David Graham Cooper (1931—1986) was a British psychiatrist, noted theorist and leader in the
anti-psychiatryAnti-psychiatry usually refers to a configuration of groups and theories that emerged in the 1960s hostile to most of the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R. D. Laing, Thomas Szasz and, in Italy, Franco Basaglia. The term was first...
movement, along with R. D. Laing,
Thomas SzaszThomas Stephen Szasz ; born April 15, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary) is a psychiatrist and academic. Since 1990 he has been Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York...
and
Michel FoucaultMichel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, sociologist and historian. He held a chair at the Collège de France with the title "History of Systems of Thought," and also taught at the University of California, Berkeley.Foucault is best known for his critical studies of...
. Cooper was born in
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
and graduated from the
University of Cape TownThe University of Cape Town is a public university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa...
in 1955. He moved to
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, where he worked at several hospitals and directed an experimental unit for young schizophrenics called
Villa 21. In 1965, he was involved with Laing and others in establishing the
Philadelphia AssociationThe Philadelphia Association is a UK "charity concerned with the understanding and relief of mental suffering." It was founded in 1965 by the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst R. D. Laing along with Clancy Sigal, Aaron Esterson, Joan Cunnold, David Cooper and Sid Briskin.The first of a number of...
. An "
existentialLike “rationalism” and “empiricism,” “existentialism” is a term that belongs to intellectual history. Its definition is thus to some extent one of historical convenience...
MarxistMarxism is the political philosophy and economic worldview based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis of capitalism, a theory of social change, and an atheist view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; three primary aspects of...
", he left the Philadelphia Association in the 1970s in a disagreement over its growing interest in spiritualism over politics.
Cooper believed that madness and
psychosisPsychosis literally means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
were a product of society and that its ultimate solution was through a revolution. To this end, Cooper travelled to Argentina as he felt the country was rife with revolutionary potential. He later returned to England before moving to
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
where he spent the last years of his life.
Cooper coined the term
anti-psychiatryAnti-psychiatry usually refers to a configuration of groups and theories that emerged in the 1960s hostile to most of the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R. D. Laing, Thomas Szasz and, in Italy, Franco Basaglia. The term was first...
(see below) to describe opposition and opposing methods to the orthodox psychiatry of the time, although the term could easily describe the anti-psychiatrists' view of orthodox psychiatry, i.e., anti-psychic healing.
His major essays include:
- Reason and Violence: a decade of Sartre's philosophy, Tavistock (1964) – co-authored with R. D. Laing
- Psychiatry and Anti-Psychiatry (Ed.), Paladin (1967)
- The Dialectics of Liberation (Ed.), Penguin (1968) – Cooper's introduction can be read at the Herbert Marcuse website.
- The Death of the Family, Penguin (1971)
- Grammar of Living, Penguin (1974)
- The Language of Madness, Penguin (1978)
He coordinated the Congress on the Dialectics of Liberation, held in London at
The RoundhouseThe Roundhouse is a former engine shed now used as an arts and concert venue in Chalk Farm, London. Built in 1846, it ceased to be used as an engine shed by 1867, and underwent various uses before being abandoned just before the Second World War...
in Chalk Farm from 15 July to 30 July 1967 Participants included R. D. Laing,
Paul GoodmanPaul Goodman was an American sociologist, poet, writer, anarchist, and public intellectual. Goodman is now mainly remembered as the author of Growing Up Absurd and an activist on the pacifist Left in the 1960s and an inspiration to that era's student movement...
,
Allen GinsbergIrwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet. Ginsberg is best known for the poem "Howl" , in which he celebrates fellow members of the Beat Generation and critiques what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in the United States.-Early life and family:Ginsberg was born into...
,
Herbert MarcuseHerbert Marcuse was a German-Jewish philosopher, political theorist and sociologist, and a member of the Frankfurt School. Celebrated as the "Father of the New Left," his best known works are Eros and Civilization, One-Dimensional Man and The Aesthetic Dimension...
and the Black Panthers'
Stokely CarmichaelStokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael , also known as Kwame Toure, was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of...
.
Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy and Existentialism, and his work continues to influence further...
was scheduled to appear but cancelled at the last moment. The term "anti-psychiatry" was first used by David Cooper in 1967.
He was a founding member of the Philadelphia Association, London, and director of the Institute of Phenomenological Studies.
External links