The Myth of Mental Illness

The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct

Cover of the 1961 Hoeber-Harper edition
Author Thomas Szasz
Country United States
Language English
Subject Psychiatry
Published 1961 (Harper & Row)
Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages 337 (Secker & Warburg edition)
297 (Perennial Library edition)
ISBN 0-06-091151-4
OCLC 747804544

The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct is a 1961 book by Thomas Szasz, in which Szasz questions psychiatry's foundations and argues against the tendency of psychiatrists to label people who are "disabled by living" as mentally ill. It received much publicity when it was published, and has become a classic.

Background

Szasz writes that he became interested in writing The Myth of Mental Illness in approximately 1950, when, having become established as a psychiatrist, he became convinced that the concept of mental illness was vague and unsatisfactory. He began work on the book in 1954, when he was relieved of the burdens of a full-time psychiatric practice by being called to active duty in the navy. Later in the 1950s, it was rejected by the first publisher to whom Szasz submitted the manuscript. Szasz next sent the manuscript to Paul Hoeber, director of the medical division of Harper & Brothers, who arranged for it to be published.[1]

Summary

Szasz argues against the tendency of psychiatrists to label people who are "disabled by living" as mentally ill.[2] He believes that it does not make sense to classify psychological problems as diseases or illnesses, and that speaking of "mental illness" involves a logical or conceptual error.[3] In his view, the term "mental illness" is only an inappropriate metaphor and there are no true illnesses of the mind.[4] His position has been characterized as involving a rigid distinction between the physical and the mental.[3]

The legitimacy of psychiatry is questioned by Szasz, who compares it to alchemy and astrology,[5] and argues that it offends the values of autonomy and liberty.[6] Szasz believes that the concept of mental illness is not only logically absurd but has harmful consequences: instead of treating cases of ethical or legal deviation as occasions when a person should be taught personal responsibility, attempts are made to "cure" the deviants, for example by giving them tranquilizers.[3] Psychotherapy is regarded by Szasz as useful not to help people recover from illnesses, but to help them "learn about themselves, others, and life."[4] Discussing Jean-Martin Charcot and hysteria, Szasz argues that hysteria is an emotional problem and that Charcot's patients were not really ill.[2]

Reception

The Myth of Mental Illness is a well known argument against the tendency of psychiatrists to label people who are "disabled by living" as mentally ill.[2] It received much publicity, quickly became a classic,[4] and made Szasz a prominent figure.[7] The book was reviewed in the American Journal of Psychiatry,[8] Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease,[9] Psychosomatic Medicine,[10] Archives of General Psychiatry,[11] Clinical Psychology Review,[12] and Psychologies.[13] Published at a vulnerable moment for psychiatry, when Freudian theorizing was just beginning to fall out of favor and the field was trying to become more medically oriented and empirically based, Szasz's book provided an intellectual foundation for mental patient advocates and anti-psychiatry activists. It became well known in the mental health professions and was favorably received by those sceptical of modern psychiatry, but made Szasz an enemy of many doctors.[5] Soon after The Myth of Mental Illness was published, the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene demanded, in a letter citing the book, that Szasz be dismissed from his university position because he did not accept the concept of mental illness.[1]

Philosopher Karl Popper, in a 1961 letter to Szasz, called the book admirable and fascinating, adding that, "It is a most important book, and it marks a real revolution."[14] Psychiatrist David Cooper wrote that The Myth of Mental Illness, like R. D. Laing's The Divided Self (1960), proved stimulating in the development of anti-psychiatry, though he noted that neither book is itself an anti-psychiatric work. He described Szasz's work as "a decisive, carefully documented demystification of psychiatric diagnostic labelling in general."[15] Philosopher Michael Ruse, writing in Homosexuality: A Philosophical Inquiry (1988), called Szasz the most forceful proponent of the thesis that mental illness is a myth, but while sympathetic to Szasz, considered his case over-stated. Ruse criticized Szasz's arguments on several grounds, maintaining that while the concepts of disease and illness were originally applied only to the physiological realm, they can properly be extended to the mind, and there is no logical absurdity involved in doing so.[3]

