Otpushchennoe slovo Book

With my understanding of psychoanalysis being somewhere between little to none, I found it really hard to get into the meat of this book, the critiques of Szasz, Foucault, Laing etc.

However the critical approach to psychiatry, and to the anti psychiatry movement, that frames the book, is useful and accessible.

-Sedgwick argues for a rejection of the mind/body duality in a Marxist understanding of all health, not just mental health.
-He is critical of anti psychiatry advocates and activists who, in their largely liberal opposition to the asylum, miss the contradictory nature of therapy, and don't provide any emancipatory strategies.
-He sees the possibilities for movements around health /mental health as arising from an alliance of users and providers, noting that both on their own have sometimes lead to very reactionary positions.