this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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Today I Learned

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The Soviet system used psychiatry as a weapon by diagnosing political opponents as mentally ill in order to confine them as patients instead of trying them in court. Anyone who challenged the state such as dissidents, writers, would-be emigrants, religious believers, or human rights activists could be branded with fabricated disorders like sluggish schizophrenia. This turned normal political disagreement into supposed medical pathology and allowed the state to present dissent as insanity.

Once labeled in this way, people were placed in psychiatric hospitals where they could be held for long periods without legal protections. Harsh treatments were often used to break their resolve. The collaboration between state security organs and compliant psychiatrists created a system where political imprisonment was disguised as medical care, letting the Soviet regime suppress opposition while pretending it was addressing illness rather than silencing critics.

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[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In America black people are diagnosed schizophrenic or psychotic because they talk about institutional racism to white clinicians that don't believe them

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9947477/

https://www.rutgers.edu/news/african-americans-more-likely-be-misdiagnosed-schizophrenia-rutgers-study-finds

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[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago
[–] Asidonhopo@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Somewhat relatedly, the W Bush administration expanded mental health screening and recordskeepint, and broadened the use of somewhat dangerous antipsychotics for non psychotic conditions in the wake of the Patriot Act.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Freedom_Commission_on_Mental_Health

[–] Socialism_Everyday@reddthat.com 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

From the article, western sources claim some 15k people affected over the entirety of the Soviet Union. So yeah, something that did happen, but still quite a minor thing for a country with 300 million people over 70+ years of existence.

For comparison, over 700k people experience homelessness today in the USA, which is arguably at least as damaging to mental (let alone physical health), and if we count the number of people who have experienced homelessness over the past 70 years in the USA it's several million if not tens of millions.

[–] clot27@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

not to mention that 700k number is highly underestimated

according some studies, real numbers maybe 5 to 6 times of that https://abcnews.go.com/US/accurate-annual-count-us-homeless-population-misses-large/story?id=106671876

[–] SippyCup@lemmy.ml 181 points 3 days ago (6 children)

This user has been banned from hexbear.net

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 110 points 3 days ago (5 children)

ml wiped out his whole family

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[–] thagoat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 105 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Trump derangement syndrome. Same shit.

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[–] pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 59 points 3 days ago (10 children)

I'm sure this comments section is going to be thoroughly hinged

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[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 79 points 3 days ago (12 children)

Russia does it too; transexual? Mental illness.

Did I forget to say they also forbid "mentally ill" people to have a driving permit?

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