What Andrew Scull has said about Psychiatric hospital
2 quotes · 1 episode · Sep 17, 2026
Andrew Scull, British-American sociologist and historian of psychiatry, emeritus professor at UC San Diego, has been quoted on Psychiatric hospital 2 times in 1 episode of Lex Fridman Podcast, most recently on September 17, 2026. Each quote below is verbatim and links to the moment it was said.
In their words
Scull says the largest inpatient psychiatric facilities in the US are now jails.
“the Los Angeles County Jail, Cook County Jail in Chicago, and Rikers Island in New York. That's shocking because by their very nature, of course, prisons aren't equipped”
Lex Fridman Podcast: #502 – Psychiatry, Insane Asylums, Mental Illness, ECT, Lobotomies, Freud & Jung (Sep 17, 2026) · Listen from 33:44
Scull argues that community care following deinstitutionalization was largely illusory.
“But community care is a shell game without a P. It's like one of those confidence tricks”
Lex Fridman Podcast: #502 – Psychiatry, Insane Asylums, Mental Illness, ECT, Lobotomies, Freud & Jung (Sep 17, 2026) · Listen from 35:22
Episodes
#502 – Psychiatry, Insane Asylums, Mental Illness, ECT, Lobotomies, Freud & JungLex Fridman Podcast · Sep 17, 2026
Historian Andrew Scull talks with Lex Fridman about the history of psychiatry, from asylums, eugenics, lobotomy and ECT to Freud, CBT, psychiatric drugs and psychiatry's current crisis.
Andrew Scull on other topics
- Electroconvulsive therapy · 2 quotes
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders · 2 quotes
- Antipsychotic · 2 quotes
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors · 1 quote
- Cognitive behavioral therapy · 1 quote
- Insulin shock therapy · 1 quote
- Focal infection theory · 1 quote
- Aktion T4 · 1 quote