Unionism during Psychiatry’s Transformative Years

Psychiatric hospitals underwent significant change in the latter half of the twentieth century. The article looks beyond the roles of doctors and the administration to understand how a singular actor, the CGT (Confederation Generale du Travail) labor union, was invested in these transformations in the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on the contexts of both work and activist socialization, it explores how the CGT developed demands addressing changes in psychiatry and shows how some of its activists sought to modify its practices.