The Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry (russian: Госуда́рственный нау́чный центр социа́льной и суде́бной психиатри́и им. В. П. Се́рбского) is a
psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
's main center of
forensic psychiatry
Forensic psychiatry is a subspeciality of psychiatry and is related to criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry. According to the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, it is defined as "a subspecialty of psychiat ...
. In the past, the institution was called the Serbsky Institute ().
Institute
The Institute started in 1921, and was named after Russian
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
Vladimir Serbsky. One of the main stated purposes of the institute was to assist in forensic psychiatry for the
criminal courts. Moscow Serbsky Institute conducts more than 2,500 court-ordered evaluations per year.
The Institute also claimed leadership in studying different types of
psychosis
Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior ...
,
brain trauma
A traumatic brain injury (TBI), also known as an intracranial injury, is an injury to the brain caused by an external force. TBI can be classified based on severity (ranging from mild traumatic brain injury TBI/concussionto severe traumatic br ...
,
alcoholism
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...
and
drug addiction
Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use of ...
. One celebrity treated for an addiction was
Vladimir Vysotsky
Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky ( rus, links=no, Владимир Семёнович Высоцкий, p=vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr sʲɪˈmʲɵnəvʲɪtɕ vɨˈsotskʲɪj; 25 January 1938 – 25 July 1980), was a Soviet singer-songwriter, poet, and actor ...
.
The Serbsky Center is now headed by Zurab Kekelidze (
ru), the chief psychiatrist of the
,
whose dissertation was on
sluggish schizophrenia
Sluggish schizophrenia or slow progressive schizophrenia (russian: вялотеку́щая шизофрени́я, translit=vyalotekushchaya shizofreniya) was a diagnostic category used in the Soviet Union to describe what was claimed to be a for ...
. Kekelidze is known to believe that
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
in some cases is a mental disorder and has not been excluded from the list of mental disorders.
Instrument of Soviet control
In the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
,
dissidents
A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th ...
were often declared mentally ill.
In almost all cases, dissidents were officially examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute,
which evaluated individuals accused under political articles.
Typically declared mentally ill, indictees were sent for
involuntary treatment
Involuntary treatment (also referred to by proponents as assisted treatment and by critics as forced drugging) refers to medical treatment undertaken without the consent of the person being treated. Involuntary treatment is permitted by law in so ...
to dedicated hospitals in the
MVD
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (MVD; russian: Министерство внутренних дел (МВД), ''Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del'') is the interior ministry of Russia.
The MVD is responsible for law enfor ...
system.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the procedure became public and evidence of "psychiatric terror" began to appear.
The majority of incarcerations date from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.
Alexander Esenin-Volpin
Alexander Sergeyevich Esenin-Volpin (also written Ésénine-Volpine and Yessenin-Volpin in his French and English publications; russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Есе́нин-Во́льпин, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪ ...
,
Viktor Nekipelov
Viktor Aleksandrovich Nekipelov (russian: Ви́ктор Алекса́ндрович Некипе́лов, 29 September 1928 – 1 July 1989) was a Soviet Russian poet, writer, Soviet dissident, and a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. He spe ...
,
Suren Arakelov Suren Yurievich Arakelov (russian: Суре́н Ю́рьевич Араке́лов, arm, Սուրե՛ն Յուրիի՛ Առաքելո՛վ) (born October 16, 1947 in Kharkiv) is a Soviet mathematician of Armenian descent known for developing Arakel ...
and
Zviad Gamsakhurdia
Zviad Konstantines dze Gamsakhurdia ( ka, ზვიად გამსახურდია, tr; russian: Звиа́д Константи́нович Гамсаху́рдия, Zviad Konstantinovich Gamsakhurdiya; 31 March 1939 – 31 December 1 ...
were among the victims. Gen.
Pyotr Grigorenko
Petro Grigorenko or Petro Hryhorovych Hryhorenko ( uk, Петро́ Григо́рович Григоре́нко, russian: Пётр Григо́рьевич Григоре́нко, link=no, – 21 February 1987) was a high-ranking Soviet Army ...
was determined as insane in the Serbsky Institute because he "was unshakably convinced of the rightness of his actions" and held "reformist ideas."
[ Translation of the article into Russian: ]
In the 1960s Soviet psychiatry, particularly Serbsky Institute Director Dr.
