‘Therapeutic community’, psychiatry’s reformers and antipsychiatrists: reconsidering changes in the field of psychiatry after World War II

Abstract

In addition to outlining some core characteristics of the therapeutic community — an approach developed during World War II — this article describes the achievements of reformist psychiatrists in the field of the therapeutic community during the 1950s and also discusses the appropriation of this model by the antipsychiatrists during the 1960s. By emphasizing the proximity of their respective contributions, rather than their generally accepted radical differences, this article is an invitation to renew the way historians consider the dynamics of change in psychiatry after WWII.