# Psikhushka

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{{Short description|Russian ironic diminutive for psychiatric hospital}}
{{Psychiatry in Russia and the USSR}}
'''Psikhushka''' ({{langx|ru|психу́шка}}; {{IPA|ru|pʲsʲɪˈxuʂkə|}}) is a [Russian](/source/Russian_language) ironic diminutive for [psychiatric hospital](/source/psychiatric_hospital).<ref>{{cite book|last=Hunt |first=Kathleen|title=Abandoned to the state: cruelty and neglect in Russian orphanages|year=1998|publisher=[Human Rights Watch](/source/Human_Rights_Watch)|isbn=978-1-56432-191-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bwD0NUtGMg4C|page=xii}}</ref> In Russia, the word entered everyday vocabulary.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gushansky |first=Emmanuil |script-title=ru:Нужны ли правозащитники в психиатрии?|trans-title=Are defenders of human rights needed in psychiatry?|script-journal=ru:Российский бюллетень по правам человека |trans-journal=Russian Bulletin on Human Rights|year=1999|issue=13|url=http://www.hrights.ru/text/b13/Chapter16.htm|accessdate=18 February 2013|publisher=Изд-во Института прав человека [Publishing House of the Human Rights Institute]|location=Moscow|language=Russian|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130119013347/http://hrights.ru/text/b13/Chapter16.htm|archivedate=19 January 2013|url-status=dead}} The same article in another source:
{{cite journal |last=Gushansky |first=Emmanuil |script-title=ru:Нужны ли правозащитники в психиатрии?|trans-title=Are defenders of human rights needed in psychiatry?|journal=Адвокатская Палата |trans-journal=Advocatory chamber|year=2010|issue=8|pages=23–25|url=http://www.apmo.ru/downloads/magazine/apmo_2010_08.pdf?PHPSESSID=d0oochtdu01pib54mknq8t13i6|accessdate=12 July 2013|publisher=Адвокатская палата Московской области [The Advocatory chamber of the Moscow oblast]|location=Moscow|language=Russian}}</ref> This word has been occasionally used in English, since the [Soviet dissident](/source/Soviet_dissident) movement and diaspora community in the West used the term. In the Soviet Union, [psychiatric hospitals were often used by the authorities as prisons](/source/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry_in_the_Soviet_Union), in order to isolate [political prisoner](/source/political_prisoner)s from the rest of society, discredit their ideas, and break them physically and mentally.  As such, psikhushkas were considered a form of [torture](/source/torture).<ref name="torture">{{cite book |first1=Sidney |last1=Bloch |author1-link=Sidney Bloch |first2=Peter |last2=Reddaway |author2-link=Peter Reddaway |year=1984 |title=Soviet Psychiatric Abuse: The Shadow over World Psychiatry |publisher=Victor Gollancz |location=London}}</ref> The official explanation was that no sane person would be against [socialism](/source/socialism).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-02-12 |title="Не знаю, как я все это перенес" |url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/741690 |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=Коммерсантъ |language=ru}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Вы критикуете власть? Тогда психиатр идёт к Вам . {{!}} Новости Медицины |url=http://doctor-litvinov.ru/psixologiya-i-psixiatriya/vy-kritikuete-vlast-togda-psixiatr-idyot-k-vam.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303223118/http://doctor-litvinov.ru/psixologiya-i-psixiatriya/vy-kritikuete-vlast-togda-psixiatr-idyot-k-vam.html |archive-date=2016-03-03 |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=doctor-litvinov.ru |url-status=live }}</ref>

Psikhushkas were already in use by the end of the 1940s (see [Alexander Esenin-Volpin](/source/Alexander_Esenin-Volpin)), continuing into the [Khrushchev Thaw](/source/Khrushchev_Thaw) period of the 1960s. On April 29, 1969, the head of the [KGB](/source/KGB), [Yuri Andropov](/source/Yuri_Andropov) submitted to the Central Committee of [CPSU](/source/CPSU) a plan for the creation of a network of specialized "psychiatric hospitals" run by the KGB.<ref name="Albats">{{cite book |first1=Yevgenia |last1=Albats |first2=Catherine A. |last2=Fitzpatrick |title=The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia – Past, Present, and Future |year=1994 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-374-52738-5}}</ref>

