They Myth of Mental Illness

They Myth of Mental Illness

“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 ever 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.

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Description

Thomas Szasz was an agnostic psychiatrist who in 1960 argued that that the term “mental illness” is a metaphor for human problems in living, and that mental illnesses are not real in the sense that cancers are real. Except for a few identifiable brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, there are “neither biological nor chemical tests nor biopsy or necropsy findings for verifying or falsifying DSM diagnoses”, i.e., there are no objective methods for detecting the presence or absence of mental illness.

This book contributed to Dr. Adams’ conclusions in Competent to Counsel. Though he spoke with a thick Hungarian accent, Szasz was a clear thinker and an engaging writer. Every biblical counselor should have this volume in his library and engage with Dr. Szasz’ thinking.