{"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list","next":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026page=2\u0026view=list","last":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026page=3\u0026view=list"},"meta":{"pages":{"current_page":1,"next_page":2,"prev_page":null,"total_pages":3,"limit_value":10,"offset_value":0,"total_count":25,"first_page?":true,"last_page?":false}},"data":[{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01","type":"Series","attributes":{"title":"Abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eThis series consists of subject files that Dr. Loren Henry Roth assembled and used while working to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, emphasizing abuse in the former Soviet Union. The files contain correspondence, memoranda, meeting documents, articles, reports, lists, forms, evaluations, photographs, diaries, and other materials.\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01","ref_ssm":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01"],"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","parent_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","parent_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347"],"parent_ids_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"text":["Loren Roth papers","Abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists","There are access restrictions on some of the materials in this series. When a file or item is restricted, an additional note explaining the conditions of access is attached to the file or item description.","The files in this series are arranged by subject into 14 sub-series.","This series consists of subject files that Dr. Loren Henry Roth assembled and used while working to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, emphasizing abuse in the former Soviet Union. The files contain correspondence, memoranda, meeting documents, articles, reports, lists, forms, evaluations, photographs, diaries, and other materials."],"title_filing_ssi":"Abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists ","title_ssm":["Abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists "],"title_tesim":["Abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists "],"unitdate_bulk_ssim":["1974-2000"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1950-2021"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1950/2021, bulk 1974/2000"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists"],"component_level_isim":[1],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"extent_ssm":["12.5 Linear Feet 24 boxes"],"extent_tesim":["12.5 Linear Feet 24 boxes"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":14,"level_ssm":["Series"],"level_ssim":["Series"],"sort_isi":1,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"date_range_isim":[1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThere are access restrictions on some of the materials in this series. When a file or item is restricted, an additional note explaining the conditions of access is attached to the file or item description.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["There are access restrictions on some of the materials in this series. When a file or item is restricted, an additional note explaining the conditions of access is attached to the file or item description."],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe files in this series are arranged by subject into 14 sub-series.\u003c/p\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The files in this series are arranged by subject into 14 sub-series."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThis series consists of subject files that Dr. Loren Henry Roth assembled and used while working to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, emphasizing abuse in the former Soviet Union. The files contain correspondence, memoranda, meeting documents, articles, reports, lists, forms, evaluations, photographs, diaries, and other materials.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["This series consists of subject files that Dr. Loren Henry Roth assembled and used while working to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, emphasizing abuse in the former Soviet Union. The files contain correspondence, memoranda, meeting documents, articles, reports, lists, forms, evaluations, photographs, diaries, and other materials."],"_nest_path_":"/components#0","timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/UVA/repositories_4_resources_1347.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/ark:/59853/169336","title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"unitdate_ssm":["1950-2022","1974-2022"],"unitdate_bulk_ssim":["1974-2022"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1950-2022"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"text":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347","Loren Roth papers","Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union","Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.","While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.","Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.","This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.","The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.","Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon","English Russian"],"unitid_tesim":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"repository_ssm":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"creator_ssm":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creators_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"access_terms_ssm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"acqinfo_ssim":["In March 2023, Dr. Loren Henry Roth donated all of the materials in this collection to the University of Virginia Law Library."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"extent_ssm":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"extent_tesim":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"date_range_isim":[1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eResearchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFinally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eWhile it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eWhile the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eNotes:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. Id, pages xix and xx\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFrom April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAlthough there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAmong those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eShortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["History of the Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists in the U.S.S.R.","History of the 1989 U.S. State Department Investigative Mission to the U.S.S.R.","History of the 2021-2022 Oral History Project"],"bioghist_tesim":["While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eOlena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThis collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"names_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"corpname_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections"],"persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"language_ssim":["English Russian"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":263,"online_item_count_is":18,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01"}},{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01_c14_c03","type":"File","attributes":{"title":"Biographies [printed and publicly available] of members of the project","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01_c14_c03#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eJoseph D. Bloom, Kyrill Borissow, William T. Carpenter, Robert W. Farrand, Robert M.A. Hirschfield, William H. Hopkins, Samuel Keith, Felix Kleyman, Andrei A. Kovalev, Ellen Mercer, John Monahan, Darrel A. Regier, Elmore F. Rigamer Jr, Carolyn Smith, Leon Stern\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01_c14_c03#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01_c14_c03","ref_ssm":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01_c14_c03"],"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01_c14_c03","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01_c14","parent_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01_c14","parent_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01_c14"],"parent_ids_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01_c14"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Loren Roth papers","Abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists","Miscellaneous files"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Loren Roth papers","Abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists","Miscellaneous files"],"text":["Loren Roth papers","Abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists","Miscellaneous files","Biographies [printed and publicly available] of members of the project","MSS 2021-01, Box 23","folder 5","Joseph D. Bloom, Kyrill Borissow, William T. Carpenter, Robert W. Farrand, Robert M.A. Hirschfield, William H. Hopkins, Samuel Keith, Felix Kleyman, Andrei A. Kovalev, Ellen Mercer, John Monahan, Darrel A. Regier, Elmore F. Rigamer Jr, Carolyn Smith, Leon Stern"],"title_filing_ssi":"Biographies [printed and publicly available] of members of the project","title_ssm":["Biographies [printed and publicly available] of members of the project"],"title_tesim":["Biographies [printed and publicly available] of members of the project"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["2021"],"normalized_date_ssm":["2021"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Biographies [printed and publicly available] of members of the project"],"component_level_isim":[3],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["File"],"level_ssim":["File"],"sort_isi":189,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["There are access restrictions on some of the materials in this series. When a file or item is restricted, an additional note explaining the conditions of access is attached to the file or item description."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"date_range_isim":[2021],"containers_ssim":["MSS 2021-01, Box 23","folder 5"],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eJoseph D. Bloom, Kyrill Borissow, William T. Carpenter, Robert W. Farrand, Robert M.A. Hirschfield, William H. Hopkins, Samuel Keith, Felix Kleyman, Andrei A. Kovalev, Ellen Mercer, John Monahan, Darrel A. Regier, Elmore F. Rigamer Jr, Carolyn Smith, Leon Stern\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Joseph D. Bloom, Kyrill Borissow, William T. Carpenter, Robert W. Farrand, Robert M.A. Hirschfield, William H. Hopkins, Samuel Keith, Felix Kleyman, Andrei A. Kovalev, Ellen Mercer, John Monahan, Darrel A. Regier, Elmore F. Rigamer Jr, Carolyn Smith, Leon Stern"],"_nest_path_":"/components#0/components#13/components#2","timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/UVA/repositories_4_resources_1347.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/ark:/59853/169336","title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"unitdate_ssm":["1950-2022","1974-2022"],"unitdate_bulk_ssim":["1974-2022"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1950-2022"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"text":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347","Loren Roth papers","Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union","Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.","While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.","Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.","This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.","The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.","Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon","English Russian"],"unitid_tesim":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"repository_ssm":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"creator_ssm":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creators_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"access_terms_ssm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"acqinfo_ssim":["In March 2023, Dr. Loren Henry Roth donated all of the materials in this collection to the University of Virginia Law Library."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"extent_ssm":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"extent_tesim":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"date_range_isim":[1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eResearchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFinally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eWhile it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eWhile the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eNotes:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. Id, pages xix and xx\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFrom April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAlthough there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAmong those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eShortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["History of the Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists in the U.S.S.R.","History of the 1989 U.S. State Department Investigative Mission to the U.S.S.R.","History of the 2021-2022 Oral History Project"],"bioghist_tesim":["While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eOlena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThis collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"names_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"corpname_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections"],"persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"language_ssim":["English Russian"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":263,"online_item_count_is":18,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c01_c14_c03"}},{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c22","type":"File","attributes":{"title":"Gluzman, Slava – Minutes of interview","breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c22#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c22","ref_ssm":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c22"],"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c22","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_ids_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"text":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project","Gluzman, Slava – Minutes of interview","MSS 2021-01a Box 25","folder 4"],"title_filing_ssi":"Gluzman, Slava – Minutes of interview","title_ssm":["Gluzman, Slava – Minutes of interview"],"title_tesim":["Gluzman, Slava – Minutes of interview"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["2021-03-01"],"normalized_date_ssm":["2021"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Gluzman, Slava – Minutes of interview"],"component_level_isim":[2],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["File"],"level_ssim":["File"],"sort_isi":262,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The interviews with the former Soviet patients and the original 1989 recording are restricted and special permissions apply."