No Asylum

This study measures how often the Soviet state used forced psychiatric commitment against people who appeared mentally sound but opposed the government. It identifies the dissidents who were confined and the reasons the authorities gave for choosing them. The author shows that psychiatry served the state as a tool to blunt, neutralize, undermine, or eliminate a varied opposition movement. Forced commitments almost stopped once the Soviet Union disintegrated. The author argues that it is premature to call the practice finished, since psychiatric control of political opponents could reappear in Russia.