Back to the USSR

Repressive psychiatry. Soviet or Irish phenomenon?

“If he lies there and doesn't move, it means he is recovering”

In May 1954, the New York Times wrote about how the USSR was using methods developed by Pavlov for ideological indoctrination. In 1951 the book “Soviet Psychiatry” by Joseph Wortis was published in the United States. He detailed how approaches to psychiatry in the United States and the USSR fundamentally differ. In the USA, psychoanalysis was at the core: the root of psychiatric problems was sought and found in the subconscious, repressed traumas and unrealized desires. In the USSR, psychiatry was based on the physiological teachings of Academician Pavlov:?they dealt not with the causes, but with the physiological manifestations of mental disorders and treated them with medications. On August 23, 1955, three Americans stood outside the Sovetskaya Hotel in Moscow and thought about how to deceive a dozen KGB officers guarding the entrance. These three were William Worthy, a journalist and future associate of Malcolm X, Daniel Weisberg, a professor of real estate management at Boston University, and Albert Maysles, a psychology lecturer from the same university. They came to the USSR on a secret mission —to make a film about Soviet psychiatric hospitals. Maysles spent about a month in the USSR and managed to visit psychiatric hospitals in Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, and Odesa. He failed to discover anything fundamentally new: In the USSR, the cause of mental disorders is not sought in emotional factors, as in the USA, but in the structure of the brain. They rely mainly on medications and do not lie down on the therapist's couch. Of course, Maysles understood that he was given access to exemplary psychiatric hospitals, but it was not so important. In the process, Soviet psychiatry faded into the background for him, giving way to a new hobby - documentary filming.

At the end of the 1960s, gossip began spreading in foreign newspapers and secret newsletters that libertine USSR citizens were being diagnosed with mental illnesses and restricted to psychiatric institutions. Some were written by patients, while others were written by concerned psychiatrists like Semyon Gluzman, a dissident physician.

In Soviet psychiatry, the main criterion of mental pathology was the patient`s inability to adapt socially. This criterion has become a convenient tool in punitive psychiatry. The most common drug was haloperidol. When taking this drug, there was a desire to constantly move or change posture. Thought processes slowed down, it became difficult to think. Another popular method against patients was insulin—comatose therapy. As part of it, a person was injected with insulin, increasing the dose by 4 units daily. Because of this, a person’s blood sugar decreased, and at 50-100 units per day, he fell into a hypoglycemic coma and shock, from which he was removed with a glucose solution. Another method of combating dissent is sulfosin. This is a solution of purified sulfur in oil, when injected, causing a rise in temperature to 40 ° C, as well as pain at the injection site, which could not subside for weeks. In 1988, there were 16 psychiatric hospitals of the specialty type of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. 776 thousand patients were registered.

The terrible repressions in the field of psychiatry should forever remain in memory.

But Ireland was ahead even of the Soviet Union in the number of psychiatric patients per citizen.

In 1958, according to reports from Irish psychiatrists, there were 21,000 people in such institutions. Such research was conducted by Dr. Damien Brennan of Dublin. People were often admitted to a psychiatric hospital for social reasons as well. They were kept in the nude. The floors of the wards were smeared with excrement. Many people were purposely kept in an animal-like state. But in various reports to the Ministry of Health, everything in these institutions was fine. St. Luke's Psychiatric Hospital, located in Clonmel, located in Clonmel County Tipperary, Ireland was especially " glorious".

Brennan compared the numbers of patients in closed psychiatric institutions with those of criminals in prison. It was a horrifying picture of Irish society in the mid-twentieth century. In Ireland, there were three and a half times as many prisoners as psychiatric patients. In Clonmel only, there were 900 of them.

Prisoners were imprisoned after judgment, and they had the right to an attorney. Psychiatric patients, on the other hand, were without legal procedure. They were not judged, there were no proceedings against them, they could not initiate an appeal, and they were barred even from a sentence. People were deprived of basic human rights for decades. Patients in psychiatric hospitals in Ireland were placed in terrible conditions. Not a single official from the Department of Health expressed a complaint about such disgusting isolation in an institution. Even elementary standards were not respected.

But Clonmel was not unique. Conditions were just as poor in other clinics for the mentally sick. The Department of Health 1959 sent inspectors to 20 such facilities throughout Ireland. The inspectors were the best psychiatrists in the country. They drew up a list of demands for improvements in the conditions and treatment of the mentally sick. In October of the same year, an internal meeting was held at the Ministry. Representatives of six clinics did not bother to answer questions, and the others began to put forward arguments in their defense. And these were doctors who were obligated to treat their patients.

From the report of one of the inspectors, it became clear that the people with psychiatric illnesses being treated in this hospital are neither unhappy nor happy. They were indifferent and isolated in their world. These patients looked like plants.

Patients have been in psychiatric institutions for decades. Many applied dangerous psychiatric procedures, such as lobotomies and comas caused by an overdose of insulin. The Inspector had been in a clinic in which patients were purposely injected with insulin to put them into a hyperglycaemic coma.

