Medicalization of Suicide as an Antipsychiatry Problem

Abstract

Suicidal behavior in the modern scientific world is considered from the perspective of different disciplines (sociology, anthropology, philosophy, etc.), but psychiatry stands out in this list, because it can directly impact the suicider. Antipsychiatry, considered as a space of problematization and criticism of psychiatry, concerns both the foundation of psychiatry and individual situations related to the implementation by psychiatrists of their functions. This is why the phenomenon of suicide attracts the attention of one of the prominent representatives of the American anti-psychiatrist movement – T. Szasz. The key point in suicide analysis for Т. Szasz is that suicide is considered as a phenomenon closely associated with mental disease, thus, it is medicalized. In this case, it becomes much more important, why suicide as a phenomenon turns into an object of study of psychiatry. Т. Szasz refers to this transformation as a transition from a sin-and-crime to an illness-as-excuse. He fairly points out that the emergence of an explanatory suicide model within the framework of psychiatry made it possible for suiciders to change their category from those accused and rejected from Christian burial and rights of inheritance to those affected by a disease, and requiring medical treatment. Besides, Т. Szasz emphasizes the situation, in which suiciders find themselves in a mental health institution. The main feature of this situation is restriction of personal freedom and the ability to have a life worth living.