post-War Psychiatry in the Western WorldPart I. Understanding deinstitutionalisation: culture, ideology and historiographyChapter 1. John Burnham, Deinstitutionalisation and the great sociocultural shift to consumer cultureChapter 2. Alexander Dunst, `All the Fits That-s News to Print-: Deinstitutionalisation and Anti-Psychiatric Movement Magazines in the United States, 1970-1986Chapter 3. Megan Davies and Erika Dyck with Leslie Baker, Lanny Beckman, Geertje Boschma, Chris Dooley, Kathleen Kendall, Eugene LeBlanc, Robert Menzies, Marina Morrow, Diane Purvey, Nérée St-Amand, Marie-Claude Thifault, Jayne Whyte, Victor Willis, After the Asylum in Canada: Surviving Deinstitutionalisation and Revising HistoryPart II. Designing and implementing psychiatric reform: experiments, opportunities and oppositionsChapter 4. Christof Beyer, `Islands of reform-. Early transformation of the mental health service in Lower Saxony, Germany in the 1960sChapter 5. Nicolas Henckes, French deinstitutionalisation or the irony of success. Psychiatrists, the State and the transformation of the French psychiatric system, 1945-2010Chapter 6. Valerie Harrington, Integration in a divided world: Salford Community Mental Health Services 1948-1974Chapter 7. Despo Kritsotaki, Initiating deinstitutionalisation: Early attempts of mental health care reform in Greece, 1950s-1970sPart III. New conceptualisations of therapy and spaceChapter 8. John Stewart, Child Guidance and Deinstitutionalisation in Post-War BritainChapter 9. Cheryl McGeachan -Do you have a frog to guide you?-: Exploring the `asylum- spaces of R.D. LaingPart IV. After Deinstitutionalisation: experiences, challenges and legaciesChapter 10. Elena Trivelli, The Basaglian Legacy in Italian Psychiatry: Remembering, Myth-making, and CrystallisingChapter 11. Howard Padwa, Marcia Meldrum, Jack R. Friedman and Joel T. Braslow, A mental health system in recovery. The era of deinstitutionalisation in CaliforniaChapter 12. Roslyn Burge, Callan Park in transition