Putin has resurrected another Stalinist recipe for dealing with critics 
and opponents, apart from imprisoning and murdering: forced placement in a mental institution.
It's another female journalist, just like Anna Politkovskaia. Her name is Larissa Arap. Radio France Internationale reports that she has been arrested in Murmansk and then forcedly placed in a mental hospital. In June she had published an article about the cruel and inhumane treatment children are submitted to in the local mental institutions, including electroshocks. Arap is also an active member of Gary Kasparov's opposition party, who now accuses the resurrection of Stalinist methods.
AFP talked to the local leader of Kasparov's party, Elena Vassilieva, who said that Arap was arrested on July 6, while passing a medical test for obtaining a driver's licence: "The doctor told her to wait on the hallway, then all of a sudden, the police arrived with an ambulance and took her by force." After being held in custody in a clinic for a while, Arap was transferred on July 26 to a psychiatric clinic with restricted access, 150 km away from the city, said Vassilieva. "We don't think she's ill. Maybe she had some breakdown, but she never lost her temper or became a threat to anyone. It's a return of the Stalinist repression", claims Vassilieva as quoted by AFP.
A press spokesman of the regional governor declared that, although he's not aware of this particular case, it is impossible for her to have been placed in a mental institution on political reasons. "I completely rule out the idea that it's a case of political repression. There is no persecution of opponents. Everyone can express his point of view. It's absurd."
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Jul 29th, 2007
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I don’t know what treatment residents of Russian mental institutions are subjected to. I am fully prepared to believe that conditions are generally poor and that Putin might use them politically. However the use of electroconvulsive therapy is not automatically abuse. Used properly, it saves lives. If you want to illustrate abuse in Russian institutions, either pick something that is invariably abuse or demonstrate that these ECT’s were inappropriate and abusive.
That would be Brezhnevizm actually. In Stalin’s society careless journalists were treated differently. Psychiatric methods belong to post-Stalin USSR.
Mrph. The article seems to specify children; are you aware of presently accepted clinical practices that allow the use of ECT on children? (I do know it can be helpful in adults, at least in extreme cases, but I don’t think I’ve heard of it being used legitimately on children.)
For information on Brezhnevite mental health tortures check out the works of Zhores Medvedev (Twin brother of the historian Roy Medvedev.) Electroconvulsive ‘therapy’ to ‘ cure’ a sane person of ‘anti-social’ beliefs, as well as drugs that simply produce pain and the feeling of a coronary, were the standard methods at the time.
jaed, I agree. I do not know of legitimate uses for ECT on children. As I noted, I have no trouble believing that Russian authorities have misused and are now again misusing psychiatric treatment for political intimidation. I simply want to knock back the very common idea that ECT = quackery = torture. I have worked in acute psychiatric settings for thirty years and have seen remarkable, lifesaving improvements many times from ECT. It is not always effective. Sometimes the side effects are too great to continue. But it’s a great treatment in its proper place.
While this information is disquieting, I would reserve final judgment on it. Many involuntary psychiatric admissions in any country claim they are being treated unjustly and do not have an illness. Sometimes it is true, of course, particularly under repressive regimes. But I do not immediately take it at face value.
I believe this is a good thing for ‘all’ people taking a ‘drivers licence test’. Just think of how, afterwards, they will think twice before yelling and throwing obscene gestures at other motorists. Of course we would probably have very reserved Cab drivers after this ‘treatment’. http://daflikkers.blogspot.com/