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"date_range_isim":[2021],"containers_ssim":["MSS 2021-01a Box 25","folder 4"],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#21","timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/UVA/repositories_4_resources_1347.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/ark:/59853/169336","title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"unitdate_ssm":["1950-2022","1974-2022"],"unitdate_bulk_ssim":["1974-2022"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1950-2022"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"text":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347","Loren Roth papers","Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union","Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.","While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.","Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.","This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.","The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.","Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon","English Russian"],"unitid_tesim":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"repository_ssm":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"creator_ssm":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creators_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"access_terms_ssm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"acqinfo_ssim":["In March 2023, Dr. Loren Henry Roth donated all of the materials in this collection to the University of Virginia Law Library."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"extent_ssm":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"extent_tesim":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"date_range_isim":[1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eResearchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFinally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eWhile it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eWhile the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eNotes:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. Id, pages xix and xx\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFrom April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAlthough there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAmong those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eShortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["History of the Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists in the U.S.S.R.","History of the 1989 U.S. State Department Investigative Mission to the U.S.S.R.","History of the 2021-2022 Oral History Project"],"bioghist_tesim":["While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eOlena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThis collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"names_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"corpname_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections"],"persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"language_ssim":["English Russian"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":263,"online_item_count_is":18,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c22"}},{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c04","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"Interview with Ambassador Robert William (Bill) Farrand","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c04#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eAmbassador Farrand talks about his long successful career in the U.S. State Department, the importance of the Soviet psychiatric abuse to the U.S. government and the larger context of the U.S. - U.S.S.R. relationships. As a person who worked closely with Ambassador Richard Schifter for many years, Mr. Farrand describes Schifter's goals and vision of the 1989 psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R. \u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c04#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c04","ref_ssm":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c04"],"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c04","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_ids_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"text":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project","Interview with Ambassador Robert William (Bill) Farrand","Robert William Farrand did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).","Robert William Farrand retired in 1998 after 34 years in the U.S. Foreign Service. He served as Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu from 1990 until 1993. ","In 1988-89 he led the U.S. delegation of medical and forensic professionals to investigate the Soviet Union's political weaponizing of psychiatry, for which he received a Superior Honor Award.","Farrand was concurrently Supervisor of the Bosnian city of Brčko and Deputy High Representative for the northern sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1997 to 2000).  ","Ambassador Farrand talks about his long successful career in the U.S. State Department, the importance of the Soviet psychiatric abuse to the U.S. government and the larger context of the U.S. - U.S.S.R. relationships. As a person who worked closely with Ambassador Richard Schifter for many years, Mr. Farrand describes Schifter's goals and vision of the 1989 psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R. ","Mr. Farrand describes the process of negotiating the terms of the visit and shares insights about interacting with a superpower as the Soviet Union was at that time. He also talks about the the peculiarities of governance in the U.S.S.R., and power dynamics inside the country. Mr. Farrand describes the efforts to preserve transparency and independence of the mission as well as managing its financial aspects and its highlighting in media. Mr. Farrand also talks about glasnost, perestroika, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.","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."],"title_filing_ssi":"Interview with Ambassador Robert William (Bill) Farrand","title_ssm":["Interview with Ambassador Robert William (Bill) Farrand"],"title_tesim":["Interview with Ambassador Robert William (Bill) Farrand"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["2021-06-21","2021-06-26","2021-07-02"],"normalized_date_ssm":["2021, 2021, 2021"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Interview with Ambassador Robert William (Bill) Farrand"],"component_level_isim":[2],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":244,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The interviews with the former Soviet patients and the original 1989 recording are restricted and special permissions apply."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"digital_objects_ssm":["{\"label\":\"Interview with Robert William (Bill) Farrand\",\"href\":\"virginia.edu.viul.2a6bc6c4-d317-11ed-92ba-4ea842a5d5da\"}"],"date_range_isim":[2021],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eRobert William Farrand did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Robert William Farrand did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022)."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eRobert William Farrand retired in 1998 after 34 years in the U.S. Foreign Service. He served as Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu from 1990 until 1993. \u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 1988-89 he led the U.S. delegation of medical and forensic professionals to investigate the Soviet Union's political weaponizing of psychiatry, for which he received a Superior Honor Award.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eFarrand was concurrently Supervisor of the Bosnian city of Brčko and Deputy High Representative for the northern sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1997 to 2000).  \u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["Robert William Farrand retired in 1998 after 34 years in the U.S. Foreign Service. He served as Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu from 1990 until 1993. ","In 1988-89 he led the U.S. delegation of medical and forensic professionals to investigate the Soviet Union's political weaponizing of psychiatry, for which he received a Superior Honor Award.","Farrand was concurrently Supervisor of the Bosnian city of Brčko and Deputy High Representative for the northern sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1997 to 2000).  "],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAmbassador Farrand talks about his long successful career in the U.S. State Department, the importance of the Soviet psychiatric abuse to the U.S. government and the larger context of the U.S. - U.S.S.R. relationships. As a person who worked closely with Ambassador Richard Schifter for many years, Mr. Farrand describes Schifter's goals and vision of the 1989 psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R. \u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eMr. Farrand describes the process of negotiating the terms of the visit and shares insights about interacting with a superpower as the Soviet Union was at that time. He also talks about the the peculiarities of governance in the U.S.S.R., and power dynamics inside the country. Mr. Farrand describes the efforts to preserve transparency and independence of the mission as well as managing its financial aspects and its highlighting in media. Mr. Farrand also talks about glasnost, perestroika, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eOlena 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.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Ambassador Farrand talks about his long successful career in the U.S. State Department, the importance of the Soviet psychiatric abuse to the U.S. government and the larger context of the U.S. - U.S.S.R. relationships. As a person who worked closely with Ambassador Richard Schifter for many years, Mr. Farrand describes Schifter's goals and vision of the 1989 psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R. ","Mr. Farrand describes the process of negotiating the terms of the visit and shares insights about interacting with a superpower as the Soviet Union was at that time. He also talks about the the peculiarities of governance in the U.S.S.R., and power dynamics inside the country. Mr. Farrand describes the efforts to preserve transparency and independence of the mission as well as managing its financial aspects and its highlighting in media. Mr. Farrand also talks about glasnost, perestroika, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.","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."],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#3","timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/UVA/repositories_4_resources_1347.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/ark:/59853/169336","title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"unitdate_ssm":["1950-2022","1974-2022"],"unitdate_bulk_ssim":["1974-2022"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1950-2022"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"text":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347","Loren Roth papers","Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union","Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.","While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.","Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.","This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.","The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.","Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon","English Russian"],"unitid_tesim":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"repository_ssm":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"creator_ssm":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creators_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"access_terms_ssm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"acqinfo_ssim":["In March 2023, Dr. Loren Henry Roth donated all of the materials in this collection to the University of Virginia Law Library."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"extent_ssm":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"extent_tesim":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"date_range_isim":[1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eResearchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFinally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eWhile it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eWhile the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eNotes:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. Id, pages xix and xx\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFrom April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAlthough there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAmong those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eShortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["History of the Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists in the U.S.S.R.","History of the 1989 U.S. State Department Investigative Mission to the U.S.S.R.","History of the 2021-2022 Oral History Project"],"bioghist_tesim":["While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eOlena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThis collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"names_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"corpname_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections"],"persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"language_ssim":["English Russian"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":263,"online_item_count_is":18,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c04"}},{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c10","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"Interview with Andrey Kovalev","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c10#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eMr. Kovalev tells about the role of various domestic and international actors in the process of democratization of the U.S.S.R. in the late 1980s and bringing human rights into the Soviet Union. He also assesses the political factors of the early 1980s that allowed Gorbachev come to power and retain it. Mr. Kovalev shares his insights about the Soviet foreign policy of the second half of 1980s-early 1990s and the U.S. - U.S.S.R. relationships. He shares his knowledge about the history of abuse of psychiatry and the reasons for resorting to it; the Soviet psychiatric register and the consequences of being on a register; the sealed instruction on involuntary commitment that existed but was not available to the public. Mr. Kovalev talks about the chain of decision making in ensuring that the American visit will actually happen and the key events on that road. He also comments on the internal tensions between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health (M.O.H.) as well as the resistance put up by the M.O.H. in organizing the American visit. He also shares his views about the \"system dissidents\" in the U.S.S.R.