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Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences
  
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Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences (Hardcover)

by Thomas Szasz (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 414 pages
  • Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (24 Dec 1986)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0471847089
  • ISBN-13: 978-0471847083
  • Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.5 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,614,820 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  • See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

Product Description

From one of the most renowned and controversial thinkers in behavioral science, here is a critical examination of the way both science and society define insanity. Attacking the universally accepted psychiatric doctrines that blur the distinction between literal and metaphoric diseases, Szasz argues that insanity is not an objectively definable or identifiable condition, and presents a more fully rounded account of the insanity concept, showing how it relates to and differs from three closely allied ideas - bodily illness, social deviance and the sick role. The book reveals why it is impossible truly to understand psychiatric problems without first distinguishing an abnormal biological condition - like diabetes - from the sick role.

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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Szasz writes another great book, 8 April 2005
By Alan Michael Forrester "jimmythewonderhorse" (Northampton) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences (Paperback)
'Insanity' is about how people use the idea of insanity as a legal, moral and scientific fiction for describing behaviour that is far outside the norm. He points out that the ostensibly scientific justifications for the rhetoric of insanity don't hold any water. Instead psychiatrists, courts and lay people alike don't want to give up on the idea of insanity because it is useful as a label for aberrant behaviour. Szasz points out that we have to pay a terrible price for using the concept of insanity, to whit, it undermines the rule of law and the idea of personal responsibility, which are the cornerstones of the success of Western civilisation. An important book by an important thinker.
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