Andrei Snezhnevsky
Andrei Snezhnevsky ( rus, Андре́й Влади́мирович Снежне́вский, p=sʲnʲɪˈʐnʲefskʲɪj; , Kostroma – 12 July 1987, Moscow) was a Soviet psychiatrist whose name was lent to the unbridled broadening of the diagno ...
, introduced the concept of "
sluggish schizophrenia
Sluggish schizophrenia or slow progressive schizophrenia (russian: вялотеку́щая шизофрени́я, translit=vyalotekushchaya shizofreniya) was a diagnostic category used in the Soviet Union to describe what was claimed to be a for ...
", a special form of the illness that supposedly affects only social behavior, with no effect on other traits: "most frequently, ideas about a ''struggle for truth and justice'' are formed by personalities with a
paranoid
Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy c ...
structure", according to the Serbsky Institute professors.
Most prisoners, in Viktor Nekipelov’s words, characterized the Serbsky Institute professor
Daniil Lunts Daniil Romanovich Luntz (russian: Даниил Романович Лунц; 1912 1977) was a KGB agent who ran the Serbski Institute for Forensic Psychiatry in Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐsk ...
as "no better than the criminal doctors who performed inhuman experiments on the prisoners in Nazi concentration camps."
Post-Soviet era
The Center underwent many changes after the Soviet Union collapsed. Psychiatry is not used as a weapon against dissenters, according to Center Director
Tatyana Dmitrieva
Tatyana Borisovna Dmitrieva (russian: Татья́на Бори́совна Дми́триева; December 21, 1951 – March 1, 2010) was a Russian psychiatrist, a member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and Health minister. During the ...
. The rooms where Soviet dissidents were imprisoned were changed to treat alcohol and drug addicts.
[
Many psychiatric trials were pursued in order to protect high-ranking officials involved in rapes and murders, such as ]Yuri Budanov
Yuri Dmitrievich Budanov ( rus, Ю́рий Дми́триевич Буда́нов, p=ˈjʉrʲɪj ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪdʑ bʊˈdanəf; 24 November 196310 June 2011) was a Russian military officer convicted by a Russian court of kidnapping and ...
(he was convicted only after more than three years of trials).
However, Yuri Savenko
Yuri Sergeevich Savenko (russian: Ю́рий Серге́евич Саве́нко) is a Russian psychiatrist, the president since 1989 of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia. He is also a member of the Council of Experts of the Rus ...
, the head of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia
The Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia (IPA) (russian: Незави́симая психиатри́ческая ассоциа́ция Росси́и) is the sole Russian non-governmental professional organization that makes non-forens ...
, alleged that "practically nothing has changed. They have no shame at the institute about their role with the Communists. They are the same people, and they do not want to apologize for all their actions in the past." Attorney Karen Nersisyan agrees: "Serbsky is not an organ of medicine. It’s an organ of power." Savenko claimed that the institution was not professionally run and thus violated the doctor's main commandment. Spurious diagnoses declared symptom-free individuals to be mentally ill (for example, Budanov or General Pyotr Grigorenko
Petro Grigorenko or Petro Hryhorovych Hryhorenko ( uk, Петро́ Григо́рович Григоре́нко, russian: Пётр Григо́рьевич Григоре́нко, link=no, – 21 February 1987) was a high-ranking Soviet Army ...
), and the reverse (for example, major D. Evsyukov, actor F. Yalovega and diplomat Platon Obukhov).
In the early 1990s, Serbsky Director Tatyana Dmitrieva apologized for the earlier abuses. Her words were widely broadcast abroad but were published only in the St. Petersburg newspaper ''Chas Pik'' within the country. However, in her 2001 book ''Aliyans Prava i Milosediya'' (''The Alliance of Law and Mercy''), Dmitrieva wrote that there were no psychiatric abuses and certainly no more than in Western countries. Moreover, the book makes the charge that professor Vladimir Serbsky and other intellectuals were wrong not to cooperate with the police department
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and ...
in preventing revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
and bloodsheds and that the current generation is wrong to oppose the regime. In December 2012, Mikhail Vinogradov, an expert of the Serbsky Center, stated "Do you talk about human-rights activists? Most of them are just unhealthy people, I talked with them. As for the dissident General Grigorenko, I too saw him, kept him under observation, and noted oddities of his thinking. But he was eventually allowed to go abroad, as you know… Who? Bukovsky? I talked with him, and he is a completely crazy character. But he too was allowed to go abroad! You see, human rights activists are people who, due to their mental pathology, are unable to restrain themselves within the standards of society, and the West encourages their inability to do so."