\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c10#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c10","ref_ssm":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c10"],"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c10","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_ids_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"text":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project","Interview with Andrey Kovalev","Russian","Andrey Kovalev did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).","As of 1989, Mr. Kovalev was a Senior Advisor of the Department for International Humanitarian and Cultural Relations at the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was charged with bringing Soviet legislation and practice in line with the international obligations of the U.S.S.R. Mr. Kovalev was responsible for the development and implementation of the psychiatric reform, including the organization of the visit of the American psychiatric delegation in 1989.","Mr. Kovalev tells about the role of various domestic and international actors in the process of democratization of the U.S.S.R. in the late 1980s and bringing human rights into the Soviet Union. He also assesses the political factors of the early 1980s that allowed Gorbachev come to power and retain it. Mr. Kovalev shares his insights about the Soviet foreign policy of the second half of 1980s-early 1990s and the U.S. - U.S.S.R. relationships. He shares his knowledge about the history of abuse of psychiatry and the reasons for resorting to it; the Soviet psychiatric register and the consequences of being on a register; the sealed instruction on involuntary commitment that existed but was not available to the public. Mr. Kovalev talks about the chain of decision making in ensuring that the American visit will actually happen and the key events on that road. He also comments on the internal tensions between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health (M.O.H.) as well as the resistance put up by the M.O.H. in organizing the American visit. He also shares his views about the \"system dissidents\" in 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."],"title_filing_ssi":"Interview with Andrey Kovalev","title_ssm":["Interview with Andrey Kovalev"],"title_tesim":["Interview with Andrey Kovalev"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["2022-01-21","2021-02-23"],"normalized_date_ssm":["2022, 2021"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Interview with Andrey Kovalev"],"component_level_isim":[2],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":250,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The interviews with the former Soviet patients and the original 1989 recording are restricted and special permissions apply."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"digital_objects_ssm":["{\"label\":\"Interview with Andrey Kovalev\",\"href\":\"virginia.edu.viul.817f657a-d3c0-11ed-8d11-4ea842a5d5da\"}"],"date_range_isim":[2021,2022],"language_ssim":["Russian"],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAndrey Kovalev did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Andrey Kovalev did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022)."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAs of 1989, Mr. Kovalev was a Senior Advisor of the Department for International Humanitarian and Cultural Relations at the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was charged with bringing Soviet legislation and practice in line with the international obligations of the U.S.S.R. Mr. Kovalev was responsible for the development and implementation of the psychiatric reform, including the organization of the visit of the American psychiatric delegation in 1989.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["As of 1989, Mr. Kovalev was a Senior Advisor of the Department for International Humanitarian and Cultural Relations at the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was charged with bringing Soviet legislation and practice in line with the international obligations of the U.S.S.R. Mr. Kovalev was responsible for the development and implementation of the psychiatric reform, including the organization of the visit of the American psychiatric delegation in 1989."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eMr. Kovalev tells about the role of various domestic and international actors in the process of democratization of the U.S.S.R. in the late 1980s and bringing human rights into the Soviet Union. He also assesses the political factors of the early 1980s that allowed Gorbachev come to power and retain it. Mr. Kovalev shares his insights about the Soviet foreign policy of the second half of 1980s-early 1990s and the U.S. - U.S.S.R. relationships. He shares his knowledge about the history of abuse of psychiatry and the reasons for resorting to it; the Soviet psychiatric register and the consequences of being on a register; the sealed instruction on involuntary commitment that existed but was not available to the public. Mr. Kovalev talks about the chain of decision making in ensuring that the American visit will actually happen and the key events on that road. He also comments on the internal tensions between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health (M.O.H.) as well as the resistance put up by the M.O.H. in organizing the American visit. He also shares his views about the \"system dissidents\" in the U.S.S.R.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eOlena 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.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Mr. Kovalev tells about the role of various domestic and international actors in the process of democratization of the U.S.S.R. in the late 1980s and bringing human rights into the Soviet Union. He also assesses the political factors of the early 1980s that allowed Gorbachev come to power and retain it. Mr. Kovalev shares his insights about the Soviet foreign policy of the second half of 1980s-early 1990s and the U.S. - U.S.S.R. relationships. He shares his knowledge about the history of abuse of psychiatry and the reasons for resorting to it; the Soviet psychiatric register and the consequences of being on a register; the sealed instruction on involuntary commitment that existed but was not available to the public. Mr. Kovalev talks about the chain of decision making in ensuring that the American visit will actually happen and the key events on that road. He also comments on the internal tensions between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health (M.O.H.) as well as the resistance put up by the M.O.H. in organizing the American visit. He also shares his views about the \"system dissidents\" in 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."],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#9","timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/UVA/repositories_4_resources_1347.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/ark:/59853/169336","title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"unitdate_ssm":["1950-2022","1974-2022"],"unitdate_bulk_ssim":["1974-2022"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1950-2022"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"text":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347","Loren Roth papers","Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union","Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.","While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.","Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.","This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.","The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.","Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon","English Russian"],"unitid_tesim":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"repository_ssm":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"creator_ssm":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creators_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"access_terms_ssm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"acqinfo_ssim":["In March 2023, Dr. Loren Henry Roth donated all of the materials in this collection to the University of Virginia Law Library."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"extent_ssm":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"extent_tesim":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"date_range_isim":[1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eResearchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFinally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eWhile it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eWhile the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eNotes:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. Id, pages xix and xx\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFrom April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAlthough there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAmong those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eShortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["History of the Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists in the U.S.S.R.","History of the 1989 U.S. State Department Investigative Mission to the U.S.S.R.","History of the 2021-2022 Oral History Project"],"bioghist_tesim":["While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eOlena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThis collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"names_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"corpname_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections"],"persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"language_ssim":["English Russian"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":263,"online_item_count_is":18,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c10"}},{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c17","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"Interview with Carolyn Smith","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c17#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eMs. Smith shares her memories about interpreting for both 1989 U.S. State Department delegation and the 1991 WPA delegation to the Soviet Union. She explains how this experience compares to the other interesting projects she has been involved in throughout her career. She describes her most prominent memories about this job as well as the Soviet Union as of 1989. \u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c17#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c17","ref_ssm":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c17"],"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c17","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_ids_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"text":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project","Interview with Carolyn Smith","Carolyn Smith did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).","Fluent in English and Russian, Ms. Smith was a contract interpreter for the U.S. State Department for many years. She interpreted for both the 1989 American delegation and the 1991 WPA delegation to the Soviet Union. During the 1989 trip, she was on the sub-team # 1 under the leadership of Dr. Samuel J. Keith, M.D. interpreting in Moscow.","Ms. Smith shares her memories about interpreting for both 1989 U.S. State Department delegation and the 1991 WPA delegation to the Soviet Union. She explains how this experience compares to the other interesting projects she has been involved in throughout her career. She describes her most prominent memories about this job as well as the Soviet Union as of 1989. ","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."],"title_filing_ssi":"Interview with Carolyn Smith","title_ssm":["Interview with Carolyn Smith"],"title_tesim":["Interview with Carolyn Smith"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["2021-09-07"],"normalized_date_ssm":["2021"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Interview with Carolyn Smith"],"component_level_isim":[2],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":257,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The interviews with the former Soviet patients and the original 1989 recording are restricted and special permissions apply."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"digital_objects_ssm":["{\"label\":\"Interview with Carolyn Smith\",\"href\":\"virginia.edu.viul.900e59b8-d31e-11ed-9b62-4ea842a5d5da\"}"],"date_range_isim":[2021],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eCarolyn Smith did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Carolyn Smith did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022)."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eFluent in English and Russian, Ms. Smith was a contract interpreter for the U.S. State Department for many years. She interpreted for both the 1989 American delegation and the 1991 WPA delegation to the Soviet Union. During the 1989 trip, she was on the sub-team # 1 under the leadership of Dr. Samuel J. Keith, M.D. interpreting in Moscow.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["Fluent in English and Russian, Ms. Smith was a contract interpreter for the U.S. State Department for many years. She interpreted for both the 1989 American delegation and the 1991 WPA delegation to the Soviet Union. During the 1989 trip, she was on the sub-team # 1 under the leadership of Dr. Samuel J. Keith, M.D. interpreting in Moscow."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eMs. Smith shares her memories about interpreting for both 1989 U.S. State Department delegation and the 1991 WPA delegation to the Soviet Union. She explains how this experience compares to the other interesting projects she has been involved in throughout her career. She describes her most prominent memories about this job as well as the Soviet Union as of 1989. \u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eOlena 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.