David Cooper (psychiatrist)
Encyclopedia
David Graham Cooper
David Graham Cooper (born 1931 in Cape Town
, South Africa
; died 1986 in Paris
, France
) was a British psychiatrist
, theorist and leader in the anti-psychiatry
movement.
Cooper graduated from the University of Cape Town
in 1955. He moved to London
, where he worked at several hospitals and directed an experimental unit for young schizophrenics called Villa 21. In 1965, he was involved with Laing and others in establishing the Philadelphia Association
. An "existential
Marxist
", he left the Philadelphia Association in the 1970s in a disagreement over its growing interest in spiritualism over politics.
are the manifestation of a disparity between one's own 'true' identity and our social identity (the identity others give us and we internalise). Cooper's ultimate solution was through revolution. To this end, Cooper travelled to Argentina as he felt the country was rife with revolutionary potential. He later returned to England before moving to France
where he spent the last years of his life.
Cooper coined the term anti-psychiatry
(see below) to describe opposition and opposing methods to the orthodox psychiatry of the time, although the term could easily describe the anti-psychiatrists' view of orthodox psychiatry, i.e., anti-psychic healing.
He coordinated the Congress on the Dialectics of Liberation, held in London at The Roundhouse
in Chalk Farm from 15 July to 30 July 1967 Participants included R. D. Laing, Paul Goodman
, Allen Ginsberg
, Herbert Marcuse
and the Black Panthers' Stokely Carmichael
. Jean-Paul Sartre
was scheduled to appear but cancelled at the last moment. The term "anti-psychiatry" was first used by David Cooper in 1967.
He was a founding member of the Philadelphia Association, London.
He had earlier described the need to break free from 'one's whole family past...in a way that is more personally effective than a simple aggressive rupture or crude acts of geographical separation'; as well as the kind of false autonomy which oocurs when 'people are still very much in the net of the internal family (and often the external family too) and compulsively search for rather less restricting replica family systems'.
The book may thus be seen as a self-reflexive attempt 'to illustrate the power of the internal family, the family that one can separate from over thousands of miles and yet still remain in its clutches and be strangled by those clutches'.
's Madness and Civilization which began "Madness has in our age become some sort of lost truth"' - a statement not atypical of 'a time which posterity now readily regards as half-crazed'. Continuing the same line of thought, by the end of the following decade, 'he elevated madness to the status of a liberatory force' in his latest publication. 'Here are a few typical utterances from The Language of Madness (Cooper 1980): "Madness is permanent revolution in the life of a person...a deconstitution of oneself with the implicit promise of return to a more fully realized world"'.
. 'Laing...along with David Cooper, who advocated "bed therapy", exemplifies what Elaine Showalter
described as the fundamental anti-psychiatric constellation: 'a combination of charisma in the male therapist and infantilism in the female patient"'.
David Graham Cooper (born 1931 in Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
; died 1986 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) was a British psychiatrist
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
, theorist and leader in the anti-psychiatry
Anti-psychiatry
Anti-psychiatry is a configuration of groups and theoretical constructs that emerged in the 1960s, and questioned the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry, such as its claim that it achieves universal, scientific objectivity. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R.D. Laing,...
movement.
Cooper graduated from the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
in 1955. He moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he worked at several hospitals and directed an experimental unit for young schizophrenics called Villa 21. In 1965, he was involved with Laing and others in establishing the Philadelphia Association
Philadelphia Association
The Philadelphia Association is a UK "charity concerned with the understanding and relief of mental suffering." It was founded in 1965 by the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst R. D...
. An "existential
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
", he left the Philadelphia Association in the 1970s in a disagreement over its growing interest in spiritualism over politics.
Leading concepts
Cooper believed that madness and psychosisPsychosis
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
are the manifestation of a disparity between one's own 'true' identity and our social identity (the identity others give us and we internalise). Cooper's ultimate solution was through revolution. To this end, Cooper travelled to Argentina as he felt the country was rife with revolutionary potential. He later returned to England before moving to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
where he spent the last years of his life.
Cooper coined the term anti-psychiatry
Anti-psychiatry
Anti-psychiatry is a configuration of groups and theoretical constructs that emerged in the 1960s, and questioned the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry, such as its claim that it achieves universal, scientific objectivity. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R.D. Laing,...
