(no subject)

[midnight_birth]

Subsequently, a report by Zhores to Sakharov's Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR went on to list among the symptoms of mental illness cited in Soviet practice such choice characterizations as "a persistent mania for truth-seeking," "wears a beard," "is inclined to fruitless philosophizing," "considers the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia an act of aggression," "his subsequent scholarly works are less important than his earlier ones," and "shouted that he would fight for democracy and truth." A note explains that even the absence of such "symptoms" is no safeguard to a Soviet citizen accused of political crimes, since a lecturer at the Institute for the Advanced Training of Physicians asserted, "It is no secret that schizophrenia sometimes occurs without any symptoms."

~~Soviet Psychoprisons by Harvey Fireside.