The paper: “Falun Gong and the Politics of Psychiatry” in the International Bulletin of Political Psychology looks at psychiatry as a tool of repressive regimes, focusing on China’s incarceration of Falun Gong member in psychiatric hospitals. “This ideology,” says the paper’s introduction,” is a handy vehicle for leaders seeking to remain in power during various policy disasters on a continuum from the democratic to the totalitarian.

“The institution has been intentionally and cynically used to punish political opponents through applying psychiatric practices that are most replete with noxious consequences — e.g., ECT, psychotropic medications with severe extrapyramidal and anticholinergic side-effects, and incarceration in extremely austere and dangerous environments. It is the last — intentional and cynical punishment — that most riles those who critique the institution of psychiatry. Thus the current furor about members of the Falun Gong being involuntarily detained in psychiatric hospitals within the People’s Republic of China (PRC).”