Peter Harold Sedgwick (9 March 1934 – c. 8 September 1983) was a translator of Victor Serge, author of a number of books including ''PsychoPolitics'' and a revolutionary socialist activist.

Life

Peter Sedgwick grew up in Liverpool and won a scholarship to

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, where he became a member of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

. In 1956, after the Hungarian Revolution, he left and joined the ''Socialist Review'' Group, later the International Socialists (forerunners of the Socialist Workers Party). He wrote for the group's press while also getting involved in the activities of rank-and-file members. He was opposed to the International Socialists' renaming themselves the Socialist Workers Party in January 1977 and refused to join the new organisation. However, he remained dedicated to the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

. Christopher Hitchens called him "a noble remnant of the

libertarian left Left-libertarianism,Bookchin, Murray; Biehl, Janet (1997). ''The Murray Bookchin Reader''. New York: Cassell. p. 170.Goodway, David (2006). '' Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to ...

" and dedicated his book ''Letters to a Young Contrarian'' (2001) to Sedgwick's memory. For the 15 years until his death Sedgwick earned his living as a lecturer in politics at the Universities of York and Leeds. In his book ''PsychoPolitics'' (1982) he explained that the severe reductions in psychiatric services that were already taking place as a result of the " politically correct" conceptions of

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

, such as those of the anti-psychiatry writers

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...

R.D. Laing Ronald David Laing (7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989), usually cited as R. D. Laing, was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illnessin particular, the experience of psychosis. Laing's views on the causes and treatment of ...

and Thomas Szasz, were actually being pursued by governments anxious to reduce spending on health care. Ben Watson (music writer) has compared the spirit of Sedgwick's work to the later campaigns of the Mad Pride movement.Psycho Politics
Ben Watson, Newhaven Journeyman magazine issue #1, 5 January 2015 Sedgwick was found dead on 8 September 1983, aged 49, in a canal near his home in Shipley, Yorkshire. He was editing some of the works of Victor Serge at the time of his death.

Selected writings

*Translation (with introduction) of Victor Serge's ''

Memoirs of a Revolutionary A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

'' (1963) *"George Orwell: International Socialist?" (1969: the second part of this article was promised, but has never been published) *''PsychoPolitics'' (Pluto Press, 1982, 2nd edition 1987) New edition, Unkant, July 2015. *"The Unhappy Elitist: Victor Serge’s Early Bolshevism" (1984)

References

External links

Peter Sedgwick ArchivePeter Sedgwick Archive at Bishopsgate Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sedgwick, Peter 1934 births 1983 deaths British Marxists British Marxist writers History of mental health in the United Kingdom Socialist Workers Party (UK) members People involved with mental health British Trotskyists Academics of the University of York