More on ‘antipsychiatry’

In reference to the “antipsychiatry” editorial by Dr. Henry A. Nasrallah (“The antipsychiatry movement: Who and why,” From the Editor, Current Psychiatry, December 2011, p. 4-6, 53): many years ago, when I was working at Chestnut Lodge, the family of a hospitalized patient asked Dr. Thomas Szasz to evaluate—as a consultant and “antipsychiatrist”—what should be done for this patient. Contrary to the family’s expectations, Dr. Szasz’s opinion was that the patient needed psychiatric treatment and hospitalization.

As a resident at Yale University, I knew Dr. Theodore Lidz very well. It is true that at a time of limited biological knowledge, he emphasized family dynamics as contributing to severe psychopathology, but he did not—to my knowledge—object to electroconvulsive therapy for a particular catatonic patient. His being demonized as an “antipsychiatrist” offends me because it misrepresents him.

John S. Kafka, MD
Private Practice
Washington, DC