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Ms. Smith shares her memories about interpreting for both 1989 U.S. State Department delegation and the 1991 WPA delegation to the Soviet Union. She explains how this experience compares to the other interesting projects she has been involved in throughout her career. She describes her most prominent memories about this job as well as the Soviet Union as of 1989. ","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."],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#16","timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/UVA/repositories_4_resources_1347.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/ark:/59853/169336","title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"unitdate_ssm":["1950-2022","1974-2022"],"unitdate_bulk_ssim":["1974-2022"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1950-2022"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"text":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347","Loren Roth papers","Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union","Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.","While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.","Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.","This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.","The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.","Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon","English Russian"],"unitid_tesim":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"repository_ssm":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"creator_ssm":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creators_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"access_terms_ssm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"acqinfo_ssim":["In March 2023, Dr. Loren Henry Roth donated all of the materials in this collection to the University of Virginia Law Library."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"extent_ssm":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"extent_tesim":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"date_range_isim":[1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eResearchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFinally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eWhile it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eWhile the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eNotes:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. Id, pages xix and xx\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFrom April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAlthough there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAmong those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eShortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["History of the Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists in the U.S.S.R.","History of the 1989 U.S. State Department Investigative Mission to the U.S.S.R.","History of the 2021-2022 Oral History Project"],"bioghist_tesim":["While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eOlena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThis collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"names_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"corpname_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections"],"persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"language_ssim":["English Russian"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":263,"online_item_count_is":18,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c17"}},{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c14","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"Interview with Darrel Regier, M.D.","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c14#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eThe interview with Dr. Regier is of critical importance for the comprehensive retrospective evaluation of the long-term impact of the 1989 State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. Dr. Regier not only played a key role in the preparation and implementation of the mission, but also successfully continued to help develop the quality and accessibility of mental health services in Russia after the U.S.S.R. collapse. Dr. Regier also continued to tackle the issue of psychiatric abuse in China. In his interview, Dr. Regier gives a historical overview of the development of diagnostic criteria that was subsequently used during the U.S. State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. relating to psychiatric abuse. This interview provides a great description of the methodology used during the interviews. Dr. Regier also describes the NIMH goals, unique role and contribution to the 1989 mission and shares his insights about the factors that made it possible to weaponize psychiatry against dissidents in the Soviet Union. Dr. Regier also tells about his role in the work of Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission in the area on mental health care in Russia post the Soviet Union breakup.\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c14#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c14","ref_ssm":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c14"],"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c14","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_ids_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"text":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project","Interview with Darrel Regier, M.D.","Dr. Darrel Regier did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).","Dr. Darrel Regier was the Scientific Director of the 1989 State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. and coordinated all aspects of the clinical assessment procedure. Dr. Regier completed twenty-five years at the National Institute of Mental Health (N.I.M.H.), during which time he directed three research divisions in the areas of epidemiology, prevention, clinical research, and health services research. Dr. Regier is currently a Senior Scientist at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, in the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine and Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University. He also serves as an independent senior scientific consultant to the American Psychiatric Association (A.P.A.) on DSM-5 and research related issues.","The interview with Dr. Regier is of critical importance for the comprehensive retrospective evaluation of the long-term impact of the 1989 State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. Dr. Regier not only played a key role in the preparation and implementation of the mission, but also successfully continued to help develop the quality and accessibility of mental health services in Russia after the U.S.S.R. collapse. Dr. Regier also continued to tackle the issue of psychiatric abuse in China.  \nIn his interview, Dr. Regier gives a historical overview of the development of diagnostic criteria that was subsequently used during the U.S. State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. relating to psychiatric abuse. This interview provides a great description of the methodology used during the interviews. Dr. Regier also describes the NIMH goals, unique role and contribution to the 1989 mission and shares his insights about the factors that made it possible to weaponize psychiatry against dissidents in the Soviet Union. Dr. Regier also tells about his role in the work of Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission in the area on mental health care in Russia post the Soviet Union breakup.","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."],"title_filing_ssi":"Interview with Darrel Regier, M.D.","title_ssm":["Interview with Darrel Regier, M.D."],"title_tesim":["Interview with Darrel Regier, M.D."],"unitdate_other_ssim":["2021-09-29","2021-09-30"],"normalized_date_ssm":["2021, 2021"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Interview with Darrel Regier, M.D."],"component_level_isim":[2],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":254,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The interviews with the former Soviet patients and the original 1989 recording are restricted and special permissions apply."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"digital_objects_ssm":["{\"label\":\"Interview with Darrel Regier\",\"href\":\"virginia.edu.viul.437e248c-d320-11ed-ac45-4ea842a5d5da\"}"],"date_range_isim":[2021],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Darrel Regier did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Dr. Darrel Regier did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022)."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Darrel Regier was the Scientific Director of the 1989 State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. and coordinated all aspects of the clinical assessment procedure. Dr. Regier completed twenty-five years at the National Institute of Mental Health (N.I.M.H.), during which time he directed three research divisions in the areas of epidemiology, prevention, clinical research, and health services research. Dr. Regier is currently a Senior Scientist at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, in the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine and Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University. He also serves as an independent senior scientific consultant to the American Psychiatric Association (A.P.A.) on DSM-5 and research related issues.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["Dr. Darrel Regier was the Scientific Director of the 1989 State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. and coordinated all aspects of the clinical assessment procedure. Dr. Regier completed twenty-five years at the National Institute of Mental Health (N.I.M.H.), during which time he directed three research divisions in the areas of epidemiology, prevention, clinical research, and health services research. Dr. Regier is currently a Senior Scientist at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, in the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine and Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University. He also serves as an independent senior scientific consultant to the American Psychiatric Association (A.P.A.) on DSM-5 and research related issues."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe interview with Dr. Regier is of critical importance for the comprehensive retrospective evaluation of the long-term impact of the 1989 State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. Dr. Regier not only played a key role in the preparation and implementation of the mission, but also successfully continued to help develop the quality and accessibility of mental health services in Russia after the U.S.S.R. collapse. Dr. Regier also continued to tackle the issue of psychiatric abuse in China.  \nIn his interview, Dr. Regier gives a historical overview of the development of diagnostic criteria that was subsequently used during the U.S. State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. relating to psychiatric abuse. This interview provides a great description of the methodology used during the interviews. Dr. Regier also describes the NIMH goals, unique role and contribution to the 1989 mission and shares his insights about the factors that made it possible to weaponize psychiatry against dissidents in the Soviet Union. Dr. Regier also tells about his role in the work of Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission in the area on mental health care in Russia post the Soviet Union breakup.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eOlena 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.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The interview with Dr. Regier is of critical importance for the comprehensive retrospective evaluation of the long-term impact of the 1989 State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. Dr. Regier not only played a key role in the preparation and implementation of the mission, but also successfully continued to help develop the quality and accessibility of mental health services in Russia after the U.S.S.R. collapse. Dr. Regier also continued to tackle the issue of psychiatric abuse in China.  \nIn his interview, Dr. Regier gives a historical overview of the development of diagnostic criteria that was subsequently used during the U.S. State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. relating to psychiatric abuse. This interview provides a great description of the methodology used during the interviews. Dr. Regier also describes the NIMH goals, unique role and contribution to the 1989 mission and shares his insights about the factors that made it possible to weaponize psychiatry against dissidents in the Soviet Union. Dr. Regier also tells about his role in the work of Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission in the area on mental health care in Russia post the Soviet Union breakup.","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."],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#13","timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/UVA/repositories_4_resources_1347.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/ark:/59853/169336","title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"unitdate_ssm":["1950-2022","1974-2022"],"unitdate_bulk_ssim":["1974-2022"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1950-2022"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"text":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347","Loren Roth papers","Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union","Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.","While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.","Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.","This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.","The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.","Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon","English Russian"],"unitid_tesim":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"repository_ssm":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"creator_ssm":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creators_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"access_terms_ssm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"acqinfo_ssim":["In March 2023, Dr. Loren Henry Roth donated all of the materials in this collection to the University of Virginia Law Library."