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New publi­ca­ti­on: ‘A respon­se to cri­ti­cism of the glo­bal men­tal health movement’

On 13 Janu­a­ry 2025 an arti­cle by our board mem­ber Micha­el Hup­pertz was publis­hed which responds to cri­ti­cism of the glo­bal men­tal health move­ment (open access).

Hup­pertz M. (2025). A respon­se to cri­ti­cism of the glo­bal men­tal health move­ment. How pola­riz­a­ti­on can be over­co­me in theo­ry and in west Afri­can social psych­iatric prac­ti­ceGlo­bal men­tal health (Cam­bridge, Eng­land)11, e135.

https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2024.120

Sin­ce the turn of the 21st cen­tu­ry, we have seen the deve­lo­p­ment of an inter­na­tio­nal move­ment that works in various ways to ensu­re that ever­yo­ne in the world has access to ade­qua­te men­tal health care. The­re is inde­ed a gre­at need for action, espe­cial­ly in coun­tries with weak and und­er­fun­ded health sys­tems. The Move­ment for Glo­bal Men­tal Health (MGMH) is sup­por­ted by strong orga­niz­a­ti­ons such as the WHO, aca­de­mic insti­tu­ti­ons and NGOs. As this move­ment has gai­ned momen­tum, howe­ver, it has been accom­pa­nied by fier­ce cri­ti­cism, in par­ti­cu­lar from scho­l­ars of the huma­nities and social sci­ence, who see the glo­bal expan­si­on of psych­ia­try as a medi­cal disci­pli­ne as a form of power-grab­bing, neo­co­lo­nia­lism and capi­ta­list expan­si­on. They also con­si­der psych­ia­try to be a bio­lo­gistic disci­pli­ne, the jus­ti­fi­ca­ti­on of which they ques­ti­on, in con­ti­nua­tion of a long anti-psych­iatric tra­di­ti­on. This cri­ti­cism promp­ted several adap­t­ati­ons of the MGMH and various efforts towards inte­gra­ti­on, but the­se have not been wide­ly accep­ted by the cri­tics. The fol­lowing text pri­ma­ri­ly sum­ma­ri­zes, clas­si­fies and cri­ti­cal­ly enga­ges with the basic argu­ments of the afo­re­men­tio­ned cri­tique. Theo­re­ti­cal mis­con­cep­ti­ons regar­ding the prac­ti­ce of psych­ia­try are cla­ri­fied. Sub­se­quent­ly a spe­ci­fic pro­ject in Côte d’Ivoire is pre­sen­ted that demons­tra­tes how con­tex­tu­al psych­ia­try can pro­ceed and how unne­cessa­ry dicho­to­mies and pola­riz­a­ti­ons can be over­co­me in the inte­rests of the per­sons concerned.