Instrument of oppression in post-Soviet Russia
In the 1990s and the 21st century there were claims, notably by Yuri Savenko
Yuri Sergeevich Savenko (russian: Ю́рий Серге́евич Саве́нко) is a Russian psychiatrist, the president since 1989 of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia. He is also a member of the Council of Experts of the Rus ...
, that the Serbsky Institute, now calling itself the Serbsky Center, was again employed as an instrument of oppression. Under Yeltsin (1993-1999), it collaborated with the Russian Orthodox Church against "non-traditional" religions, other Christian denominations and breakaway Orthodox churches or liberal Orthodox congregations. Under Putin (2000 to present), it has allegedly made controversial diagnoses for individuals engaged in political dissent and protest.
Religious dissenters
According to Savenko, from 1994 onwards, the use of psychiatry was expanded to control religious dissenters and others and a special group for “study of the negative influence of religious groups” was created at the Serbsky Center, led by Professor Fyodor Kondratyev.
Savenko further claimed Kondratyev’s group started supervising trials all over the country. This supposedly led to legal actions that, for all intents and purposes, put people on trial for sorcery. The ''Independent Psychiatric Journal'' (Nezavisimiy Psikhiatricheskiy Zhurnal
''Nezavisimiy Psikhiatricheskiy Zhurnal'' (russian: Незави́симый психиатри́ческий журна́л, translit=The Independent Psychiatric Journal, italic=yes) is a Russian peer-reviewed scientific journal which covers clini ...
) edited by Savenko documented such trials, claiming that the charges of “gross harm to mental health” were not substantiated. Savenko's Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia repeatedly accused Kondratyev's activities and statements as the author of the pseudo-scientific theory of "sectomania", and reported the false charges for which he was allegedly responsible.
Kondratyev's special department at the Serbsky Center “for studying destructive cults” closely collaborated with the anti-cult activist Alexander Dvorkin, who enjoyed some approval within the Russian Orthodox Church. Dvorkin ranks as “totalitarian sects" both the followers of the painter and Theosophist Nikolai Rerikh
Nicholas Roerich (; October 9, 1874 – December 13, 1947), also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (russian: link=no, Никола́й Константи́нович Ре́рих), was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophis ...
(1874-1947) and the religious communities of liberal Orthodox priests Yakov Krotov and Georgy Kochetkov. In Yury Savenko's words, “when a psychiatrist-academician (Dmitrieva, Sidorov) or an expert-psychologist of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences relies on the works of Dvorkin and Hassan Hassan, Hasan, Hassane, Haasana, Hassaan, Asan, Hassun, Hasun, Hassen, Hasson or Hasani may refer to:
People
*Hassan (given name), Arabic given name and a list of people with that given name
*Hassan (surname), Arabic, Jewish, Irish, and Scottis ...
, which are not scientific in nature, it is a symptom of degradation.”
In 2014, experts of the Serbsky Center received medical documents from a psychoneurological out-patients' clinic about the mental health condition of Alexander Dvorkin. After studying them, they concluded that he was in need of constant supervision by a psychiatrist and should take psychotropic drugs.
Denial of Soviet-era abuses
Kondratyev not only denied accusations that he himself was ever engaged in Soviet abuses of psychiatry: he stated publicly that the very concept of Soviet-era "punitive psychiatry" was nothing more than
"the fantasy ymyselof the very same people who are now defending totalitarian sects. This is slander, which was reviouslyused for anti-Soviet ends, but is now being used for anti-Russian ends."
According to Savenko, denial by the Serbsky Center of the abuse of psychiatry for political purposes in the 1960–1980s and the open rehabilitation of its leader, director academician Georgi Morozov, are evidence of the restoration of psychiatry as a tool of oppression.
In 2004, proponents of mental health reform failed to prevent the effort by the doctors of the Serbsky Institute to roll back reforms in the landmark Russian Mental Health Law
Mental health in Russia is covered by a law, known under its official name—the Law of the Russian Federation "On Psychiatric Care and Guarantees of Citizens' Rights during Its Provision" ( rus, Зако́н Росси́йской Федера ...
