Psychiatric expansionism and social control: the intersectioin of community care and state policy

Informed by the theories of political economy and professional interests, this research argues that psychiatric commitments to community care and to scientific categorization have contributed to expanding control of the mentally ill, and that these ideological commitments run parallel to and are exacerbated by state responses to macro-economic conditions. Time series analysis of the period from 1932 to 1975 is used to assess the relative impact of deinstitutionalization, medical entrenchment, and state fiscal policy on psychiatric expansionism. The findings demonstrate that a professional interests explanation (indicated by a commitment to community and to science) provides a significant contribution to a materialist-based explanation of expanding psychiatric control.