- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; Revised edition edition (1 Mar 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0061771228
- ISBN-13: 978-0061771224
- Product Dimensions: 20.5 x 13.4 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 77,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Thomas Szasz's classic book revolutionised thinking throughout the world about the nature of the psychiatric profession and the moral implications of its practices. By diagnosing behaviour problems as 'mental illness', psychiatry, Szasz argues, absolves the individual of responsibility for his actions, placing blame instead on the illness. In "The Myth of Mental Illness", he attacks Freudian psychology as a dangerous pseudo-science and critiques the overreach of psychology into all aspects of modern life.
About the Author
Born in Budapest, Hungary, Thomas Szasz is professor emeritus of psychiatry at the State University of New York in Syracuse, where he has taught since 1956. He earned his M.D. from the University of Cincinnati and received psychoanalytic training at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. In addition to The Myth of Mental Illness, his best-known work, Dr. Szasz is the author of 30 scholarly books and numerous academic articles.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is seminal work, that is just as valid today as when written. As a nurse that has worked for many years with people who struggle through life with a pattern of non adaptivew coping strategies, this book increases an understandng of the futility of applying the medical model. I recomend you read it!
27 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
With the late, great Ronnie (R.D.) Laing, Szasz has done from the political Right what many have done from the Left (e.g. Laing himself, Ian Parker etc.) - i.e. help to deconstruct the culture-bound taken-for-granted axioms of 'mental illness', not only revealing their fundamental epistemological incoherence, but also showing how the inhuman and interest-driven practices of 'Big Pharma' Psychiatry stem directly and inevitably from the modernist worldview in which the notion of 'mental illness' is rooted. If you want to be brainwashed by a narrow, meaning-barren materialism, then do indeed follow the advice of the previous reviewer and buy a book on neuroscience; but if you want to open yourself up to truly radical 'New Paradigm' thinking that leads towards a meaning-rich post-materialist world, then try starting with Szasz - you could do far, far worse.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
27 of 32 people found the following review helpful
A Classic Reissued
24 Feb 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the second book written by Thomas Szasz and is undoubtedly his best known work. The book is a reprint of the 1974 revised edition with a new preface and two new essays. The new material shows Szasz in fine form. Nowadays, it is fashionable to write off Szasz as being a relic, yet I believe his observations are more timely than ever. As Szasz points out, everyone today "knows" that mental illnesses are brain diseases despite an absence of evidence. Mental illness is so much a part of our culture that questioning the concept of mental illness is sure to elict the comment that the doubter should have his head examined.
In addition to this work, my favorite Szasz books include Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences, The Medicalization of Everyday Life, Pharmacracy: Medicine and Politics in America, and A Lexicon of Lunacy: Metaphoric Malady, Moral responsibility, and Psychiatry.
Reading Thomas Szasz is an intellectual delight.
In addition to this work, my favorite Szasz books include Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences, The Medicalization of Everyday Life, Pharmacracy: Medicine and Politics in America, and A Lexicon of Lunacy: Metaphoric Malady, Moral responsibility, and Psychiatry.
Reading Thomas Szasz is an intellectual delight.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
NOT the full book
27 Feb 2011
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I thought I was purchasing the full book by this Title. All I got was a brief essay which I finished in 10 minutes. I am NOT a happy camper!
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful
THE ORIGINAL CRITIQUE BY A FOREMOST "ANTI-PSYCHIATRIST"
10 Aug 2010
Format:Paperback
Thomas Szasz (born 1920) is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center. He is a well-known critic of psychiatry, of the social role of medicine in modern society, and is a social libertarian.
In the Preface to the First Edition (1960) of this book, he writes, "Although my thesis is that mental illness is a myth, this book is not an attempt to 'debunk psychiatry'... although I consider the concept of mental illness to be unserviceable, I believe that psychiatry could be a science. I also believe that psychotherapy is an effective method of helping people---not to recover from an 'illness,' but rather to learn about themselves, others, and life."
Here are some representative quotations from the book:
"In this respect---and indeed not only in this respect---psychiatry resembles religion rather than science, politics rather than medicine."
"In ... the traditional psychiatric view, the physician defines what is good or bad, sick or healthy. In the individualistic, autonomous 'psychotherapy' which I prefer, the patient himself defines what is good or bad, sick or healthy."
"By and large, such persons impersonate the roles of helplessness, hopelessness, weakness, and often of bodily illness---when, in fact, their actual roles pertain to frustrations, unhappinesses, and perplexities due to interpersonal, social, and ethical conflicts."
"Mental illness is not something a person has, but is something he does or is."
"There is no medical, moral, or legal justification for involuntary psychiatric interventions. They are crimes against humanity."
In the Preface to the First Edition (1960) of this book, he writes, "Although my thesis is that mental illness is a myth, this book is not an attempt to 'debunk psychiatry'... although I consider the concept of mental illness to be unserviceable, I believe that psychiatry could be a science. I also believe that psychotherapy is an effective method of helping people---not to recover from an 'illness,' but rather to learn about themselves, others, and life."
Here are some representative quotations from the book:
"In this respect---and indeed not only in this respect---psychiatry resembles religion rather than science, politics rather than medicine."
"In ... the traditional psychiatric view, the physician defines what is good or bad, sick or healthy. In the individualistic, autonomous 'psychotherapy' which I prefer, the patient himself defines what is good or bad, sick or healthy."
"By and large, such persons impersonate the roles of helplessness, hopelessness, weakness, and often of bodily illness---when, in fact, their actual roles pertain to frustrations, unhappinesses, and perplexities due to interpersonal, social, and ethical conflicts."
"Mental illness is not something a person has, but is something he does or is."
"There is no medical, moral, or legal justification for involuntary psychiatric interventions. They are crimes against humanity."
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