Kenneth Lewes wrote that Szasz's book is the most notable example of the "critique of the institutions of psychiatry and psychoanalysis" that occurred as part of the "general upheaval of values in the 1960s", though he saw the work as less profound than Michel Foucault's Madness and Civilization (1961).[16] Psychiatrist Peter Breggin called The Myth of Mental Illness a seminal work.[6] Author Richard Webster, writing in Why Freud Was Wrong (1995), observed that while some of Szasz's arguments are similar to his, he disagreed with Szasz's view that hysteria was an emotional problem and that Charcot's patients were not genuinely mentally ill.[2] Historian Lillian Faderman called Szasz's book the most notable attack on psychiatry published in the 1960s, adding that "Szasz's insights and critiques would prove invaluable to the homophile movement."[17]

References

  1. 1 2 Szasz, Thomas S. (1974). The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct. New York: Harper & Row. p. vii, xiii, xvi. ISBN 0-06-091151-4.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Webster, Richard (2005). Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science and Psychoanalysis. Oxford: The Orwell Press. pp. 595–596. ISBN 0-9515922-5-4.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Ruse, Michael (1988). Homosexuality: A Philosophical Inquiry. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. pp. 207–208. ISBN 0-631-15275-X.
  4. 1 2 3 Zilbergeld, Bernie (1983). The Shrinking of America: Myths of Psychological Change. Boston: Little, Brown & Company. pp. 78–79. ISBN 0-316-98794-8.
  5. 1 2 Carey, Benedict (September 11, 2012). "Dr. Thomas Szasz, Psychiatrist Who Led Movement Against His Field, Dies at 92". New York Times.
  6. 1 2 Breggin, Peter R. (1991). Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy, and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the "New Psychiatry". New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 415. ISBN 0-312-05975-2.
  7. ↑ Maugh II, Thomas H. (September 17, 2012). "Dr. Thomas Szasz dies at 92; psychiatrist who attacked profession". Los Angeles Times.
  8. ↑ Kahn, Eugene (1 November 1962). "The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct". American Journal of Psychiatry. 119 (5): 494. doi:10.1176/ajp.119.5.494.
  9. ↑ Glaser, Frederick (May 1962). "The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct". Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 134 (5): 477–484.
  10. ↑ Shands, Harley (May 1962). "The Myth of Mental Illness". Psychosomatic Medicine. 24 (3): 322–323.
  11. ↑ Ruesch, Jurgen (January 1962). "The Myth of Mental Illness". Archives of General Psychiatry. 6 (1): 103–105. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1962.01710190105015.
  12. ↑ Dammann, Eric (November 1997). ""The myth of mental illness:" continuing controversies and their implications for mental health professionals". Clinical Psychology Review. 17 (7): 733–756. doi:10.1016/S0272-7358(97)00030-5. PMID 9397335.
  13. ↑ Leontev, Dmitry [Дмитрий Леонтьев] (16 April 2010). Расширить границы нормального [Broadening the boundaries of normality]. Psychologies (in Russian) (47).
  14. ↑ Buchanan-Barker, P; Barker, P (February 2009). "The convenient myth of Thomas Szasz". Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. 16 (1): 87–95. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2850.2008.01310.x. PMID 19192090.
  15. ↑ Cooper, David (1978). The Language of Madness. London: Allen Lane. pp. 128–129. ISBN 0-7139-1118-2.
  16. ↑ Lewes, Kenneth (1995). Psychoanalysis and Male Homosexuality. Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc. p. 201. ISBN 1-56821-484-7.
  17. ↑ Faderman, Lillian (2015). The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 282–3. ISBN 978-1-4516-9411-6.

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