The official Soviet psychiatric science came up with the definition of [sluggish schizophrenia](/source/sluggish_schizophrenia), a special form of the illness that supposedly affects only the person's social behavior, with no trace on other traits: "most frequently, ideas about a ''struggle for truth and justice'' are formed by personalities with a [paranoid](/source/Paranoia) structure," according to the [Moscow Serbsky Institute](/source/Moscow_Serbsky_Institute) professors (a quote <ref name="Applebaum">{{cite book |first=Anne |last=Applebaum |title=Gulag: A History |publisher=Doubleday |date=April 2003 |isbn=0-7679-0056-1 |url=http://www.anneapplebaum.com/gulag/intro.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013124127/http://anneapplebaum.com/gulag/intro.html |archive-date=2007-10-13 }}</ref> from [Vladimir Bukovsky](/source/Vladimir_Bukovsky)'s archives). Some of them had high rank in the [MVD](/source/Ministry_of_Internal_Affairs_(Soviet_Union)), such as the infamous [Daniil Luntz](/source/Daniil_Luntz), who was characterized by [Viktor Nekipelov](/source/Viktor_Nekipelov) as "no better than the criminal doctors who performed inhuman experiments on the prisoners in [Nazi concentration camps](/source/Nazi_concentration_camps)".<ref name=Applebaum/>

The sane individuals who were diagnosed as [mentally ill](/source/mentally_ill) were sent either to regular [psychiatric hospital](/source/psychiatric_hospital)s or, if deemed particularly dangerous, to special ones run directly by the MVD. The treatment included various forms of restraint, electric shocks, a range of drugs (such as [narcotic](/source/narcotic)s, [tranquilizer](/source/tranquilizer)s, and [insulin](/source/insulin)) that cause long-lasting side effects, and sometimes involved beatings. Nekipelov describes inhumane uses of medical procedures such as [lumbar puncture](/source/lumbar_puncture)s.

Notable political prisoners of psikhushkas include poet [Joseph Brodsky](/source/Joseph_Brodsky), dissidents [Leonid Plyushch](/source/Leonid_Plyushch), [Vladimir Bukovsky](/source/Vladimir_Bukovsky), [Natalya Gorbanevskaya](/source/Natalya_Gorbanevskaya), [Alexander Esenin-Volpin](/source/Alexander_Esenin-Volpin), [Pyotr Grigorenko](/source/Pyotr_Grigorenko), [Zhores Medvedev](/source/Zhores_Medvedev), [Viktor Nekipelov](/source/Viktor_Nekipelov), [Valeriya Novodvorskaya](/source/Valeriya_Novodvorskaya), [Natan Sharansky](/source/Natan_Sharansky), [Andrei Sinyavsky](/source/Andrei_Sinyavsky), and [Anatoly Koryagin](/source/Anatoly_Koryagin), politician [Konstantin Päts](/source/Konstantin_P%C3%A4ts), and whistle blower [Larisa Arap](/source/Larisa_Arap).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{cite book
 | last = Antébi
 | first = Elizabeth
 | title = Droit d'asiles en Union Soviétique
 | location = Paris
 | publisher = [Julliard](/source/%C3%89ditions_Julliard)
 | year = 1977
 | isbn = 978-2260000655
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Applebaum
 | first = Anne
 | title = Gulag: A History
 | location = New York
 | publisher = [Doubleday](/source/Doubleday_(publisher))
 | year = 2003
 | isbn = 978-0-7679-0056-0
 | url-access = registration
 | url = https://archive.org/details/gulaghistory00appl
 }}
* {{cite book
 | last = Boulet
 | first = Marc
 | title = Dans la peau d'un...
 | location = Paris
 | publisher = Seuil
 | year = 2001
 | isbn = 978-2-02-038072-0
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Fireside
 | first = Harvey
 | title = Soviet Psychoprisons
| year = 1979
 | publisher = Norton
 | isbn = 9780393012668
 | url = https://archive.org/details/sovietpsychopris00fire
 | url-access = registration
 }}

Category:Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union
Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union
Category:Persecution of dissidents in the Soviet Union
Category:Psychiatric hospitals in Russia
Category:Imprisonment and detention
Category:Torture in Russia
Category:Soviet phraseology
Category:Pejorative terms

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Psikhushka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psikhushka) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psikhushka?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.