Political abuse of psychiatry

Political abuse of psychiatry is the misuse of psychiatry for the purpose of repressing dissidents.

Dissidents may, for example, be imprisoned due to alleged mental illness. An additional effect of this is discrediting the views of the dissidents as being due to mental illness.

This has notably occurred in Communist countries, and became relatively more important as other methods of repression, such as Gulag camps, became less widely used.

There are also many examples of non-governmental groups accusing critics of mental illness, in order to discredit the criticisms. One example is psychoanalysis, where critics may be dismissed as being mentally ill.

Homophobia, Islamophobia, and Xenophobia are politically correct labels, implying that opponents are mentally ill. It can be seen as a form of attempted guilt by association and name calling. The politically correct sources using the word, and related "-phobia" word, apply a double standard and do not use "-phobia" words as labels for criticisms of Whites, heterosexuality, Christianity, and so on.