The comparative global history of mental health care in the twentieth century remains relatively uncharted territory. Psychiatric Cultures Compared offers an overview of various national psychiatric cultures, comparing, for example, advances in Dutch psychiatry with developments abroad. Wide-ranging essays cover analyses of the field of psychiatric nursing, the changing use of psychotropic medicine, the emergence of in- and outpatient mental health sectors, the rise of the anti-psychiatry movement, and a critical look at modern day deinstitutionalization.

During the twentieth century, medicine has been radically transformed and powerfully transformative. In 1900, western medicine was important to philanthropy and public health, but it was marginal to the state, the industrial economy and the welfare of most individuals. It is now central to these aspects of life. Our prospects seem increasingly depe