At the age of 87, Anatoly Kashpirovsky passed away in Moscow — a figure whose name became a symbol of an entire era of Soviet television in the late 1980s. According to preliminary reports from Russian mass media, the heart of the famous psychotherapist and hypnotist stopped early in the morning in his own apartment. His death came as a surprise to his family, as he had not complained of serious health issues the day before; however, the arriving ambulance crew was unable to save the patient.
The Era of TV Sessions and Mass Hypnosis
Born on August 11, 1939, in the Khmelnytskyi region, Anatoly Kashpirovsky went from being a psychiatrist at the Vinnitsa Regional Psychoneurological Hospital to a cult media personality in the USSR. All-Union fame was brought to him by television cycles of so-called "health sessions" broadcast on Central Television of the USSR in 1989. Millions of Soviet citizens gathered near television screens, believing in the psychotherapist's ability to cure various ailments, including severe chronic diseases and even cancer, remotely.
Political Activity and Public Resonance
In addition to his medical and television activities, Kashpirovsky actively participated in the socio-political life of post-Soviet Russia. In 1993, he was elected a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the first convocation on the list of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), though he later left the faction. In later years, he repeatedly expressed public support for the current Russian authorities, calling Vladimir Putin his idol and offering his services in crisis situations, such as during the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis.
Contradictory Data
There is a significant amount of contradictory information surrounding the health and circumstances of Anatoly Kashpirovsky's final months. In the summer of 2026, several Russian media outlets reported on his emergency hospitalization, surgery, and the discovery of a malignant tumor. However, the psychotherapist's official representative and director, Sergei Ryzhikh, categorically denied these reports. In September, rumors of oncological disease surfaced again in the media space, but verified medical diagnoses from official sources have not been published, leaving the question of the real cause of health deterioration open.
Acute heart failure has been named as the preliminary official cause of death, though exact forensic medical conclusions at the time of publication were not publicly available. Kashpirovsky's phenomenon is still assessed ambiguously by experts: some see him as a master of mass psychotherapy, while others view him as a striking example of large-scale Soviet myth-making.