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"extent_ssm":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"extent_tesim":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"date_range_isim":[1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eResearchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFinally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eWhile it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eWhile the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eNotes:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. Id, pages xix and xx\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFrom April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAlthough there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAmong those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eShortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["History of the Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists in the U.S.S.R.","History of the 1989 U.S. State Department Investigative Mission to the U.S.S.R.","History of the 2021-2022 Oral History Project"],"bioghist_tesim":["While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eOlena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThis collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"names_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"corpname_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections"],"persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"language_ssim":["English Russian"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":263,"online_item_count_is":18,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c14"}},{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c11","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"Interview with Ellen Mercer","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c11#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eMs. Mercer talks about her career at the APA and the role that the APA played in advocating for the rights of the persons committed to psychiatric hospitals for non-medical reasons in the USSR. She then discusses the historical context for the 1989 State Department psychiatric delegation to the Soviet Union, including the 1977 Declaration of Hawaii and the All-Union Society's walking out of the WPA in 1983 in the face of an almost certain expulsion. Being a part of the November 1988 negotiation team to the Soviet Union, Ms. Mercer shares her thoughts about the negotiation process and the Soviet's compliance with the terms agreed upon. Ms. Mercer describes the field visit to Soviet psychiatric hospitals and then talks about the Soviet's readmission to the WPA, the role the 1989 U.S. State Department played in this process, the APA's and Ms. Mercer's personal stance with regard to the readmission. Ms. Mercer concludes by discussing the difference the American visit made in the big picture.\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c11#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c11","ref_ssm":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c11"],"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c11","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_ids_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"text":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project","Interview with Ellen Mercer","Ellen Mercer did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).","At the time of the 1989 U.S. psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R. Ms. Mercer was the Director of the A.P.A. Office of International Affairs. She is believed to be one of the initiators of the visit and was deeply involved in its planning and preparation as the representative of the American Psychiatric Association (A.P.A.). During the visit itself, she was a member of the team inspecting psychiatric hospitals on the ground.","Ms. Mercer talks about her career at the APA and the role that the APA played in advocating for the rights of the persons committed to psychiatric hospitals for non-medical reasons in the USSR. She then discusses the historical context for the 1989 State Department psychiatric delegation to the Soviet Union, including the 1977 Declaration of Hawaii and the All-Union Society's walking out of the WPA in 1983 in the face of an almost certain expulsion. Being a part of the November 1988 negotiation team to the Soviet Union, Ms. Mercer shares her thoughts about the negotiation process and the Soviet's compliance with the terms agreed upon. Ms. Mercer describes the field visit to Soviet psychiatric hospitals and then talks about the Soviet's readmission to the WPA, the role the 1989 U.S. State Department played in this process, the APA's and Ms. Mercer's personal stance with regard to the readmission. Ms. Mercer concludes by discussing the difference the American visit made in the big picture.","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."],"title_filing_ssi":"Interview with Ellen Mercer","title_ssm":["Interview with Ellen Mercer"],"title_tesim":["Interview with Ellen Mercer"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["2021-07-30"],"normalized_date_ssm":["2021"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Interview with Ellen Mercer"],"component_level_isim":[2],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":251,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The interviews with the former Soviet patients and the original 1989 recording are restricted and special permissions apply."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"digital_objects_ssm":["{\"label\":\"2021_07_30_Ellen_Mercer_Interview\",\"href\":\"virginia.edu.viul.f1ba7e3a-523f-11ee-aaf9-4ea842a5d5db\"}"],"date_range_isim":[2021],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eEllen Mercer did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Ellen Mercer did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022)."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAt the time of the 1989 U.S. psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R. Ms. Mercer was the Director of the A.P.A. Office of International Affairs. She is believed to be one of the initiators of the visit and was deeply involved in its planning and preparation as the representative of the American Psychiatric Association (A.P.A.). During the visit itself, she was a member of the team inspecting psychiatric hospitals on the ground.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["At the time of the 1989 U.S. psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R. Ms. Mercer was the Director of the A.P.A. Office of International Affairs. She is believed to be one of the initiators of the visit and was deeply involved in its planning and preparation as the representative of the American Psychiatric Association (A.P.A.). During the visit itself, she was a member of the team inspecting psychiatric hospitals on the ground."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eMs. Mercer talks about her career at the APA and the role that the APA played in advocating for the rights of the persons committed to psychiatric hospitals for non-medical reasons in the USSR. She then discusses the historical context for the 1989 State Department psychiatric delegation to the Soviet Union, including the 1977 Declaration of Hawaii and the All-Union Society's walking out of the WPA in 1983 in the face of an almost certain expulsion. Being a part of the November 1988 negotiation team to the Soviet Union, Ms. Mercer shares her thoughts about the negotiation process and the Soviet's compliance with the terms agreed upon. Ms. Mercer describes the field visit to Soviet psychiatric hospitals and then talks about the Soviet's readmission to the WPA, the role the 1989 U.S. State Department played in this process, the APA's and Ms. Mercer's personal stance with regard to the readmission. Ms. Mercer concludes by discussing the difference the American visit made in the big picture.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eOlena 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.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Ms. Mercer talks about her career at the APA and the role that the APA played in advocating for the rights of the persons committed to psychiatric hospitals for non-medical reasons in the USSR. She then discusses the historical context for the 1989 State Department psychiatric delegation to the Soviet Union, including the 1977 Declaration of Hawaii and the All-Union Society's walking out of the WPA in 1983 in the face of an almost certain expulsion. Being a part of the November 1988 negotiation team to the Soviet Union, Ms. Mercer shares her thoughts about the negotiation process and the Soviet's compliance with the terms agreed upon. Ms. Mercer describes the field visit to Soviet psychiatric hospitals and then talks about the Soviet's readmission to the WPA, the role the 1989 U.S. State Department played in this process, the APA's and Ms. Mercer's personal stance with regard to the readmission. Ms. Mercer concludes by discussing the difference the American visit made in the big picture.","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."],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#10","timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/UVA/repositories_4_resources_1347.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/ark:/59853/169336","title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"unitdate_ssm":["1950-2022","1974-2022"],"unitdate_bulk_ssim":["1974-2022"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1950-2022"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"text":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347","Loren Roth papers","Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union","Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.","While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.","Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.","This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.","The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.","Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon","English Russian"],"unitid_tesim":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"repository_ssm":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"creator_ssm":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creators_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"access_terms_ssm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"acqinfo_ssim":["In March 2023, Dr. Loren Henry Roth donated all of the materials in this collection to the University of Virginia Law Library."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"extent_ssm":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"extent_tesim":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"date_range_isim":[1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eResearchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFinally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eWhile it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eWhile the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eNotes:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. Id, pages xix and xx\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFrom April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAlthough there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAmong those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eShortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["History of the Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists in the U.S.S.R.","History of the 1989 U.S. State Department Investigative Mission to the U.S.S.R.","History of the 2021-2022 Oral History Project"],"bioghist_tesim":["While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eOlena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThis collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"names_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"corpname_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections"],"persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"language_ssim":["English Russian"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":263,"online_item_count_is":18,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c11"}},{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c09","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"Interview with Felix Kleyman, M.D.","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c09#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eDr. Kleyman is a great source of knowledge about the ins and outs of the Soviet mental health care system as the person who had about 10 years of professional experience on the ground. He talked about the uniqueness of his role during the American psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R. that resulted from him being a native Russian speaker and being well familiar with life in the Soviet Union. Dr. Kleyman discusses the social and political context that surrounded the 1989 U.S. State Department visit and made it possible in the first place; the doctor patient relationship in the U.S.S.R.; Soviet diagnostic approaches and the role of Soviet psychiatrists during the American visit. Dr. Kleyman recalls his unique trip to Moscow Psychiatric Hospital # 5 to briefly speak with the patient who was claimed by the Soviets to have refused examination. He also talks about his experience as a member of the 1991 W.P.A. mission to the U.S.S.R.\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c09#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c09","ref_ssm":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c09"],"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c09","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_ids_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"text":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project","Interview with Felix Kleyman, M.D.","Dr. Felix Kleyman did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).","Dr. Felix Kleyman is a psychiatrist practicing in New York City. At the time of the 1989 U.S. State Department mission to the Soviet Union to investigate abuse of psychiatry, Dr. Kleyman was an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College. Dr. Kleyman was one of the few Russian-speaking, U.S.S.R. and U.S.-trained psychiatrists on the American team. Dr. Kleyman was also a member of the 1991 W.P.A.  mission to the Soviet Union once the All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists was provisionally readmitted to the W.P.A.","Dr. Kleyman is a great source of knowledge about the ins and outs of the Soviet mental health care system as the person who had about 10 years of professional experience on the ground. He talked about the uniqueness of his role during the American psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R. that resulted from him being a native Russian speaker and being well familiar with life in the Soviet Union. Dr. Kleyman discusses the social and political context that surrounded the 1989 U.S. State Department visit and made it possible in the first place; the doctor patient relationship in the U.S.S.R.; Soviet diagnostic approaches and the role of Soviet psychiatrists during the American visit. Dr. Kleyman recalls his unique trip to Moscow Psychiatric Hospital # 5 to briefly speak with the patient who was claimed by the Soviets to have refused examination. He also talks about his experience as a member of the 1991 W.P.A. 