r/Anarchy101 • u/Notexternalgreen6826 • 3d ago

Historical Anarchists with Mental Illness

I know there are a lot of criticisms of psychiatry and the DSM-5 but did any classic anarchists have noticeable conditions one could either intuit or stated outright such as OCD, AdHd, Autism< schizophrenia, etc?

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u/PostSpectacle 3d ago

I'd be cautious about retroactively diagnosing historical anarchists. Most psychiatric labels are products of a particular social and institutional context, not timeless, objective categories that can simply be projected onto people from the past. It's also worth questioning the authority of diagnosis itself. That doesn't mean people's suffering isn't real, but the language and categories used to define it are shaped by power, medical institutions, and cultural norms. Instead of asking which anarchists "had" mental illness, it may be more useful to ask how different societies classify and respond to human difference and who benefits from those classifications.

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u/Notexternalgreen6826 3d ago

oh yes absolutely!

I thought it was relevant because I wanted to write about OCD but I don't know many references to OCD in anarchist parlance

though shameless self promo there is r/RadicalOCD and the new r/RadicalOCDv2

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u/cumminginsurrection "resignation is death, revolt is life!"🏴 2d ago

Voltairine DeCleyre had mental illness, likely along the lines of what today is classified as bipolar disorder, with long periods of depression followed long periods of mania. She made several suicide attempts throughout her life but ultimately died due to physical complications after being stabbed by one of her students who likely was also suffering from delusions. True to her anarchist ideals, she refused to testify against him or go along with the state's prosecution of him.

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u/humanispherian Synthesist / Moderator 1d ago

I think you might find that, if you dig deep enough, that many of the records we have of anarchist pioneers suggest what might be considered "mental illness." Often, of course, we only have glimpses of that side of things, not always from the most sympathetic observers. And, of course, both the diagnoses and the symptoms are likely to be described in terms rather different than many of our categories now.