There are a number of social and political movements that question certain practices of psychiatry, which became known as anti-psychiatry. One movement originated during the French Revolution of 1789 and was influenced by romantic ideals. Another movement started in Germany around 1900. The third big movement was stated in the United States and Europe in the 1960s. This movement questioned the classification of Schizophrenia as a mental illness, to be treated by psychiatry and also wanted to highlight certain problems of psychiatric wards.

One of the people who influenced the 1960s movement a great deal was Michel Foucault. His book Madness and Insanity: History of Madness in the Classical Age is about the question at what point madness starts.

South African psychiatrist David Cooper was the first to use the word “anti-psychiatry”. He first used it in 1967.^[1]

• Psychiatry
• MindFreedom International
• David Oaks