The thesis examines the emergence of anti-psychiatry since the early 1960s, addressing two questions: 1. Why did anti-psychiatry emerge at this time? 2. How influential is anti-psychiatry today? Anti -psychiatry was found not to consist of one identifiable set of' proposals, but a shifting package of views. One factor remains consistent across versions of anti-psychiatry: criticism of medicalisation of mental disorder. Anti-psychiatry emerged during the 1960s for two reasons: a) Psychiatrists had adopted positivistic conceptualisations of human disorder, which reduced psychiatric patients to 'malfunctioning machines'. Anti-psychiatry restored the patient's subjectivity to the centre of psychiatric practice, b) The mid-twentieth century saw the expansion of state planning and a reduced emphasis upon individual liberty. Anti-psychiatry was part of the counter- culture, which criticised the welfare' state as a machine for producing 'normality'/conformity. 1960s Anti -psychiatry was more libertarian than Marxist. By the 1970s, anti-psychiatry divided into two distinct forms: radical psychotherapy and Marxist anti-therapy. Versions of Marxist anti-therapy fail to propose alternatives to therapy which are not themselves therapeutic or paratherapeutic. This problem derives from excessive reliance upon Szasz's libertarian critique which is flawed. Anti-psychiatry is less influential today; having suffered from academic criticism and failed to offer solutions to the problems posed by 'community care’. It competes with critiques which are pro-democracy, rather than anti- medicine. Italian reforms provide one possible model. MIND's mental health campaigns are democratically rather than anti -psychiatrically based. The user movement includes both anti -psychiatry c users and democratically-minded ones". Democratisation of mental health provision is complicated by the continuing need for expert professionals and some compulsory treatment, and by problems inherent within the user movement. However, democracy rather than anti-psychiatry now offers the best basis for political critiques of psychiatry.

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The aim of the present thesis is to study radical criticism of psychiatry in public discussion in Sweden between 1968 and 1973. Although it was not the first time psychiatry had been challenged, the debate during these years displayed an unprecedented intensity. What is mental illness – a myth, an etiquette, an illusion? Is psychiatry a means of social control? Such were the questions raised at the time. In my thesis, I study the contexts as well as the arguments of these discussions. To this end, a great variety of sources have been consulted: books, newspapers, magazines, films etc. In part, the Swedish debate on psychiatry ran parallel to international discussions on the topic, which have been regarded as a manifestation of anti-psychiatry. This standpoint is often associated with psychiatrists such as R. D. Laing, David Cooper and Thomas Szasz. In my thesis, I challenge the concept of anti-psychiatry, arguing that other concepts are better suited to capture the diversity of the debate in all its nuances. Thus, I make use of radical and reformatory criticism – concepts which have been suggested by the sociologist Tommy Svensson – while also seeking to develop them further. In addition to the international perspective, the psychiatry debate must also be interpreted in its specifically Swedish context. One aspect of this is the Swedish tradition of Government Official Reports: psychiatry had been subject to many investigations prior to the debate in the 1960s and 1970s, and others would follow in its wake. Another characteristic feature of the Swedish debate is two events that formed very suitable targets for critique: Sociopatutredningen and Mentalhälsokampanjen. These events seemed to confirm the most farreaching concerns of the radical critics, namely that psychiatry is a means of social control.

In April 2005, a group of women gathered for a human rights workshop at a Toronto drop-in centre for women experiencing homelessness, poverty, and isolation. One year later, the group sent a representative to address the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This dissertation describes and analyzes the feminist participatory action research-intervention project that began with the workshop and led to the United Nations. Over the course of 15 months, more than 50 participants attended weekly meetings at the drop-in. They learned about social and economic rights, testified about their experiences of human rights violations, and planned and undertook actions to respond to and resist homelessness. This thesis draws upon observations of meetings, documents produced by the group, and interviews with thirteen of the participants, in order to examine the project from a number of angles. First, the project suggests a new understanding of women’s homelessness: testimonies and interviews reveal that homelessness is not only a material state, but more importantly a social process of disenfranchisement enacted through relations of harm, threat, control, surveillance, precarity and dehumanization. Understanding homelessness as a social process enables an analysis of its operations within and for a dominant social and economic order structured by colonization and neoliberal globalization. Secondly, the thesis takes up participants’ assessments of the project’s political effectiveness and its impacts on their well-being and empowerment, and reads these against the researcher’s experiences with the project, in order to explore how feminist participatory methodologies can contribute to resistance. Finally, the thesis concludes with recommendations for theory, research, service provision, and human rights advocacy on women’s homelessness.

In April 2005, a group of women gathered for a human rights workshop at a Toronto drop-in centre for women experiencing homelessness, poverty, and isolation. One year later, the group sent a representative to address the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This dissertation describes and analyzes the feminist participatory action research-intervention project that began with the workshop and led to the United Nations. Over the course of 15 months, more than 50 participants attended weekly meetings at the drop-in. They learned about social and economic rights, testified about their experiences of human rights violations, and planned and undertook actions to respond to and resist homelessness. This thesis draws upon observations of meetings, documents produced by the group, and interviews with thirteen of the participants, in order to examine the project from a number of angles. First, the project suggests a new understanding of women’s homelessness: testimonies and interviews reveal that homelessness is not only a material state, but more importantly a social process of disenfranchisement enacted through relations of harm, threat, control, surveillance, precarity and dehumanization. Understanding homelessness as a social process enables an analysis of its operations within and for a dominant social and economic order structured by colonization and neoliberal globalization. Secondly, the thesis takes up participants’ assessments of the project’s political effectiveness and its impacts on their well-being and empowerment, and reads these against the researcher’s experiences with the project, in order to explore how feminist participatory methodologies can contribute to resistance. Finally, the thesis concludes with recommendations for theory, research, service provision, and human rights advocacy on women’s homelessness.