. Savenko also claimed that over five years, from 1998 to 2003, the Serbsky Center made three proposals to amend the Law, but the IPA and general public managed to successfully challenge these amendments, and they were finally abandoned. According to the IPA, these amendments would have impaired patients’ rights.
Controversial diagnoses
In 2012, Ukrainian psychiatrist Semyon Gluzman
Semen (Semyon) Fishelevich Gluzman ( uk, Семе́н Фі́шельович Глу́зман, russian: Семён Фи́шелевич Глу́зман; born 10 September 1946, Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous ...
said that the Serbsky Institute still remained a leading service for Russian forensic psychiatric examinations. Serbsky Institute continues to conduct many court-ordered evaluations with hotly disputed results.
* In numerous cases people "inconvenient" for Russian authorities were imprisoned in psychiatric institutions in the first decade of the 2000s. Some of them were diagnosed at the Serbsky Institute.
* When war criminal Yuri Budanov was tested at the Institute in 2002, the panel conducting the inquiry was led by Tamara Pechernikova, who had condemned poet Natalya Gorbanevskaya
Natalya Yevgenyevna Gorbanevskaya ( rus, Ната́лья Евге́ньевна Горбане́вская, p=nɐˈtalʲjə jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvnə ɡərbɐˈnʲefskəjə, a=Natal'ya Yevgen'yevna Gorbanyevskaya.ru.vorb.oga; 26 May 1936 – 29 Nove ...
. Budanov was found not guilty by reason of "temporary insanity". After public outrage, he was found sane by another panel that included Georgi Morozov, the former Serbsky director who had declared many dissidents insane in the past.
* The Center also made an evaluation of the alleged mass poisoning of hundreds of Chechen school children. The panel concluded that the disease was caused simply by "psycho-emotional tension".
The case of Mikhail Kosenko
On 8 October 2013, a verdict was announced in the case of Mikhail Kosenko, who took part in the 6 May 2012 protest march at Moscow's Bolotnaya Square
Bolotnaya Square (russian: Болотная площадь, ''Bolotnaya ploshchad'') is a square in the center of Moscow, in Yakimanka District, south of the Moscow Kremlin, between the Moskva River (north) and the Vodootvodny Canal (south). Th ...
. The court sent Kosenko for open-ended treatment to a psychiatric hospital.
With other witnesses, Alexander Podrabinek
Alexander Pinkhosovich Podrabinek (russian: Алекса́ндр Пи́нхосович Подраби́нек; born 8 August 1953, Elektrostal) is a Soviet dissident, journalist and commentator. During the Soviet period he was a human rights ac ...
, former Soviet dissident and Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the state-owned international radio broadcaster of France. With 37.2 million listeners in 2014, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world, along with ...
commentator, testified that Kosenko had stood next to him and had not scuffled with police. Serbsky specialists concluded that Kosenko "presented a danger to himself and others" and "required compulsory treatment." This conclusion ignored both his previous treatment over many years and his diagnosis by other psychiatrists, and the fact that he was not once cited for aggressive or suicidal behavior during the 16 months of his pretrial detention
Remand, also known as pre-trial detention, preventive detention, or provisional detention, is the process of detaining a person until their trial after they have been arrested and charged with an offence. A person who is on remand is held i ...
in Butyrka prison
Butyrskaya prison ( rus, Бутырская тюрьма, r= Butýrskaya tyurmá), usually known simply as Butyrka ( rus, Бутырка, p=bʊˈtɨrkə), is a prison in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow, Russia. In Imperial Russia it ...
.
The Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia stated:
"On the basis of a conversation that lasted less than one hour, the specialists made the far more serious diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. ...
instead of the diagnosis of sluggish neurosis-like schizophrenia that Kosenko was treated for over the course of 12 years."
There were protests from international and local NGOs and human rights organisations against the unlimited term of in-patient treatment imposed on Mikhail Kosenko. On 6 June 2014 a court in the Moscow Region ruled that he should continue psychiatric treatment, but as an out-patient.