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."],"title_filing_ssi":"Interview with Felix Kleyman, M.D.","title_ssm":["Interview with Felix Kleyman, M.D."],"title_tesim":["Interview with Felix Kleyman, M.D."],"unitdate_other_ssim":["2021-08-25"],"normalized_date_ssm":["2021"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Interview with Felix Kleyman, M.D."],"component_level_isim":[2],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":249,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The interviews with the former Soviet patients and the original 1989 recording are restricted and special permissions apply."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"digital_objects_ssm":["{\"label\":\"Interview with Felix Kleyman\",\"href\":\"virginia.edu.viul.c64c509c-d31a-11ed-b1bf-4ea842a5d5da\"}"],"date_range_isim":[2021],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Felix Kleyman did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Dr. Felix Kleyman did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022)."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Felix Kleyman is a psychiatrist practicing in New York City. At the time of the 1989 U.S. State Department mission to the Soviet Union to investigate abuse of psychiatry, Dr. Kleyman was an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College. Dr. Kleyman was one of the few Russian-speaking, U.S.S.R. and U.S.-trained psychiatrists on the American team. Dr. Kleyman was also a member of the 1991 W.P.A.  mission to the Soviet Union once the All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists was provisionally readmitted to the W.P.A.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["Dr. Felix Kleyman is a psychiatrist practicing in New York City. At the time of the 1989 U.S. State Department mission to the Soviet Union to investigate abuse of psychiatry, Dr. Kleyman was an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College. Dr. Kleyman was one of the few Russian-speaking, U.S.S.R. and U.S.-trained psychiatrists on the American team. Dr. Kleyman was also a member of the 1991 W.P.A.  mission to the Soviet Union once the All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists was provisionally readmitted to the W.P.A."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Kleyman is a great source of knowledge about the ins and outs of the Soviet mental health care system as the person who had about 10 years of professional experience on the ground. He talked about the uniqueness of his role during the American psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R. that resulted from him being a native Russian speaker and being well familiar with life in the Soviet Union. Dr. Kleyman discusses the social and political context that surrounded the 1989 U.S. State Department visit and made it possible in the first place; the doctor patient relationship in the U.S.S.R.; Soviet diagnostic approaches and the role of Soviet psychiatrists during the American visit. Dr. Kleyman recalls his unique trip to Moscow Psychiatric Hospital # 5 to briefly speak with the patient who was claimed by the Soviets to have refused examination. He also talks about his experience as a member of the 1991 W.P.A. mission to the U.S.S.R.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eOlena 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.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Dr. Kleyman is a great source of knowledge about the ins and outs of the Soviet mental health care system as the person who had about 10 years of professional experience on the ground. He talked about the uniqueness of his role during the American psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R. that resulted from him being a native Russian speaker and being well familiar with life in the Soviet Union. Dr. Kleyman discusses the social and political context that surrounded the 1989 U.S. State Department visit and made it possible in the first place; the doctor patient relationship in the U.S.S.R.; Soviet diagnostic approaches and the role of Soviet psychiatrists during the American visit. Dr. Kleyman recalls his unique trip to Moscow Psychiatric Hospital # 5 to briefly speak with the patient who was claimed by the Soviets to have refused examination. He also talks about his experience as a member of the 1991 W.P.A. 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."],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#8","timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/UVA/repositories_4_resources_1347.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/ark:/59853/169336","title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"unitdate_ssm":["1950-2022","1974-2022"],"unitdate_bulk_ssim":["1974-2022"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1950-2022"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"text":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347","Loren Roth papers","Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union","Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.","While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.","Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.","This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.","The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.","Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon","English Russian"],"unitid_tesim":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"repository_ssm":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"creator_ssm":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creators_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"access_terms_ssm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"acqinfo_ssim":["In March 2023, Dr. Loren Henry Roth donated all of the materials in this collection to the University of Virginia Law Library."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"extent_ssm":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"extent_tesim":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"date_range_isim":[1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eResearchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFinally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eWhile it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eWhile the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eNotes:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. Id, pages xix and xx\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFrom April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAlthough there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAmong those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eShortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["History of the Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists in the U.S.S.R.","History of the 1989 U.S. State Department Investigative Mission to the U.S.S.R.","History of the 2021-2022 Oral History Project"],"bioghist_tesim":["While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eOlena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThis collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"names_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"corpname_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections"],"persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"language_ssim":["English Russian"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":263,"online_item_count_is":18,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c09"}},{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c12","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"Interview with John T. Monahan","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c12#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eDr. Monahan talks about his professional training and the highlights of his career, his memories from the 1989 American visit to the Soviet Union, including the goals of the visit, its organizational aspects, and its media coverage. Dr. Monahan then focuses on the forensic evaluation methods and results, the rights of psychiatric patients in the Soviet Union, conditions of their hospitalization, treatment, and hospital staffing. Dr. Monahan concludes by describing his general impressions of Moscow and Leningrad and the conclusions the American team made as a result of the visit. \u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c12#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c12","ref_ssm":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c12"],"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c12","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02","parent_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_ids_ssim":["viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project"],"text":["Loren Roth papers","Retrospective on Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project","Interview with John T. Monahan","Dr. John T. Monahan did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).","John T. Monahan is the John S. Shannon Distinguished Professor of Law, Professor of Psychology, Hunton Andrews Kurth Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. He was the only forensic psychologist on the 1989 U.S. State Department investigative psychiatric mission to the Soviet Union.","Dr. Monahan talks about his professional training and the highlights of his career, his memories from the 1989 American visit to the Soviet Union, including the goals of the visit,  its organizational aspects, and its media coverage. Dr. Monahan then focuses on the forensic evaluation methods and results, the rights of psychiatric patients in the Soviet Union, conditions of their hospitalization, treatment, and hospital staffing. Dr. Monahan concludes by describing his general impressions of Moscow and Leningrad and the conclusions the American team made as a result of the visit. ","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."],"title_filing_ssi":"Interview with John T. Monahan","title_ssm":["Interview with John T. Monahan"],"title_tesim":["Interview with John T. Monahan"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["2021-08-06"],"normalized_date_ssm":["2021"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Interview with John T. Monahan"],"component_level_isim":[2],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":252,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The interviews with the former Soviet patients and the original 1989 recording are restricted and special permissions apply."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"digital_objects_ssm":["{\"label\":\"Interview with John T. Monahan\",\"href\":\"virginia.edu.viul.6921d060-d31d-11ed-986a-4ea842a5d5da\"}"],"date_range_isim":[2021],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eDr. John T. Monahan did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Dr. John T. Monahan did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022)."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eJohn T. Monahan is the John S. Shannon Distinguished Professor of Law, Professor of Psychology, Hunton Andrews Kurth Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. He was the only forensic psychologist on the 1989 U.S. State Department investigative psychiatric mission to the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["John T. Monahan is the John S. Shannon Distinguished Professor of Law, Professor of Psychology, Hunton Andrews Kurth Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. He was the only forensic psychologist on the 1989 U.S. State Department investigative psychiatric mission to the Soviet Union."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Monahan talks about his professional training and the highlights of his career, his memories from the 1989 American visit to the Soviet Union, including the goals of the visit,  its organizational aspects, and its media coverage. Dr. Monahan then focuses on the forensic evaluation methods and results, the rights of psychiatric patients in the Soviet Union, conditions of their hospitalization, treatment, and hospital staffing. Dr. Monahan concludes by describing his general impressions of Moscow and Leningrad and the conclusions the American team made as a result of the visit. \u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eOlena 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.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Dr. Monahan talks about his professional training and the highlights of his career, his memories from the 1989 American visit to the Soviet Union, including the goals of the visit,  its organizational aspects, and its media coverage. Dr. Monahan then focuses on the forensic evaluation methods and results, the rights of psychiatric patients in the Soviet Union, conditions of their hospitalization, treatment, and hospital staffing. Dr. Monahan concludes by describing his general impressions of Moscow and Leningrad and the conclusions the American team made as a result of the visit. ","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."],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#11","timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_ssi":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_root_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","_nest_parent_":"viu_repositories_4_resources_1347","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/UVA/repositories_4_resources_1347.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/ark:/59853/169336","title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"unitdate_ssm":["1950-2022","1974-2022"],"unitdate_bulk_ssim":["1974-2022"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1950-2022"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"text":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347","Loren Roth papers","Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union","Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.","While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.","Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.","This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.","The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.","Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon","English Russian"],"unitid_tesim":["MSS.2021.01","Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","Previous Archival Resource Key","/repositories/4/resources/1347"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_title_tesim":["Loren Roth papers"],"collection_ssim":["Loren Roth papers"],"repository_ssm":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"repository_ssim":["University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept."],"creator_ssm":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"creators_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"access_terms_ssm":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"acqinfo_ssim":["In March 2023, Dr. Loren Henry Roth donated all of the materials in this collection to the University of Virginia Law Library."