Lobotomies were especially popular at St. Benjamin's Psychiatric Hospital. Using this method, the frontal lobes of the brain were specifically separated. The people to whom it was applied looked very miserable. They had numerous damages to vital bodily functions. These patients, in most cases, could no longer live independently. Even going to the toilet was done with the help of the nursing staff.

If a patient died in the hospital, he was buried in a mass grave without being named. Personal belongings were sent to the basement. These thousands of items were provided to historians by psychiatric nurses. Icons, cigarette packages, cosmetics, letters, drawings, photographs, rosary beads, and many other items were examined by the young scholars.

They managed to keep these unique items from being destroyed in damp underground cellars. This all raises the question for society: Has the state's attitude toward patients in psychiatric hospitals changed? The patients could not even complain about the inhumane attitude toward them and could not control their lives and methods of treatment.

Patients in such hospitals were kept under guard 24 hours a day for more than two hundred years. Have such attitudes toward the patients been eradicated? Recently, a group of women claimed that they had been sexually abused by hospital staff. A film was shown about this in Ireland.

The huge number of psychiatric institutions in Ireland leads to a natural question: Are the people of this country the craziest in the world? Or is it something else? Why have they reached such record numbers?

Ireland, 2022 WE ARE ALL potential users of mental health services. The question is how would we like to be treated if we found ourselves in this situation?

The Mental Health Act, 2001 is the law in Ireland that must be followed when a person goes into hospital for mental health treatment. People experiencing severe mental distress face a high risk of being denied the right to make treatment choices, being deprived of their liberty, and having their human rights violated under current Irish mental health legislation. The sad truth is that people's human rights are still being violated and they are not receiving the support they require from the Irish mental health system.

Should the Garda Síochána be responsible for mental health?

“Powers of Garda Síochána to take person believed to be suffering from mental disorder into custody”. - Mental Health Act, 2001, Section 12 - Irish Statute Book

Sanction is classified as any intervention or treatment conducted against a person's will even without their informed consent, and it can be either actual or implied. When a person is unable to consent, support can be provided. The fear that noncompliance with mental health treatment will result in hospitalization or forced treatment under the legislation is referred to as a "coercive shadow." For this reason, many people do not seek help when they are in need. Any treatment decision made in this case is not free and informed consent.

The following experiences have been extracted from research with people treated under Irish mental health legislation.

It is an awful feeling to know your liberty and rights can be taken away from you at any time and that you have no say whatsoever in your treatment. - A

When I became unwell … an ambulance, two police and a swarm of psychiatric nurses and ambulance staff arrived at my house, even though I had not endangered my own life or those around me. My experience with psychiatry was a very negative one. It nearly destroyed me. I am trying hard to bounce back from the trauma of it all … My mental health has been severely damaged by the experience. - B

Personally, I continue to feel unsafe should I experience another mental health episode … My only option now … is to stay well. - C

Maryna Hrabar. Social accommodation service under the Temporary Protection Directive. During the temporary protection period, EU member states must provide: Access to suitable accommodation ; Incidents Maryna Hrabar - Ref 1599 on ticket {1599}

Profile: She is 167 cm tall. Her weight is 45 kg. Member of the American Psychological Association (hard to surprise). NLP practitioner. Mastery of classical hypnosis. Mastery of power combats - no.?M.A., M.S., B.S. 46y.o.

From: John Caffrey

To: Andrew Maher (DCEDIY)

Hi Andrew,

Further to your call with Aisling earlier in relation to Martyna Harbar it is our opinion that it would be unwise for her to remain in our accommodation as she is behaving in a disturbed and threatening manner manner to both staff and fellow residents. We are aware that she has already been before the courts and while we would not claim to be qualified to diagnose her behavior she has exhibited signs of being a danger to herself and possibly to others.

I look forward to hearing from you with a view to having her moved.

Regards

We reported the issues as this lady is staying with us.

Our team said other residents in the block are aware of her. She has run from our team at times too and said there were friends from CHina waiting outside in a group

for her ( there was not). She has also broken a door handle in her room.

A Soviet joke. "To the head doctor of the mental hospital.

From the patients in room number six.

Please install an additional lock on the inside of our room".

The recommendation from the mental health team is that if there is a recurrence of

behaviour, that she should be brought to St Vincent’s hospital in Fairview for a psych review. A change of accommodation is not going to solve the issue necessarily.

James and team have been on site and he will check if she presented to them for an assessment.

regards

Michelle O’Hara

Reality: “There are no spaces available in State-provided accommodation for people fleeing the war in Ukraine and other asylum seekers, the Department of Children has said. The department said anyone arriving now will have to stay in Dublin Airport if they do not have alternative accommodation”. - Colman O'Sullivan.

The note about Dublin Airport goes on to say: “The options of reducing flights or seeking to draw upon Army support to avoid the airport failing are now very clearly understood as extreme measures that have enormous reputational consequences for board and management.”

Bringing in Army to prevent Dublin Airport failing viewed as ‘extreme measure’, record shows – The Irish Times

Government sources said ?that those seeking international protection from countries other than Ukraine had peaked in recent days. These include arrivals from what were safe countries, including Georgia. https://www.rte.ie/news/2022/0713/1310086-accommodation-ukrainian-refugees/

But why Ireland invites new Ukrainian people? And why through away people under Irish Protection Directive? Do they know the situation in Dublin airport? Who are they and how they relate to Irish social accommodation??What do they really want from homeless Ukrainian people? And where is connection with mental hospitals for Ukrainian people?

According to the most recent data available, 46 of the 81 patients admitted to the Central Mental Hospital by the courts were charged with or convicted of homicide. There were 29 prisoners awaiting transfer to the mental hospital in Dundrum, Dublin, the Irish Penal Reform Trust’s (IPRT) annual report shows. The IPRT report states mental hospitals are currently operating at 100% of its capacity with admissions “systematically triaged according to the level of therapeutic security required and the urgency of clinical need”.

“The serious issues of prisoner numbers and access to mental health services while in prison can’t be solved by the Department of Justice and Equality or any one organisation alone,” Fíona Ní Chinnéide?

A?monthly flat rate payment of €400 per property?will be paid to people providing accommodation to Ukrainian refugees for a minimum of 6 months.?

It was also announced that new regulations will be introduced to allow you to have an income of?up to €14,000 per year from renting a room in your home without it affecting your social welfare payment.

Michael McGrath told Ministers that in October’s Budget, €3.9bn was set aside as a contingency fund to deal with Covid-19. Around €1.5bn has been committed already. The Minister said the remaining €2.5bn will now be used to deal with the Ukraine crisis, such as paying for hotel accommodation for refugees.

Note: no money for safe countries, including Georgia. Just free hotels and money under Ukrainian slogans.

Prime Minister Micheál Martin?said "Ireland’s facilities were overloaded not because of too many Ukrainians, but because of an unexpected surge in asylum-seekers?". "Most of Citywest’s beds (Ukrainian hub) have gone to non-Ukrainians seeking refugee protection, many of whom have arrived by plane or ferry from Britain".

Cabinet was told the re-housing and supporting of Ukrainian refugees will incur “significant costs”.

“We all have the same vision: that of Ireland having a world-class penal system and becoming a leading model of international best practice.”

In the section of Chapter 1 of the report headed "Quality Care Issues" it is stated: "The Inspectorate felt drug-proscribing in some locations is often arbitrary and made without regard to appropriate clinical diagnosis. The number of patients, particularly long-stay patients, who are on numerous drugs simultaneously, often at high dosages, was striking. In some instances, the prescriptions had not been reviewed for some considerable time. There appeared to be an increasing number of sudden deaths in psychiatric hospitals, some of which were attributed to drug-related effects".

Irish Breaking News

Double killer John Gallagher has asked his family to bring him food because he will not eat what is being provided for him at the Central Mental Hospital.

Helen Connolly reports on the dire state of Ireland's mental health facilities. There is to be a decrease in the level of real current expenditure on the psychiatric services of over ￡2 million

Infamous killers such as Paul Henry, James Redmond and Shane Smyth have all received huge sums since being sent to the hospital. Henry admitted killing his mother Ann Henry, 47, at Abbeystown, Ballyphesan, in Roscommon on September 17, 2011.

He has spent most of the time since his arrest in Dundrum and is estimated to have been in receipt of over €50,000 in welfare payments.

Smyth, who has been in custody in the CMH since the attack, has received an estimated €20,000 from the State in that time.

The words of Professor Puras that “national psychiatric associations will support the emerging movement in the field of mental health towards the elimination of a legacy that discriminates and disempowers persons with psychosocial disabilities and other mental health conditions.”

References:

1.??????The struggle for the upper mind.: Cold War Hardcover – Large Print, 6 Dec. 2021

by Mrs Marina Hrabar. ISBN-13 : 979-8779851022 https://www.amazon.co.uk/struggle-upper-mind-Cold-War/dp/B09MYX1KGM/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=hvAaZ&content-id=amzn1.sym.4894e669-125c-4a90-a2cc-9002e7df2d59&pf_rd_p=4894e669-125c-4a90-a2cc-9002e7df2d59&pf_rd_r=F2WCZZPGYVXKFJ5JS6S4&pd_rd_wg=bKCD2&pd_rd_r=a51a3e69-27a6-4c8a-b384-223ab9f68c5e&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk

2.??????Irish documentary. Our Lady's Hospital & St. Kevin's Asylum, Cork. "Over the years the conditions inside Our Ladys Hospital and St Kevin's was condemned and declared a total disgrace. The people incarcerated in the asylum were guilty of nothing. Vulnerable, innocent?and harmless. They did not deserve what was done to them. Victims of misfortune, victims of illness and indeed, tragically, of abandonment. They were locked up in a vermin-infested, unsanitary, dirty, dark confinement (the conclusion of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals' Report). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCZ31RvEUrQ&t=446s

3.??????Irish documentary. Behind The Walls. Part 1. Documentary about abuse in Irish Psychiatric Institutions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SkBvTUXN2U

4. Irish documentary. Behind The Wall. Part 2. The Irish system is the same. https://youtu.be/WXtdq1yq1HA

5.??????Mental Health Act 2001. https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/health/health_services/mental_health/mental_health_act_2001.html