Public Policy and Administration Review

Reigning in Loose Cannons: Formal and Informal Mechanisms of Voice Control Exhibited by State-Sponsored Organized Psychiatric Industries
Lauren J. Tenney

Abstract
Fourteen people who have both substantial careers in psychiatric systems change and have psychiatric histories, from varying locations in the U.S., took on the role of being videotaped while constructing Environmental Workographies for this study. Analysis of these videos revealed these people experienced human rights violations carried out through the policies of state-sponsored psychiatric places including being forced into psychiatric practices of electroshock, forced drugging, and arbitrary use of restraints, seclusion, and aversives (behavior modification via punishment). Environmental Workographers reported how, when employed in positions that required them to be ‘out’ about their psychiatric history, and their job was to bring input from other users and survivors of psychiatry to state policy discussions, they were silenced or retaliated against for speaking out. This silencing often occurred when topics they spoke out against included forced, coerced, or uninformed psychiatric treatment. This resulted in a condition of what I am calling torture: being under duress while experiencing coerced silence. This article shines light on policybased mechanisms of voice control exhibited by State- Sponsored Organized Psychiatric Industries (SSOPI), which lead to fraudulent citizen participation and disingenuous input into state-planning processes.

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