Psychiatry owes much of its foundation to women, says UN human rights expert Dainius Pūras

Psychiatry has long ignored human rights while normalising coercion and pathologisation, psychiatrist and former UN special rapporteur Dr. Dainius Pūras told LRT’s Opus programme. Over six years in his UN role, he pushed for global reforms—from reducing forced treatment to strengthening rights-based mental health services—while acknowledging that even well-intentioned efforts often clash with systemic limitations.

“Psychiatry’s history could be a horror film, even though the intentions were always good,” said Pūras, a professor at Vilnius University and child/adolescent psychiatrist. He criticised the field’s persistent focus on biological explanations, such as the search for a “suicide gene,” calling it a fundamental misunderstanding of mental health. Instead, he advocates for broader recognition of environmental, relational, and social factors—an approach he admits remains sidelined by entrenched medical models.

Pūras described his UN reports as polarising—either “praised or condemned”—but stressed their role in exposing global gaps. “If human rights are pushed aside, such psychiatry becomes dangerous,” he warned, recounting skepticism from colleagues who viewed rights as abstract while medicine was seen as “repairing body parts.” His work, now translated and cited worldwide, reflects a career-long effort to bridge medicine and human rights, a connection he argues is still widely overlooked.

The tension persists between psychiatry’s philosophical roots and its reliance on diagnoses, treatment protocols, and funding logic. “We’re told: set a diagnosis, prescribe treatment, or there’s no money,” he said. “But people want help, not harm—and sometimes these methods do more damage.”