Houston Psychoanalytic Society

This event addresses: Almost Half a Century Since it Was Expelled From the DSM, Why is Psychoanalytic Thought Still in the Wilderness?

Professor Hannah Decker’s presentation will illustrate the strength of the anti-psychiatry movement, a part of the Vietnam era’s many protests. The anti-psychiatry’s influence became so deep that the APA continues today to be motivated to keep that movement at bay. The second part of her talk will deal with the anti-psychoanalytic animus of the DSM-III Task Force, who were dedicated to bringing about the fall of psychoanalysis. The Task Force was dominated by members or offshoots of the biological psychiatry department of the Washington University in St. Louis whose prejudice against psychoanalysis influenced the editor of DSM-III, Robert Spitzer.