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","Dissenters -- Soviet Union"],"has_online_content_ssim":["true"],"extent_ssm":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"extent_tesim":["12.75 Cubic Feet 25 boxes","138.5775 Gigabytes"],"date_range_isim":[1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eResearchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFinally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Researchers may only access and view the materials in this collection onsite and in-person at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following additional restrictions apply to any materials that contain the names of the interviewees of the 1989 U.S. State Department psychiatric investigative mission to the Soviet Union and/or 1991 ad hoc mission to the Soviet Union by the World Psychiatric Association:","1. To obtain access to these records, interested researchers must sign a form to agree not to use, document, or disclose names of the patients or their families, or other identifying information about these persons and to abide by all the provisions specified in the present document. The form is available on site from the responsible official of the UVA Law Library. ","2. These materials may not be copied, photographed, or otherwise reproduced digitally. ","3. Before accessing the requested materials, interested researchers must agree to abide by reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, as approved by the UVA Law Library, to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. These procedures shall be followed by all persons associated with the applicant's research project.  ","4. Records in this category are also subject to the following safeguards: (i) Any information that would permit the identification of an individual (names, biographical data, etc.) may not be used, documented, or made public by the researcher, nor will any attempt to contact them be made. However, this does not preclude the researcher from contacting a person in advance of gaining access, for the purpose of obtaining access.  (ii) If a researcher obtains written authorization for access from an interviewee or from his/her legal guardian, the records may be made available to that researcher. (iii) Interviewees themselves may have free access to their own health information if contained in this collection. ","5. If the University of Virginia Law Library discovers that a researcher has violated the confidentiality of information or the conditions of access, the Law Library shall take steps to revoke the research privileges of the researcher and shall consult with University of Virginia legal counsel to prevent further disclosure of the health information.","Finally, different access restrictions may apply to some of the items in  this collection. Whenever possible, archivists have made a note of these restrictions in other parts of the finding aid."],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eWhile it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eWhile the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eNotes:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e5. Id, pages xix and xx\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eFrom April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAlthough there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eAmong those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eShortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["History of the Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists in the U.S.S.R.","History of the 1989 U.S. State Department Investigative Mission to the U.S.S.R.","History of the 2021-2022 Oral History Project"],"bioghist_tesim":["While it is understood that the misuse of psychiatry for non-medical reasons allegedly started in the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution of 1917, its widespread and systematic use as a tool to silence political dissent became well-documented during Khrushchev's era. In a 1959 speech attributed to Khrushchev, he allegedly attempted to justify putting dissidents in psychiatric hospitals by saying that only a mentally ill person may be opposed to Communism (1). While there also were \"political\" parts of the R.S.F.S.R. Criminal Code that criminalized anti-Soviet agitation and slander of the Soviet state, psychiatry was often used to isolate dissidents, punish them with psychiatric drugs, discredit their ideas, and avoid criminal law procedures.","The \"Sluggish schizophrenia\" concept developed by academician Snezhnevsky had overly broad diagnostic criteria that allowed the diagnosis of schizophrenia in patients who showed no symptoms, on the assumption that these symptoms would appear later (2). In almost every case, dissidents were examined at the Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.\nInformation about Soviet repressive psychiatry became well-known in the West after 1971 dissident Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union into the West. The papers were studied by independent psychiatrists in several countries and released to the press (3). \"Bukovsky's papers\" galvanized human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union.","While the attempt to bring the matter to the official agenda of the World Psychiatric Association (W.P.A.) at their 1971 World Congress in Mexico was unsuccessful, it kept gaining more and more outcry worldwide. So, in 1977, the W.P.A. adopted the Hawaii Declaration – a milestone defining principles of good and ethical medical practice. The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists, the official Soviet professional organization, was bound to withdraw from the W.P.A. at its next Congress in 1983—the allegations of the political abuse of psychiatry inflicted irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.","In 1975, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries signed the Helsinki Accords - the key document of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E.). The Accords signaled a détente between the East and the West and built the foundation for the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, and the \"third basket\" on human rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union.","Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, prioritized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Also, Gorbachev launched the domestic \"perestroika\" (restructuring) and \"glasnost\" (openness) initiatives. These combined foreign and domestic policy developments fostered interest, internally and externally, in the plight of Soviet political prisoners. The Soviet Union released many political prisoners from labor camps, and in April 1987, Secretary Schultz and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Shevardnadze agreed on a human rights dialog (4). As part of this broader dialog, in September 1987, the Soviet representatives began to try to assure their American counterparts that the abuse of psychiatry had ended (5).","Notes:","1. Khrushchev had said this in a speech published in the state newspaper Pravda on 24 May 1959: A crime is a deviation from generally recognized standards of behaviour frequently caused by mental disorder. Can there be diseases, nervous disorders among certain people in a Communist society? Evidently yes. If that is so, then there will also be offences, which are characteristic of people with abnormal minds. Of those who might start calling for opposition to Communism on this basis, we can say that clearly their mental state is not normal.\nKnapp, Martin, et al. Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe: The Future Direction of Mental Health Care, McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=316293.","2. Sfera, Adonis. Can psychiatry be misused again?. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9 September 2013;(4):101. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00101. PMID 24058348.","3. For more information, see Reddaway, Peter (12 March 1971). \"Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails\". The Times. p. 8.; Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. London: Gollancz.","4. Schifter-Adamishin book, timeline, page xix","5. Id, pages xix and xx","During the late 1980s, U.S.-Soviet discussions about the abuse of psychiatry led to the formation of a special U.S. delegation to the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the U.S.S.R. allowed the delegation to independently assess 27 Soviet citizens believed to have been psychiatrically committed for non-medical reasons. The U.S.S.R. also allowed the delegation to inspect ordinary psychiatric hospitals and other hospitals known as \"psychoprisons.\" The U.S. delegation's psychiatric leader was Dr. Loren Roth of the University of Pittsburgh. The U.S. State Department organized the trip, closely cooperating with the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health. Their Soviet counterparts were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Ministry of Health and the conservative leadership of Soviet psychiatry, both believed to have been deeply involved in abuse, internally opposed the visit. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overcame this opposition, and their support was critical to the U.S. delegation's success.","The U.S. delegation consisted of leading experts in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, and Sovietology. Also, it included a representative of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.), and émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.","From April 1988 onward, Dr. Loren Roth engaged in extensive negotiations with his Soviet counterparts on the details of the visit. They discussed the list of people (\"patients\") to be assessed by the delegation and the processes for obtaining their consent. There were difficult negotiations over the presence of Soviet psychiatrists during the examinations, and the need to protect the interviewees from potential intimidation and retaliation.","The U.S. delegation advocated for and adopted critical precautions to ensure the transparency of the mission and its findings. They used scientifically developed structural psychiatric interview schedules, brought U.S. interpreters to assist the delegation, avoided sharing the cost of the trip with the Soviet side, collected urine samples to rule out overmedication, videotaped the interviews, and spoke with friends/relatives of those interviewed.","Although there was a significant risk that the Soviet Union would cancel the delegation's visit, it occurred between February and March, 1989. The American team evaluated 27 Soviet citizens and inspected special psychiatric hospitals in Kazan and Chernyakhovsk as well as ordinary psychiatric hospitals in Vilnius and Kaunas.","Among those interviewed by the U.S. team were people still hospitalized, and those who had been previously discharged. The American team was greatly assisted by Mr. Aleksandr \"Sasha\" Podrabinek, the Soviet and, subsequently, Russian dissident. He was an expert on the issue of abuse of psychiatry and author of the 1979 book \"Punitive Medicine\" (see references). Mr. Podrabinek facilitated access to those who had been previously released and claimed to be unavailable by Soviet counterparts.","The U.S. team detailed their conclusions in their final report, \"Assessment of Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry\" (available in this collection), which researchers are encouraged to read. The Soviet Union responded officially with its own report.","The 1989 visit laid a foundation for subsequent collaboration between the two countries in the area of mental health. The U.S.-Russia Health Committee met from 1994 to 2000 as a part of a larger Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. It focused, in particular, on mental health care during disasters and the primary care physician's role in caring for patients with depression.","Shortly after the American mission was over, the W.P.A. congress in Athens decided to provisionally readmit the Soviet All-Union Society after receiving an official, although somewhat vague, admission of the past wrongdoings (covered in detail in On Dissidents and Madness by Robert van Voren). In 1991, the W.P.A. undertook an ad hoc psychiatric inspection of the Soviet Union that Dr. Jim Birley headed. Dr. Loren Roth and other experts who served on the 1989 U.S. State Department mission joined this inspection.","In 1990, a delegation of Soviet psychiatrists and politicians visited the United States for an educational trip to American psychiatric services and scholarly dialogues.","\nResearchers are encouraged to read the resources listed below to gain a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the 1989 delegation:","- the Schizophrenia Bulletin (supplement to Vol 15, # 4, 1989), which contains the brief overview of the reasons, methodology, and findings of the American team in the U.S., the final report of the U.S. delegation both in English and Russian, as well as the Soviet response in both languages (Hyperlink1)\n- The New York Times article \"Accord Is Sought by U.S. And Soviet on Mental Wards\" of May 22, 1988\n- The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Volume 49, Number 4, 2021 \"Jonas Rappeport: A Direct, Accomplished AAPL Leader\" by Dr. Loren Roth\n- Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team on the Visit to the Soviet Union, 9-29 June 1991, headed by Dr. Jim Burley\n- Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War co-authored by Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter in 2009","In 2021, three decades after the 1989 trip to assess the conditions of Soviet citizens confined in psychiatric hospitals for political reasons, an oral history project was initiated to document it. Loren H. Roth, Ellen Mercer, and Richard Bonnie, three members of the delegation, had always wanted to evaluate if the mission had had any lasting impact on the lives of the people interviewed and on the quality and ethical integrity of psychiatric care in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The oral history project began in conjunction with the donation of Loren Roth's papers to the University of Virginia School of Law Library. Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, organized Roth's papers and began researching related collections. Richard Bonnie's papers and Saleem Shah's files on the abuse of psychiatry, also part of the University of Virginia Law Library manuscript collections, were essential to the project's development."