Psychiarchy

In the novel Everyone I Know is Mentally Ill, psychiarchy or psychocracy is a sociopolitical system and regime in which psychiatrists and psychologists govern the people in accordance with their knowledge of the human psyche. (The ruler of a psychiarchy or a psychocracy is called a psychiarch or a psychocrat.) It is a form of professional oligarchy where only members of a certain profession rule the people.
==History of psychiarchy (according to the novel)==
According to Mark Thine, a citizen of the pan-Terran nation called Terra Grande, a major anti-psychiatrist in the novel, and the writer of the letter titled Everyone I Know is Mentally Ill, psychiarchy was developed in modern nations where psychiatry is believed to be genuine medicine.
===Psychiatry in Nazi Germany===
Mark writes that "Nazis used and abused psychiatry to sterilize Germany and purify the Aryan race. Psychiatrists were often the murderers of innocent people."
===The Soviet Union===
Soviets used psychiatry to crush political dissidents. Psychiatrists were thus effectively psychiarchs.
==Establishment of psychiarchy==
Psychiatrists and psychologists ("psychers") may acquire political power because people trust them and expect them to benefit all Terrans by their understanding of the psyche and their neutral beneficence. These psychers may then assume political positions, and people will accept them as their governors and magistrates. The psychers with the highest degrees will gain highest power.
==Effects in the novel==
In the novel, the psychers believed that they were helping people whereas they were really just condemning socially unacceptable acts and odd eccentricity. They named and diagnosed diseases to "cure" the persons who were disagreeable to society. The Psych Controversy is held between the psychers and the psychiliberalists.