legal

Anti-psychiatry is the belief that the psychiatric system is a system of social control masquerading behind made-up science. The Marxist anti-psychiatry movement failed because of it's overly intellectual focus and the inability of its key thinkers to put theory into practice. However, with mental health very much on the political agenda, there are lessons that can be learned from the work of R D Laing and David Cooper.

A short account of the 1835 execution of two London working men, James Pratt and John Smith, the last to be put to death for homosexuality.

According to Graeber’s bureaucratic procedures “are invariably ways of managing social situations that are already stupid because they are founded on structural violence.” But what Graeber means by structural violence is a system “that ultimately rests on the threat of force,” whether police officers, drill sergeants, tax auditors, or all the other agents who support a system that spies, cajoles and threatens. This complex of definitions lands Graeber squarely in the anarchist tradition, and though he layers contemporary anthropological theory into his analysis, he serves up a clear and generally jargon-free argument.