You talk about Soviet psych hospitals. Do you have any further knowledge on them?
It’s notan area I’ve done a lot of reading on yet, but it’s quoted and brought up as anexample in a few of the more general books I’ve read.
Rejalidevote a few pages to them, but considering his book is almost 800 pages long Iwouldn’t recommend buying his book for more information. What I say aboutSoviet psychiatric hospitals I got from Rejali’s basic outline.
Theyessentially marked a turn away from show trials in the Soviet Union. Part ofthe purpose of show trials was to discredit the opposition both at home andinternationally. Which worked for a long time, decades, during which theinternational community generallyseems to have taken forced confessions at face value.
But itcouldn’t last forever.
Declaringkey members of the opposition insanebecame the alternate way to discredit them. Doctors were forced into animpossible position: they could defend diagnosis’s they knew were wrong or rejectthem and be labelled enemies of the state. The former put them in league withtorturers and the latter risked making them victims.
Falsediagnosis varied but a common one was ‘sluggish schizophrenia’. I’m unsure ofthe precise definition but I think it was designed to suggest someone couldappear perfectly normal and lucid most of the time then suddenly manifestschizophrenic symptoms.
Many ofthe people committed were drugged, often as a punishment. Haloperidol wasapparently common as was aminazin. The first produces side effects similar toParkinsons. The second makes people sleepy, groggy and generally knocks themout. Sulfazin was used to induce fevers and ‘insulin shock’ was used as a treatment.Sodium amobarbital, LSD and peyote were also used. So were tranquilisers.
They werebeaten regularly, something the patients referred to as ‘fisticine’. Somethingsimilar to waterboarding was also described: using a wet towel to asphyxiateprisoners.
Restraintswere used, including four point restraints and straight jackets. Restraintswere sometimes used in conjunction with something called ‘wet wraps’. The victimwas wrapped tightly in wet cloths, as the cloth dries it tightens furthersqueezing the victim ‘like a vice’.
Here aresome of the sources Rejali used, they might serve as a starting point for yourown research.
ZhoresMedvedev A Question of Madness,translation E de Kadt 1971
VladimirGusarov It Was Better Under Stalin inSoviet Psychoprisons publishers NewYork: Norton, 1979
ValeriyTarsis Ward 7 1965
AlexanderPodrabinek Punitive Medicine
Hope thathelps. :)
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