It largely was. But one leading American psychiatrist advanced a more nuanced view. Dr. Walter Reich, who had challenged the Kremlin by examining some of these dissidents and, to its great embarrassment, finding them perfectly sane argued that some Soviets had so thoroughly imbibed their own ideology that at some level they actually believed dissent was prima facie evidence of psychological disturbance. Strange creatures, those Soviets. Major League Baseball has just sentenced John Rocker to a psychiatric examination.
Rocker is a relief pitcher with a loose tongue and a malevolent heart.
He made some nasty remarks to Sports Illustrated about immigrants, AIDS victims, and people differently hued from him. Unpleasant stuff, though in truth, not terribly different from your average rant at a redneck bar. Racism is not a medical problem. We would like to pretend it is, because we like to medicalize our social problems. Medicalizing offers the illusion of understanding of a problem, and ultimately curing it.