David Cooper (psychiatrist)

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For other people known by this name see the David Cooper disambiguation page.

South African psychiatrist Dr. David G Cooper (1931–1986?) was a noted anti-psychiatry movement figure, along with R. D. Laing, Thomas Szasz and Michel Foucault. Cooper graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1955. He moved to London, 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 Association.

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 Roundhouse in Chalk Farm from 15 July to 30 July 1967 Participants included R. D. Laing, Paul Goodman, Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Marcuse and the Black Panthers' Stokely Carmichael. Jean-Paul Sartre 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

[Brother Beast: the David Cooper Anti-Page]
[Brother Beast: A Personal Memoir of David Cooper] by Stephen Ticktin, written six weeks after Cooper's death
[Far out] - Guardian article written by David Gale, a former patient
[The Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive] – holds the archive of the Institute of Phenomenological Studies.

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