Leonard Roy Frank (1932–2015) was an influential American human rights activist, writer, editor, and a prominent leader within the psychiatric consumer/survivor/ex-patient (c/s/x) and anti-psychiatry movements.
(Photo Credit: Mad in America)
Catalyst for Activism
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Frank graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1954 and served in the U.S. Army. In the early 1960s, while living in San Francisco, he withdrew from society to pursue a self-directed course of study, adopting a vegetarian lifestyle and growing a beard. His parents, alarmed by what they perceived as a withdrawal from society, had him involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital in 1962. Diagnosed as a “paranoid schizophrenic,” Frank was forced to undergo combined insulin coma and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)—enduring 50 insulin comas and 35 electroshocks. The treatments devastated his memory, effectively wiping out his high school and college education as well as the memories of the years immediately preceding his commitment. This profound trauma and loss fueled his lifelong dedication to fighting psychiatric abuses.
Key Contributions and Leadership
Frank devoted his life to advocacy, with a specific focus on exposing the harms of electroconvulsive therapy and forced psychiatric interventions:
- Organizational Leadership: In December 1973, alongside Wade Hudson, Frank co-founded the Network Against Psychiatric Assault (NAPA), a pioneering patients’ and survivors’ advocacy group in San Francisco.
- Publishing and Education: He was a key contributor and editor for Madness Network News, joining its operations in 1972. He tirelessly compiled evidence against ECT, publishing The History of Shock Treatment in 1978.
- Aphorist and Archiver: A prolific compiler of quotations, Frank authored and edited several successful books, including the Random House Webster’s Quotationary (1998).
Stance and Legacy
Frank was recognized as one of the most formidable opponents of ECT in the world. He was noted by author Linda Andre as the “King of Shock” activism for his decades of testimony against the procedure. Frank maintained a staunch, uncompromising stance that ECT was a “brutal, dehumanizing, memory-destroying” technique and a severe human rights violation. Through his writings, public testimonies, and leadership, Frank played a pivotal role in shaping the modern psychiatric survivor movement and humanistic anti-psychiatry, ensuring that the impacts of coercive treatments were documented and fiercely resisted.
Sources: Wikipedia, Mad in America, MindFreedom International (MFI), National Empowerment Center (NEC)
Additional Information
Publications
Leonard was a prolific writer and had many publication on various topics. Among the publications specifically related to psychiatric treatment (source: Wikipedia)
- The History of Shock Treatment (1978) – Editor/Compiler
- Influencing Minds: A Reader in Quotations (1994)
- Electroschock (1996) – Contributed a chapter/section to Peter Lehmann’s German anthology Schöne neue Psychiatrie, Vol. 1
- Electroshock: The Case Against (2005) – Co-authored with Robert F. Morgan, Peter Breggin, John Friedberg, Berton Roueché, and Bertram Karon
- The Electroshock Quotationary (n.d.)
Multimedia
- PsychRights . Leonard Roy Frank at Occupy APA 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4WygjHKA8k
- PsychRights . Leonard Roy Frank at Occupy APA 2013
- Mad in America . Open Paradigm Project – Leonard Roy Frank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTjpGFCo6q4
Tributes
- Mad in America, Memorium – Leonard Roy Frank: https://www.madinamerica.com/2015/01/memoriam-leonard-roy-frank/
- RichardCohenFilms . No Man is an Island: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eKWcyOzsxI