I survived psychiatry

1.8 million people are directly affected by psychiatry in France. 350,000 are in hospital. For every 1,000 inhabitants, there is one compulsory hospitalization. Yet this system, which generates social exclusion and stigmatization, dominates. Admitted at the age of 16, Christelle Rosar was hospitalized for twenty years. They tied her down, injected her with drugs, and kept her in a vegetative state. She saw patients who remained in hospital from adolescence until their death, and others who gradually suffered the side effects of the treatments. Now free, she tells us about her struggles to regain her independence and her place in society, and denounces the abuses and failings of the French psychiatric system, which is particularly violent. Marie-Claude Saint-Pe est docteur en sociologie, specialisee en politiques sociales du handicap, formatrice et evaluatrice des etablissements sociaux et medico-sociaux. Elle anime le collectif d associations Urbanites.