Role in post-Soviet forensic examinations
According to Russian psychiatrist Emmanuil Gushansky, the Serbsky Center exercises undue administrative and corporate influence on its young and insufficiently qualified staff. The commission system of forensic psychiatric examinations leads to "collective irresponsibility" in which no individual is accountable for a particular diagnosis or other recommendation. For example, the Serbsky Center declared a killer to be insane and offered a diagnosis of "acute stress". In fact, the killer had maintained communication with his victim, remembered the conflict with his victim. During a drunken household brawl he managed to find a shotgun in his basement, shoot his victim, clean and hide the weapon, removing his fingerprints, and then flee the scene. In accord with the Center's recommendation, he was declared insane and released from confinement.
In 2004, Yuri Savenko stated that the law on state expert activity and the introduction of the profession of forensic expert psychiatrist destroyed adversary-based examinations and that the Serbsky Center had monopolized forensic examination, which it had never done in the Soviet era. Formerly, the court could include any psychiatrist in a commission of experts, but the new law allowed the court only to choose an institution. The head of the institution assigns the experts to a commission for each case. Experts are certified only after working in a state institution for three years. The Director of the Serbsky Center was also the head of the Center's forensic psychiatry department, which is the only one in the country.
According to Savenko, the Serbsky Center has long labored to institutionalize its monopolistic position as the country's main psychiatric institution. These efforts led to a considerable drop in the quality of expert reports. The Serbsky Center further attempted to eliminate the adversarial character of court proceedings and to degrade the role of specialist reviewers. Lyubov Vinogradova claimed that there has been a diminution in patients' rights because independent experts are now excluded from evaluations and court proceedings.
On 28 May 2009, Savenko wrote to the then President of the Russian Federation
The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...
Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...
an open letter
An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.
Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...
, in which Savenko asked Medvedev to submit to the State Duma
The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...
a draft law prepared by the IPA to address the sharp drop in the level of forensic psychiatric examinations, which Savenko attributed to the lack of competition within the sector and its increasing nationalization. The letter said that expert reports now often dropped entire sections and failed to substantiate findings, that findings contradicted the descriptive sections, and that many statements are contrary to generally accepted scientific practice. The letter added that courts made no attempt to assess the expert report for coherence and consistency and do not check findings for accuracy, completeness and objectivity. In the spring of 2009, IPA attacked an expert report whose descriptive part was distorted, paving the way for other falsifications; four of the case's six examinations were carried out in the Serbsky Center.
On 15 June 2009, the working group chaired by Tatyana Dmitrieva
Tatyana Borisovna Dmitrieva (russian: Татья́на Бори́совна Дми́триева; December 21, 1951 – March 1, 2010) was a Russian psychiatrist, a member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and Health minister. During the ...
sent the Supreme Court of Russia
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (russian: links=no, Верховный суд Российской Федерации, Verkhovny sud Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is a court within the judiciary of Russia and the court of last resort in ...
a joint proposal to outlaw appeals against state forensic expert reports and prohibit lawsuits that appealed against the reports. The proposal claimed that the appeals were filed “without regard for the scope of the case” and that appeals should be made “only together with the sentence.” Savenko claimed that all professional errors and omissions became unchallengeable because they were the basis of the sentence.
The application was considered in the paper “Current legal issues relevant to forensic-psychiatric expert evaluation” by E.Y. Shchukina and S.N. Shishkov. It attacked the admissibility of appeals against expert reports without regard for the scope of the case. According to lawyer Dmitry Bartenev, while talking about “the reports”, the paper mistakenly conflates the reports with actions of the experts (or the institution) and asserts the impossibility of “parallel” examinations. However, abuse of rights and legitimate interests of citizens, including trial participants, may be a subject for a separate appeal.
In 2010, when the outpatient forensic-psychiatric examination of Yulia Privedyonnaya was carried out in the Sebsky Center, its experts asked her the question “What do you think of Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
?”. Savenko called the question inappropriate, unseemly and indelicate.
Publications
In 1997, the Center established Russian Journal of Psychiatry dedicated to the issues of social and forensic psychiatry.
Trivia
* In 2014, Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky
Pyotr (or Petr) Andreyevich Pavlensky (russian: link=no, Пётр Андреевич Павленский; born 8 March 1984) is a Russian contemporary artist. He is known for his controversial political art performances, which he calls "events of ...
cut off a piece of his ear while sitting naked outside the Serbsky Center to take a stand against law enforcement's use of forced psychiatric treatment
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry.
