Punitive Psychiatry

Aggressors may use the state psychiatric care system for political purposes to persecute, indefinitely isolate, and torture dissenters. Those who disagree with the regime (dissidents, human rights defenders, civic activists) have false diagnoses fabricated against them (for example, the nonexistent "sluggish schizophrenia"), after which they are forcibly confined to closed institutions. This technique allows the colonizer or a totalitarian system to neutralize resistance without formal judicial proceedings, subjecting victims to destructive medication regimes and stigmatizing opposition activity as a manifestation of insanity.

ID: T0135
Sub-techniques:  No sub-techniques
People: Ukrainians
Version: 1.0
Created: 27 April 2026
Last Modified: 27 April 2026

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
S0022 Punitive Medicine and Psychiatry

Use of state healthcare institutions for the politically motivated diagnosing of dissenters (the diagnosis of "sluggish schizophrenia") and their indefinite confinement in psychiatric hospitals[1].

C0089 The "General Pogrom" of Human Rights Defenders and Punitive Psychiatry (1972–1985)

Use of state healthcare institutions for the politically motivated diagnosing of dissenters (the diagnosis of "sluggish schizophrenia") and their indefinite confinement in psychiatric hospitals[1].

G0010 USSR

Use of state healthcare institutions for the politically motivated diagnosing of dissenters (the diagnosis of "sluggish schizophrenia") and their indefinite confinement in psychiatric hospitals[1].

References