Before Involuntary Commitment: Coercion in the Shadows

New study reveals that psychiatric force is frequently applied long before formal admission procedures begin.

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Coercion in psychiatry often begins long before patients cross the hospital threshold, a new study reveals. A recent analysis from Bielanski Hospital in Warsaw found that more than half of psychiatric inpatients experienced coercive interventions—either formal or informal—before formal admission.

The research, detailed in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, uses a survey of 318 psychiatric inpatients to uncover how threats, manipulation, police involvement, and physical force contribute to hospital entry. These steps, the authors argue, reflect a broader system of social control that begins outside the official walls of mental health institutions.

The authors distinguish two forms of pre-hospital coercion: formal coercion—like police intervention or forced ambulance transport—and informal coercion, including threats, psychological pressure, deception, or manipulation by clinicians, family members, or others.

Over 53 percent of participants reported some form of pre-admission coercion: 45 percent describing informal coercion and 8 percent formal coercion. Men were more likely to report physical coercion, while women reported higher rates of psychological pressure, underscoring how coercion operates differently across gender lines. In addition, individuals with more stigmatized diagnoses—such as schizophrenia or substance use disorders—were more likely to experience physical coercion, and older adults faced higher rates overall.

“Physical or legal force was used: by personnel at admission in 33 %, by other medical staff in 29 %, by the police and security in 40 %, family and relatives in 12 %, other people in 11 %. The police used negative symbolic pressure in the 68 % of cases, staff at admission in 33 %, other staff in 23 %, and family and friends in 20 %,” the authors detail.

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Laura López-Aybar
Laura López-Aybar is a critical psychology psychiatric survivor, researcher, and professor with a PhD from Adelphi University. Her work is propelled by a critical, decolonial, and feminist perspective on psychology. Moreover, she currently leads various projects examining stigma, mental health discourse, and social determinants of health. She co-founded Mad in Puerto Rico and works as a professor at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón and as a researcher for Taller Salud.

16 COMMENTS

  1. Help. Im being held hostage in an establishment run by a for profit installation called Pro Persona. I have no previliges cannot call my 95 year old mother in the old age home etc etc etc.

    Pro Persona in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. They are all cowardly brutes.

    Thats it cannot access this email either. They are purely for profit brutes.

    Snakes and Ladders and the viper is on holiday. Cruel beasts.

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  2. In 2017 I settled with my two parents in the Netherlands Beuningen. Eventually, in 2018, my elderly father and I were alone my mother having broken an upper leg bone after a fall and was rehabilitating, 4 months alone with a severely demented father I being according to them a schizophrenic. Eventually I snapped under pressure and had 2 epileptic seizured it literally felt i was in a dark hole with no end in sight. The local doctors thought it was all a big joke. later i applied for social support. they classified me retroactively as being 100 perc incapable of working dating back to 1990 which was when i was living abroad in portugal. The medical inspector at the UVW NIjmegen stated in a letter dating 2021 that i was fine and taking care of my sick father he had already died in November of 2019. To me that is a sick joke. i literally gave up its 2025 and i am locked up again my mother being in a care home.

    today is 26 07 2025 40 mins past midnight. i can go on Steve if the story is of any interest.

    All my medical records here are forgeries.

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  3. it is now 1 hour past midnight on the third night here. i was coerced to come to this god forsaken place by two middle eastern men in a white van with a dark interior. i am a frail 60 kilo man of middle age they forced me into the van using their arms and hands this was definitely without consent the outside of the van says GGZv waiting.

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  4. in 2017 i needed a perscription for 10mg olanzapine that is when i met sjaaky the shock dock. i found out later he was partially responsible for bringing electroshock treatment to the far east he coerced me into 6 sessions of treatment he got 1500 euros from it he then referred me to the anti christ Pro Persona and stated that if i were to try suicide i should wait until i was in treatment with these people from Pro Persona it wouldnt be good for his image

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    • unless there is a misunderstanding, the 6 sessions were not for electroshock, but because the insurance wouldnt cover the costs of writing out a perscription for a box w 10mg olanzapine he told me that i should call my insurance company to tell them i needed to complete the 6 sessions i have his letter to pro persona and my local gp somewhere here FOR a measly 1500 euros i got a box of 28 10mg pills it is now almost 7 AM

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  5. it is a country the netherlands with mostly honest hard working people this kind of lowly enterprise must come to an end i am all for a sort of half way house where younger people can find a safe haven until they feel confident enough to begin earning money for themselves and not rely on the parasites for crumbs.

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  6. before the GGZ van arrived there was indeed a police van with all the correct colors and POLITIE written on it What came out to threaten me was what looked like a bouncer from one of those shady clubs and a very nervous also middle eastern man with a very shiny gun which didnt look real to me

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  7. This blog largely points out the impropriety of psychologists functioning as funnels into the force drugging psychiatric industry, and why they shouldn’t be doing that. Not to mention, why neither the psychologic nor psychiatric industries should have a right to coerce or force neurotoxic poison anyone.

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