Short report
Anthropological thinking and psychiatry
I. E. I. M. van Eynde
Anthropological psychiatry is recognized by it's anti-Cartesianism, interest in specific human problems, thought stemming from the age old bond between man and world, man and fellow-man and reaction to a reduced human image.
A fundamental agreement lies between 'anti-psychiatry' and anthropological psychiatry. Anti-psychiatry acting especially against the dehumanizing effects of reduced thinking within psychiatrie institutions. The reducing medical ideas lead to 'totalitarianism'. Goffman and Foucault described various forms of totalitarianism.
Totalitarianism within a psychiatric institution can only be stamped out, if instead of the 'hospital-model', a 'living community on a humanistic measure' is chosen.
Anthropological thinking can be a valuable contribution to the development of these living communities.