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David Graham CooperPsychiatrist born in South Africa
Country:
 France |
Content:
Biography of David Graham Cooper
David Graham Cooper was a psychiatrist born in South Africa in 1955. He graduated from the University of Cape Town and later moved to London, where he worked in several hospitals and led an experimental department for young people suffering from schizophrenia, which was named the 21st Pavilion.
Anti-Psychiatry Movement
Cooper, alongside Ronald Laing, Thomas Szasz, Franco Basaglia, and Michel Foucault, was widely known as a theorist and leader of the anti-psychiatry movement. In 1965, he participated in the founding of the Philadelphia Association with Laing and others. However, in the 1970s, as a supporter of Marxism and existentialism, Cooper left the Philadelphia Association due to disagreement with the growing interest in spirituality rather than politics.
Beliefs and Contributions
According to Cooper, madness is akin to political dissent: "Madness (contrary to the majority of interpretations of 'schizophrenia') is a movement from familyhood (including family-modeled institutions) towards autonomy. This is the real 'danger' of madness and the reason for its harsh repression. Society needs to be one big family with a horde of obedient children. One has to be mad not to want that."
Cooper and his supporters believed that schizophrenia, understood in the broadest sense, is a consequence of the suppression of individuality within families and society. They viewed traditional psychiatry as the final, ultra-repressive link in this chain. Cooper believed that madness and psychosis are the result of societal influence and that the ultimate solution is achieved through revolution. With this goal in mind, Cooper moved to Argentina, which he considered the country with the most revolutionary potential. Before eventually moving to France, where he spent the last years of his life, he returned to the United Kingdom.
Cooper coined the term "anti-psychiatry" to emphasize his rejection and the need to counteract the methods of traditional psychiatry of his time, although the term could also denote the opinion of anti-psychiatrists regarding traditional psychiatry and the treatment of mental disorders. He served as coordinator of the Congress on the Dialectics of Liberation, held in London at the Roundhouse from July 15th to July 30th, 1967. Participants included Ronald Laing, Paul Goodman, Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Marcuse, and Stokely Carmichael from the Black Panthers organization. The participation of Jean-Paul Sartre was planned but canceled at the last moment. In 1976, at the initiative of Foucault, Cooper was invited to the Collège de France to give a series of lectures.
Cooper first used the term "anti-psychiatry" in 1967. He was one of the founders of the London-based Philadelphia Association and the director of the Institute of Phenomenological Studies.
