Psychiatry Group May Readmit Soviets

The World Psychiatric Assn. said Friday that it had provisionally readmitted the Soviet Union, five years after Moscow pulled out because of charges that it used its mental hospitals to lock up dissidents.

The association’s executive committee, meeting in the Spanish city of Grenada, voted 4 to 0 on Wednesday to readmit an official Soviet body. The decision will need final approval by the association general assembly’s congress in Athens next October.

The move to readmit the Soviets followed an unprecedented two-week visit by U.S. psychiatrists to the Soviet Union in March to assess the state of Soviet psychiatry. The 19 specialists, who interviewed patients recently released from psychiatric institutions and visited both general and specialized Soviet hospitals, have not yet finished their report on the visit.

Not all of the association’s members are in favor of the decision, one participant said Friday.

“The decision to readmit Moscow has caused a considerable amount of trouble. Feelings are running very high,” said Christine Shaw from the Independent Assn. of Political Use of Psychiatry, an international watchdog group.

Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, which had left in 1983 with Moscow, were also reaccepted as ad hoc members.