David Cooper (psychiatrist)

South African psychiatrist Dr. David G Cooper (1931–1986?) was a noted anti-psychiatry movement figure, along with R. D. Laing, Thomas Szasz and Michel Foucault. Cooper graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1955. He moved to London, where he worked at several hospitals and directed an experimental unit for young schizophrenics called Villa 21. In 1965, he was involved with Laing and others in establishing the Philadelphia Association.

His major essays include: He coordinated the Congress on the Dialectics of Liberation, held in London at The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm from 15 July to 30 July 1967 Participants included R. D. Laing, Paul Goodman, Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Marcuse and the Black Panthers' Stokely Carmichael. Jean-Paul Sartre was scheduled to appear but cancelled at the last moment. The term "anti-psychiatry" was first used by David Cooper in 1967.
 * Reason and Violence: a decade of Sartre's philosophy, Tavistock (1964) – co-authored with R. D. Laing
 * Psychiatry and Anti-Psychiatry (Ed.), Paladin (1967)
 * The Dialectics of Liberation (Ed.), Penguin (1968) – Cooper's introduction can be read at the Herbert Marcuse website.
 * The Death of the Family Penguin (1971)
 * Grammar of Living Penguin (1974)
 * The Language of Madness Penguin (1978)

He was a founding member of the Phildelphia Association, London, and director of the Institute of Phenomenological Studies.