Psychiatry, Law, and Revolution: A View from Egypt

In 2009, Egypt adopted the "Law for the Care of Mental Patients," a rights-based legislation intended to bring the country's mental health system-otherwise defined by resource gaps and chronic underfunding-closer to global standards of care. Yet, the new act stirred dissension among Egyptian psychiatrists. And, in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 uprising, debates about the 2009 law became intertwined with debates about the present and future of the 'new Egypt.' Based on field research in Cairo, this article provides an ethnographic analysis of the making of this mental health act and of the ensuing debates as they unfolded in 2011-2012. Showing the diverging perspectives at the core of these debates on psychiatric power, patient rights, and the law's fit in society, the article highlights the challenges of psychiatric reform in a country of the Global South. It also argues that in a context of revolutionary upheaval, debates about psychiatric reform become a site for political reflection and provide a language for imagining the future of the nation. The article also highlights the centrality of temporality in debating psychiatric reform in times of political transformation.