December 04, 2006

The Myth of Thomas Szasz. “Psychiatry is conventionally defined as a medical specialty concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of mental diseases,” Szasz wrote. “I submit that this definition, which is still widely accepted, places psychiatry in the company of alchemy and astrology and commits it to the category of pseudoscience. The reason for this is that there is no such thing as ‘mental illness.’”
posted by HawthorneWingo 17 years ago
  • This Szasz guy strikes me as a total crackpot. Check out this transcript of a debate (if you can call it that)... I've always wondered why it is that so many non-depressed people are so obsessed with telling depressed people that they could feel better if they could just pull themselves together and think about puppies more or something. It probably has to do with the way people say they're "depressed" when they're actually just kind of angsty, and spectators not understanding the difference.
  • This may be a somewhat more approachable article on Szasz. With regard to over-prescribing of Ritalin and other mood/behaviour-altering meds to school-children, at least some of what Szasz dislikes has clearly come into being. Reminded also of the way the USSR would hustle dissidents and critics into mental institutions. There are serious political/social issues here: how much authority over individuals who fall outside 'norms' can a state exercise, and when it does so, when does that exercise become punitive or abusive seem to be the more pertinent issues.
  • I'm in two minds about this.
  • We had our share of hustiling the "other" into the loony bin here in the West, too.
  • Shit, my whole reason of existence is nullified.
  • You don't know the history of Szasz and his good friend Tom Cruise.
  • McEwan told The Times last night ... that it was almost impossible for a writer not to face accusations of copying at some point. That's rampant bullshit.
  • oops, wrong post, forgive me.
  • And how does that make you feel?
  • In two minds.
  • That's rampant bullshit... oops, wrong post, forgive me. Wrong post, or classic slip? Just talk about whatever comes to mind.
  • I dunno about this. I guess I've seen too many people suffer with genuine mental illness to think that it doesn't exist, but at the same time I think a lot of people, especially kids, are way over-medicated to keep them in line. (Little Billy/Suzy won't sit down and shut up in class, or seems a little daydreamy? Give 'em a pill!) I guess I think that when psychiatry/psychology changes it's mission from (in Lacan's words) "to end or ameliorate suffering" to making everyone fit in with the social status quo it steps over a pretty nasty line.
  • I guess I've seen too many people suffer with genuine mental illness to think that it doesn't exist I don't think that he's trying to say that people don't actually have those issues, just that the term "mental illness" is a misnomer. I was reading an abstract psychology text book recently, and it brought up "medical student syndrome". They defined it as the point in a student's learning where they start seeing symptoms of mental illness in everyone they know, or in themselves. The point they went after was that having symptoms of schizophrenia (just an example) doesn't mean the person is schizophrenic. It's having those symptoms to the point where they not just interfere with the person's life, but totally control that person's life, that makes them schizophrenic. The day-to-day symptoms that everyone exhibits, that's not mental illness, that's just life. I think that's where Szasz is coming from. I think his mistake is not realizing that some people are totally dominated by these symptoms, and are mentally ill. It's funny, but I don't think Szasz is saying something radically different from the APA. From the their view, the thing that makes any mental illness an actual illness is failure to control it, and that's where they come in. Everything else is just life. Szasz just thinks everyone should be able to control it, therefore can control it.
  • At least as I understand it, as the neurological bases of various neurological disorders become clearer, Szasz becomes less and less relevant. See e.g.
  • Yes, it's ironic that he's nuts.
  • Unless you have ever suffered profound long-term depression, you haven't a clue how it can affect your life. You bet I believe the majority of kids are over-medicated and under-recess-ed. If you expect third graders to have the attention span of adults and sit still for 7-8 hours a day at a desk, no wonder they need drugs to do it. But you will not pry my anti-depressant drugs from my fingers without me hurting you.* *many types of depression contain an anger component--don't f**k with me, Szasz