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eOlena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Olena Protsenko processed this collection. She was a post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThis collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["This collection is divided into two series. The first series, \"abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists\", consists of subject files compiled by Dr. Loren Roth, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. They are evidence of Dr. Roth's efforts to stop the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists for political reasons, with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. The subject files contain correspondence, articles, reports, evaluations, meeting minutes, agendas, planning materials, diaries, photographs, memoranda, handwritten notes, programs, books, videotapes, ephemera, and other items. Together, these materials date from around 1950 to 2008. However the bulk of them date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Dr. Roth participated in U.S. delegations to the former Soviet Union and was part of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committees on Human Rights and International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.","\nThe second series consists of materials that were gathered and produced for the \"Retrospective Review of the 1989 U.S. State Department Psychiatric Mission to the U.S.S.R.\" project. These materials include oral history interviews with individuals involved with the 1989 mission, a 1989 recorded interview with a psychiatric patient, project correspondence, biographical files, interview minutes, and an organizational chart. Most of the items in this series date from the time of the project, 2021 to 2022."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection."],"names_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"corpname_ssim":["Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections"],"persname_ssim":["Roth, Loren H.","Bloom, Joseph D.","Borissow, Kyrill","Carpenter, William T.","Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","Keith, Samuel J.","Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","Mercer, Ellen Robertson","Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","Reddaway, Peter (1939)","Regier, Darrel A.","Smith, Carolyn","Stern, Leon"],"language_ssim":["English Russian"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":263,"online_item_count_is":18,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-30T22:42:29.077Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viu_repositories_4_resources_1347_c02_c12"}}],"included":[{"type":"facet","id":"repository_ssim","attributes":{"label":"Repository","items":[{"attributes":{"label":"University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.","value":"University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.","hits":25},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Brepository%5D%5B%5D=University+of+Virginia%2C+Special+Collections+Dept.\u0026view=list"}}]},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/facet/repository_ssim.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"facet","id":"collection_ssim","attributes":{"label":"Collection","items":[{"attributes":{"label":"Loren Roth papers","value":"Loren Roth papers","hits":25},"links":{"remove":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}}]},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/facet/collection_ssim.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"facet","id":"date_range_isim","attributes":{"label":"Date range","items":[{"attributes":{"label":"1950","value":"1950","hits":3},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1950\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"1951","value":"1951","hits":3},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1951\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"1952","value":"1952","hits":3},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1952\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"1953","value":"1953","hits":3},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1953\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"1954","value":"1954","hits":3},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1954\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"1955","value":"1955","hits":3},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1955\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"1956","value":"1956","hits":3},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1956\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"1957","value":"1957","hits":3},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1957\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"1958","value":"1958","hits":3},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1958\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"1959","value":"1959","hits":3},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1959\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"1960","value":"1960","hits":3},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1960\u0026view=list"}}]},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/facet/date_range_isim.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"facet","id":"creator_ssim","attributes":{"label":"Creator","items":[{"attributes":{"label":"Bloom, Joseph D.","value":"Bloom, Joseph D.","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Bloom%2C+Joseph+D.\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Borissow, Kyrill","value":"Borissow, Kyrill","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Borissow%2C+Kyrill\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Carpenter, William T.","value":"Carpenter, William T.","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Carpenter%2C+William+T.\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","value":"Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Farrand%2C+Robert+William%2C+1934-\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","value":"Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Hirschfeld%2C+Robert+M.+A.\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","value":"Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Hopkins%2C+William+H.+%28William+Hugh%29%2C+1942-\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Keith, Samuel J.","value":"Keith, Samuel J.","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Keith%2C+Samuel+J.\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","value":"Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Kleyman%2C+Felix%2C+Dr.\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","value":"Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Kovalev%2C+A.+A.+%28Andre%C4%AD+Anatol%CA%B9evich%29\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Mercer, Ellen Robertson","value":"Mercer, Ellen Robertson","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Mercer%2C+Ellen+Robertson\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","value":"Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946-","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Monahan%2C+John+%28John+Thomas%29%2C+1946-\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}}]},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/facet/creator_ssim.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"facet","id":"names_ssim","attributes":{"label":"Names","items":[{"attributes":{"label":"Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","value":"Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bnames%5D%5B%5D=Arthur+J.+Morris+Law+Library+Special+Collections\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Bloom, Joseph D.","value":"Bloom, Joseph D.","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bnames%5D%5B%5D=Bloom%2C+Joseph+D.\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Borissow, Kyrill","value":"Borissow, Kyrill","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bnames%5D%5B%5D=Borissow%2C+Kyrill\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Carpenter, William T.","value":"Carpenter, William T.","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bnames%5D%5B%5D=Carpenter%2C+William+T.\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","value":"Farrand, Robert William, 1934-","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bnames%5D%5B%5D=Farrand%2C+Robert+William%2C+1934-\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","value":"Hirschfeld, Robert M. A.","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bnames%5D%5B%5D=Hirschfeld%2C+Robert+M.+A.\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","value":"Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942-","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bnames%5D%5B%5D=Hopkins%2C+William+H.+%28William+Hugh%29%2C+1942-\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Keith, Samuel J.","value":"Keith, Samuel J.","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bnames%5D%5B%5D=Keith%2C+Samuel+J.\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","value":"Kleyman, Felix, Dr.","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bnames%5D%5B%5D=Kleyman%2C+Felix%2C+Dr.\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","value":"Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich)","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bnames%5D%5B%5D=Kovalev%2C+A.+A.+%28Andre%C4%AD+Anatol%CA%B9evich%29\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Mercer, Ellen Robertson","value":"Mercer, Ellen Robertson","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Bnames%5D%5B%5D=Mercer%2C+Ellen+Robertson\u0026view=list"}}]},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/facet/names_ssim.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"facet","id":"access_subjects_ssim","attributes":{"label":"Subjects","items":[{"attributes":{"label":"Dissenters -- Soviet Union","value":"Dissenters -- Soviet Union","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Baccess_subjects%5D%5B%5D=Dissenters+--+Soviet+Union\u0026f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","value":"Political prisoners -- Soviet Union","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Baccess_subjects%5D%5B%5D=Political+prisoners+--+Soviet+Union\u0026f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","value":"Psychiatry -- Soviet Union","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Baccess_subjects%5D%5B%5D=Psychiatry+--+Soviet+Union\u0026f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}}]},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/facet/access_subjects_ssim.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"facet","id":"level_ssim","attributes":{"label":"Level","items":[{"attributes":{"label":"Collection","value":"Collection","hits":1},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Blevel%5D%5B%5D=Collection\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"File","value":"File","hits":5},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Blevel%5D%5B%5D=File\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Item","value":"Item","hits":15},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Blevel%5D%5B%5D=Item\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Series","value":"Series","hits":2},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Blevel%5D%5B%5D=Series\u0026view=list"}},{"attributes":{"label":"Subseries","value":"Subseries","hits":2},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026f%5Blevel%5D%5B%5D=Subseries\u0026view=list"}}]},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/facet/level_ssim.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"facet","id":"access","attributes":{"label":"Access","items":[{"attributes":{"label":"Online access","value":"online","hits":17},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Baccess%5D%5B%5D=online\u0026f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}}]},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/facet/access.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"search_field","id":"all_fields","attributes":{"label":"All Fields"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026search_field=all_fields\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"search_field","id":"keyword","attributes":{"label":"Keyword"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026search_field=keyword\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"search_field","id":"name","attributes":{"label":"Name"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026search_field=name\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"search_field","id":"place","attributes":{"label":"Place"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026search_field=place\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"search_field","id":"subject","attributes":{"label":"Subject"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026search_field=subject\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"search_field","id":"title","attributes":{"label":"Title"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026search_field=title\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"search_field","id":"container","attributes":{"label":"Container"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026search_field=container\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"search_field","id":"identifier","attributes":{"label":"Identifier"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026search_field=identifier\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"sort","id":"score desc, title_sort asc","attributes":{"label":"relevance"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026sort=score+desc%2C+title_sort+asc\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"sort","id":"date_sort asc","attributes":{"label":"date (ascending)"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026sort=date_sort+asc\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"sort","id":"date_sort desc","attributes":{"label":"date (descending)"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026sort=date_sort+desc\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"sort","id":"creator_sort asc","attributes":{"label":"creator (A-Z)"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026sort=creator_sort+asc\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"sort","id":"creator_sort desc","attributes":{"label":"creator (Z-A)"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026sort=creator_sort+desc\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"sort","id":"title_sort asc","attributes":{"label":"title (A-Z)"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026sort=title_sort+asc\u0026view=list"}},{"type":"sort","id":"title_sort desc","attributes":{"label":"title (Z-A)"},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=Loren+Roth+papers\u0026f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=2021\u0026sort=title_sort+desc\u0026view=list"}}]}