It was from the 1940s through the 1970s, the height of the Cold War, that Soviet authorities notoriously politicized the field of psychiatry. One should always be very suspicious of any government official appealing directly to the “science.” Politicians know science like they know ethics. In 1963, Russian-Jewish poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky was twice placed in a psychiatric facility against his will and ultimately charged with the crime of “social parasitism” (according to the lawful authorities, not making sufficient contributions to society). He was eventually expelled from the country.
