Interview with Peter Reddaway

Scope and content:

Mr. Reddaway talks about his education and career and the way he became interested and immersed in the issue of abuse of psychiatry in the U.S.S.R. He discusses the impact that his and Sidney Bloch's 1977 and 1983 books made in the Soviet Union. He also shares his knowledge about the evolution of punitive psychiatry with each new Soviet leader. Mr. Reddaway talks about Mr. Gorbachev's personality, the political factors in the early 1980s that allowed for such a leader to emerge and retain power; the reasons for perestroika; the peculiarities of perestroika in psychiatry versus other spheres. Mr. Reddaway gives a comprehensive overview of various internal processes in the Soviet Union at the end of 1980s that were important prerequisites for the 1989 U.S. psychiatric mission. He discusses at length the role of the WPA in the battle against the abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union. Mr. Reddaway also gives a detailed overview of the field inspections to Soviet psychiatric hospitals that he did as a member of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R.

Olena Protsenko, a Post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, conducted this interview remotely over the Zoom application.

Biographical / historical:

Mr. Reddaway is a renowned expert on Russian and Soviet politics, author of many books and publications. He is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University.

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