In the 1970s, activist attorneys took on what they saw as a major issue
in American society – the authority of psychiatrists to lock up hundreds
of thousands of people against their will in state psychiatric hospitals
in violation of their civil liberties. After a series of legal
challenges to psychiatric power, states constructed mental health codes
to limit involuntary psychiatric hospital admissions to a much smaller
population of individuals at imminent risk to harm themselves or others.
Decades later, issues of psychiatric authority with regard to social
dilemmas arose again, but this time with the expectation that
psychiatric expertise could help solve the contemporary problem of gun
violence. This paper examines the history of the intersection between
psychiatry and social problems, especially dangerousness, and the fears
and expectations that have accompanied impressions of psychiatric
expertise and authority.
Here’s the link:
h-madness 