Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader

[摘要] This article highlights key aspects of Jonas Rappeport9s style (spoken, written, and otherwise manifest) during his long forensic psychiatry career as the founder and first leader of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL). He was my personal friend in work and play for several decades. A 1989 U.S. Delegation visit to the U.S.S.R. was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) to investigate the abuse of psychiatry. Jonas was one of three forensic psychiatrists chosen to be key examiners of hospitalized and released U.S.S.R. dissidents whose psychiatric evaluations and subsequent forensic consequences were evaluated. The longtime unwarranted detention and treatment of these dissidents in special psychiatric/prison hospitals was a clear manifestation of the abuse of psychiatry. Each psychiatric examiner team included a NIMH research psychiatrist, a forensic psychiatrist, and a native Russian speaking psychiatrist who previously had emigrated to the United States. I describe the purpose, procedures, work, and results of the 1989 Delegation visit to the U.S.S.R. and selected aspects of Jonas9s and other forensic examiners9 findings about the behavior and thinking of Soviet psychiatry9s organizational leaders regarding criminal responsibility.

[学科分类] 儿科学

[关键词] Soviet psychiatric abuse;dissidents;ethics