This is a completely personal statement about misuse of psychiatry requested by the Editors presumably because I was one of the first psychiatrists to organize a protest about the U.S.S.R. (1). I did so (i) because the documents available to me (essentially 2 and 3) seemed to contain prima facie evidence of the use of certification in the interests of Soviet political policy, (ii) because it seemed impossible for Soviet citizens to protest, and (iii) because I was, and am, at least a quasi-Marxist, enthusiastic, disheartened and confused by the realities as I see them.