(see below) to describe opposition and opposing methods to the orthodox psychiatry of the time, although the term could easily describe the anti-psychiatrists' view of orthodox psychiatry, i.e., anti-psychic healing.
He coordinated the Congress on the Dialectics of Liberation, held in London at The Roundhouse
The Roundhouse
The Roundhouse is a Grade II* listed former railway engine shed in Chalk Farm, London, England, which has been converted into a performing arts and concert venue. It was originally built in 1847 as a roundhouse , a circular building containing a railway turntable, but was only used for railway...
in Chalk Farm from 15 July to 30 July 1967 Participants included R. D. Laing, Paul Goodman
Paul Goodman (writer)
Paul Goodman was an American sociologist, poet, writer, anarchist, and public intellectual. Goodman is now mainly remembered as the author of Growing Up Absurd and an activist on the pacifist Left in the 1960s and an inspiration to that era's student movement...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
and the Black Panthers' Stokely Carmichael
Stokely Carmichael
Kwame Ture , also known as Stokely Carmichael, was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party...
. Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
was scheduled to appear but cancelled at the last moment. The term "anti-psychiatry" was first used by David Cooper in 1967.
He was a founding member of the Philadelphia Association, London.
Family and The Death of the Family
Cooper describes how 'during the end of the writing of this book against the family, I went through a profound spiritual and bodily crisis....The people who sat with me and tended to me with immense kindliness and concern during the worst of this crisis were my brother Peter and sister-in-law Carol...a true family'.He had earlier described the need to break free from 'one's whole family past...in a way that is more personally effective than a simple aggressive rupture or crude acts of geographical separation'; as well as the kind of false autonomy which oocurs when 'people are still very much in the net of the internal family (and often the external family too) and compulsively search for rather less restricting replica family systems'.
The book may thus be seen as a self-reflexive attempt 'to illustrate the power of the internal family, the family that one can separate from over thousands of miles and yet still remain in its clutches and be strangled by those clutches'.
The Language of Madness
In 1967, 'David Cooper provided an introduction to FoucaultFoucault
Foucault can refer to:People:*Jean-Pierre Foucault , French television host*Léon Foucault , French physicist*Michel Foucault , French philosopher and historian...
's Madness and Civilization which began "Madness has in our age become some sort of lost truth"' - a statement not atypical of 'a time which posterity now readily regards as half-crazed'. Continuing the same line of thought, by the end of the following decade, 'he elevated madness to the status of a liberatory force' in his latest publication. 'Here are a few typical utterances from The Language of Madness (Cooper 1980): "Madness is permanent revolution in the life of a person...a deconstitution of oneself with the implicit promise of return to a more fully realized world"'.
Criticism
Cooper's anti-psychiatry receives a cool reception in the eyes of feminismFeminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
. 'Laing...along with David Cooper, who advocated "bed therapy", exemplifies what Elaine Showalter
Elaine Showalter
Elaine Showalter is an American literary critic, feminist, and writer on cultural and social issues. She is one of the founders of feminist literary criticism in United States academia, developing the concept and practice of gynocritics.She is well known and respected in both academic and popular...
described as the fundamental anti-psychiatric constellation: 'a combination of charisma in the male therapist and infantilism in the female patient"'.
Major works
- Reason and Violence: a decade of Sartre's philosophy, Tavistock (1964) – co-authored with R. D. Laing
- Psychiatry and Anti-Psychiatry (Ed.), Paladin (1967)
- The Dialectics of Liberation (Ed.), Penguin (1968) – Cooper's introduction can be read at the Herbert Marcuse website.
- The Death of the Family, Penguin (1971)
- Grammar of Living, Penguin (1974)
- The Language of Madness, Penguin (1978)
External links
- Brother Beast: the David Cooper Anti-Page
- Brother Beast: A Personal Memoir of David Cooper by Stephen TicktinStephen TicktinStephen Jan Ticktin is a Canadian psychiatrist, therapist and lecturer, and a notable figure in the anti-psychiatry movement. After earning his medical degree from the University of Toronto in 1973, Ticktin became personal assistant to anti-psychiatry movement leader David Cooper, travelling with...
, written six weeks after Cooper's death - Far out - Guardian article written by David Gale, a former patient
- The Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive