People, Not Psychiatry

229 Pages·17.536 MB·English

by  Michael Barnett

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
PSYCHIATRY
Volume 2
PEOPLE, NOT PSYCHIATRY

PEOPLE, NOT PSYCHIATRY
MICHAEL BARNETT
i
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LONDON AND NEW YORK
Firstpublishedin1973byGeorgeAllen&UnwinLtd.
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ISBN:978-1-138-60492-6(Set)
ISBN:978-0-429-43807-3(Set)(ebk)
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ISBN:978-0-429-46077-7(Volume2)(ebk)
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People
Not
Psychiatry
Michael Barnett
London George Allen & Unwin Ltd
Ruskin House Museum Street
First published in 1973
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention, All
rights are reserved: Apart from any fair dealing for the
purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as
permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no part of this
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© George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1973
ISBN O 04 616013 2 Hardback
0 04 616014 0 Paperback
Printed in Great Britain
in I I point Baskerville type by
Clarke, Doble & Brendon Ltd
Plymouth
Preface
All writing is about oneself. Our experiences are always there,
between paper and pen. And yet we all, more or less, confuse
our perspective with truth or reality, and try to get that per-
spective confirmed as true or real by others. Like Freud, we
can all explain everyone else away with our own view of the
world.
So we have schizophrenic psychiatrists calling schizophrenics
prophets and seers; and psychiatrists obsessed with power,
status and prestige magnifying their own mystique and the
helplessness of patients. I read a book of essays on schizo-
phrenia, and each essay is a small autobiography, a miniature
confession.
In view of the ineluctability of the subject, this book eschews
the objective. Its perspectives are highly personal, and so is
much of the material. I make no apology for this unless it
proves to be boring.
Much of this book is a living story, concerning living people.
To avoid offence and distress many names have been changed.
To those friends and others who appear here without disguise
I would like to both affirm and apologize for a partiality of
my perspective. I hope I have not been unjust.
I want to thank my friends Joanna Clelland and David
Eddy for the time, skill and energy they gave me in reading
the manuscript and offering many useful criticisms. Also my
thanks to Juliet Forman for her generous help with the proofs.
Finally, here, I would like to thank Peter Leek of George
Allen and U nwin, for his patience and faith.
5

To Sam and Fli and all in
PNP-with apologies.
Also to the late Fritz Perls,
Dionysian, who gave me,
through his books, the
courage "tow rite what I felt,
and to Jean-Paul Sartre,
Apollonian, who,
unbeknown to him, kept me
within limits.