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Andrei Snezhnevsky

Andrei Vladimirovich Snezhnevsky
Andrei Vladimirovich Snezhnevsky.jpg
Native name Андрей Владимирович Снежневский
Born 20 May [O.S. 7 May] 1904
Kostroma, Russian Empire
Died 12 July 1987(1987-07-12) (aged 83)
Moscow, Soviet Union
Residence Moscow
Nationality Russian
Citizenship
Alma mater Kazan Federal University
Known for his active participation in Pavlovian session, political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union by developing and applying the diagnosis of sluggish schizophrenia to political dissidents; no less active participation in persistent counteractions to stop struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union by attributing the struggle to the Cold War against the USSR at the Congresses of the World Psychiatric Association
Awards the title of a Hero of Socialist Labour, two Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Star, the USSR State Prize
Scientific career
Fields forensic psychiatry and clinical psychiatry
Institutions Serbsky Institute for Forensic Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, All-Union Mental Health Research Center of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences
Doctoral students Alexander Tiganov, Anatoly Smulevich

Andrei Vladimirovich Snezhnevsky (Russian: Андре́й Влади́мирович Снежне́вский; IPA: [sʲnʲɪˈʐnʲefskʲɪj]; 20 May [O.S. 7 May] 1904, Kostroma – 12 July 1987, Moscow) was a Soviet psychiatrist whose name was lent to the unbridled broadening of the diagnostic borders of schizophrenia in the Soviet Union, the key architect of the Soviet concept of sluggish schizophrenia, the inventor of the term "sluggish schizophrenia," an embodier of history of repressive psychiatry, and a direct participant in psychiatric repression against dissidents. He was an academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, the director of the Serbsky Institute for Forensic Psychiatry (1950—1951), the director of the Institute of Psychiatry of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (1962—1987), and the director of the All-Union Mental Health Research Center of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (1982—1987).

At the height of his power, Snezhnevsky dominated the whole of Soviet psychiatry. He forced the psychiatric community in the USSR and in many of its Eastern European satellites to adopt the diagnosis of sluggish schizophrenia as dogma. Starting in the early 1950s, Snezhnevsky opposed the concept of "soft" schizophrenia but later promoted the same idea under a different title: "slow-flowing", or "sluggish." The term "sluggish schizophrenia" was invented by Snezhnevsky and became widespread by the 1960s. The prevalence of Snezhnevsky’s theories directly led to a broadening of the boundaries of disease such that even the mildest behavioral change could be interpreted as indication of mental disorder. Despite his power and virtual monopolies on textbooks and conferences, some prominent Soviet doctors were unwilling to accept Snezhnevsky's methods, such as Iosif Polishchuk in Kiev, and Fyodor Detengof in Dushanbe.


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