The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct“The landmark book that argued that psychiatry consistently expands its definition of mental illness to impose its authority over moral and cultural conflict.” — New York Times The 50th anniversary edition of the most influential critique of psychiatry every written, with a new preface on the age of Prozac and Ritalin and the rise of designer drugs, plus two bonus essays. Thomas Szasz's classic book revolutionized thinking about the nature of the psychiatric profession and the moral implications of its practices. By diagnosing unwanted behavior as mental illness, psychiatrists, Szasz argues, absolve individuals of responsibility for their actions and instead blame their alleged illness. He also critiques Freudian psychology as a pseudoscience and warns against the dangerous overreach of psychiatry into all aspects of modern life. |
From inside the book
... decades, he wrote: 1981: “By the 1960s the 'lesion' concept of disease ... had been discredited beyond redemption ....”24 He did not say how this was done. 1991: “Szasz's famous jibe that 'schizophrenia does not exist' would.
... schizophrenia.”25 Diagnoses of malaria and tuberculosis rest on the demonstration of pathogenic microbes in the patient's body fluids or tissues; diagnoses of depression and schizophrenia rest on no similar objective evidence. 2001 ...
... Schizophrenia: A Medical View of a Medical Concept,” in Flack, W. F., Jr., Miller, D. R., and Wiener, M., eds., What is Schizophrenia? (New York: Springer, 1991), pp. 9–72; p. 60. 26 Kendell, R. E., “The distinction between mental and ...
... schizophrenia, and so forth—may be regarded as analogous to the manifest diversity among languages. In each case, behind the apparent phenomenological differences there are certain basic similarities. Within a particular family of ...
Contents
2 Illness and Counterfeit Illness | |
3 The Social Context of Medical Practice | |
AN EXAMPLE OF THE MYTH | |
11 Theology Witchcraft and Hysteria | |
VGAMEMODEL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR | |
13 Hysteria as a Game | |
14 Impersonation and Illness | |
15 The Ethics of Psychiatry | |
Conclusions | |
Epilogue | |
Summary | |
4 Breuer and Freuds Studies on Hysteria | |
5 Hysteria and Psychosomatic Medicine | |
6 Contemporary Views of Hysteria and Mental Illness | |
Part TwoFoundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct | |
IIISEMIOTICAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR | |
7 Language and Protolanguage | |
8 Hysteria as Communication | |
IVRULEFOLLOWING ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR | |
9 The RuleFollowing Model of Human Behavior | |
10 The Ethics of Helplessness and Helpfulness | |
Mental Illness Is Still a Myth | |
Defining Disease | |
References | |
Bibliography | |
Name Index | |
Subject Index | |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR | |
Copyright | |
About the Publisher | |
Other editions - View all
The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct Thomas S. Szasz No preview available - 2010 |