World psychiatric meeting opens without Soviets

The World Psychiatric Association opened a meeting without the Soviet Union and two of its allies. Delegates said the agenda included a report on psychiatric mistreatment on political grounds. The WPA general assembly will also discuss a resolution condemning all political abuse of psychiatry and persecution of people who report such abuse.

The Soviet psychiatric union withdrew from the WPA last January before a motion to expel it on grounds of alleged political abuse could be introduced. Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia also quit.