Some exceptional experiences give us access to a different reality from the one we encounter in our everyday lives. In the twentieth century, a number of philosophers explored these experiences in the pursuit of a new form of empiricism.
Soviet psychiatry and American psychiatry have different histories. Yet, both were conceived, each in their own way, as instruments of control aimed at repressing deviant behavior.
In the 20th century, being labelled as “schizophrenic” was tantamount to a life sentence. A study based on patient records shows that schizophrenics suffered not only from their illness but also from ideological prejudice and the classificatory obsession of their time.
In the United States starting in the 1950s, schizophrenia ceased being a malady of rural and idle whites, to become increasingly associated with blacks coming from the inner cities. This over-diagnosis is related to the struggle for civil rights and the foregrounding of militants who were judged to be aggressive.