Initial psych ...
to crack down on dissident
A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established Political system, political or Organized religion, religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and ...
s. As Pavlensky said, slicing off his earlobe was meant to represent the damage resulting from police “returning to the use of psychiatry for political goals”.
In fiction
In 1976, Viktor Nekipelov
Viktor Aleksandrovich Nekipelov (russian: Ви́ктор Алекса́ндрович Некипе́лов, 29 September 1928 – 1 July 1989) was a Soviet Russian poet, writer, Soviet dissident, and a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. He spe ...
published in samizdat
Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
his book ''Institute of Fools: Notes on the Serbsky Institute'' documenting his personal experience at Serbsky Psychiatric Hospital. In 1980, the book was translated and published in English. Poet and dissident Viktor Nekipelov was arrested in 1973 and sent to Section 4 of the Serbsky Institute. The evaluation lasted from 15 January to 12 March 1974. He was judged sane, tried and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. He described the doctors and other patients; most of the latter were ordinary criminals feigning insanity in order to avoid prison camps. According to IPA President Savenko, Nekipelov’s book accurately describes the era of Soviet punitive psychiatry. The book was published in Russia in 2005. After reading the book, Donetsk
Donetsk ( , ; uk, Донецьк, translit=Donets'k ; russian: Донецк ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin and Stalino (see also: Names of European cities in different languages (C–D), cities' alternat ...
psychiatrist Pekhterev concluded that allegations against the psychiatrists were self-serving and false. According to Robert van Voren
Robert van Voren (publishing pseudonym of Johannes Baks, nl, Johannes Bax, born 25 July 1959, Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a Dutch human rights activist, sovietologist and historian.
He is a professor of Soviet and post-Soviet studies in the I ...
, Pekhterev misses the main point: while living conditions in the Serbsky Institute were not bad compared with living conditions of the Gulag
The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
, the Serbsky Institute was the departure point for "patients" who were dispatched to specialized psychiatric hospitals in Chernyakhovsk
Chernyakhovsk (russian: Черняхо́вск) – known prior to 1946 by its German name of (Old Prussian: Instrāpils, lt, Įsrutis; pl, Wystruć) – is a town in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, where it is the administrative center of ...
, Dnepropetrovsk
Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...
, Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...
and Blagoveshchensk
Blagoveshchensk ( rus, Благове́щенск, p=bləgɐˈvʲeɕːɪnsk, meaning ''City of the Annunciation'') is a city and the administrative center of Amur Oblast, Russia. It is located at the confluence of the Amur and the Zeya Rivers, opp ...
where they experienced forced administration of drugs, beatings and other forms of arbitrary punishment. Some died during the "treatment", including Alexey Nikitin.
In the 1983 novel ''Firefox Down
''Firefox Down'' is a 1983 novel by author Craig Thomas. It is a sequel to his novel ''Firefox''. Craig Thomas dedicated the first edition of the novel to actor/director/producer Clint Eastwood, who starred as Mitchell Gant in the film adaptat ...
'' by Craig Thomas, captured American pilot Mitchell Gant is imprisoned in a KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
psychiatric clinic "associated with the Serbsky Institute," where he is drugged and coerced into revealing the location of the Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...
aircraft, which he has stolen and flown out of Russia.
In the 1998 TV series '' Seven Days'', episode 16 "There's something about Olga", the FSB recruits a female patient of the Serbsky Center (incorrectly located in the city of Minsk
Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...
, Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
).
See also
* Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union
There was systematic political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, based on the interpretation of political opposition or dissent as a psychiatric problem. It was called "psychopathological mechanisms" of dissent.
During the leadership ...
* Political abuse of psychiatry in Russia
Political abuse of psychiatry is the purported misuse of psychiatric diagnosis, detention and treatment for the purposes of obstructing the fundamental human rights of certain groups and individuals in a society. In other words, abuse of psychia ...
References
Bibliography
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External links
Official Information
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{{authority control
Hospital buildings completed in 1921
Government buildings completed in 1921
Psychiatric hospitals in Russia
Political repression in the Soviet Union
Hospitals established in 1921
Hospitals in Russia
Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union
Political abuse of psychiatry in Russia
Mental health in the Soviet Union
Mental health organizations in Russia
Psychiatric research institutes
Organizations based in Moscow
Organizations established in 1921
Medical research institutes in Russia
Forensic psychiatry
1921 establishments in Russia
Medical research institutes in the Soviet Union