Szasz Under Fire: A Psychiatric Abolitionist Faces His Critics (Under Fire Series)From Open Court
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Since he published The Myth of Mental Illness in 1961, professor of psychiatry Thomas Szasz has been the scourge of the psychiatric establishment. In dozens of books and articles, he has argued passionately and knowledgeably against compulsory commitment of the mentally ill, against the war on drugs, against the insanity defense in criminal trials, against the "diseasing" of voluntary humanpractices such as addiction and homosexual behavior, against the drugging of schoolchildren with Ritalin, and for the right to suicide. Most controversial of all has been his denial that "mental illness" is a literal disease, treatable by medical practitioners.In Szasz Under Fire, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other leading experts who disagree with Szasz on specific issues explain the reasons, with no holds barred, and Szasz replies cogently and pungently to each of them. Topics debated include the nature of mental illness, the right to suicide, the insanity defense, the use and abuse of drugs, and the responsibilities of psychiatrists and therapists. These exchanges are preceded by Szasz's autobiography and followed by a bibliography of his works.
Szasz Under Fire: A Psychiatric Abolitionist Faces His Critics (Under Fire Series)From Open Court- Amazon Sales Rank: #2023419 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-11-05
- Released on: 2015-11-05
- Format: Kindle eBook
From The New England Journal of Medicine Thomas Szasz was the enfant terrible of 20th-century American psychiatry. His 1961 book, The Myth of Mental Illness (New York, Paul B. Hoeber), and his searing intellect and take-no-prisoners rhetorical style defined the terms of the discourse. Szasz under Fire consists of 12 essays by critics, Szasz's replies to each, and a brief autobiographical sketch. The essays are uneven; Szasz is more interesting than his critics, and, right or wrong, he always wins the debate. The book provides a deja vu experience and stimulates reflection on what we were arguing about then, why it seemed so important, and how we think about it today. (Figure) Szasz was born in Budapest in 1920, and although he spoke almost no English, he emigrated to the United States in 1938. He ranked first in his medical school class, but he didn't really want to practice medicine. As he put it, "My true passion was literature, history, philosophy, politics -- or, put more plainly, how and why people live, suffer, and die." After a year of medical residency, he shifted to psychiatry in order to "be eligible for training in psychoanalysis, not to practice psychiatry." He sought a platform from which to attack "the immoral practices of civil commitment and the insanity defense." This book, some 60 years later, continues that attack. Szasz's psychiatric residency was unusual. He never worked on an inpatient unit, and when his chairman suggested that he should have experience with "seriously ill patients," he quit the program. Szasz makes clear that his views about mental illness, involuntary treatment, and the insanity defense were well established before his exposure to psychiatry, psychoanalysis, or even medicine and that he was unusually successful at avoiding any experience that might have been relevant to them. Szasz's views are entirely ideological; they have nothing to do with empirical data and are therefore immune to arguments on the basis of data; they are premises, not conclusions. Szasz's central thesis is that "disease" means an abnormality of the body, and since doctors treat bodies, there may be brain diseases but not mental diseases. Corollaries are that involuntary treatment of mental disease violates fundamental liberties, that mental disease should not be considered in assessing criminal responsibility, and that physicians should have no privileged role in the prescription of drugs or in assisted suicide. Several of his critics argue with his definition of disease. They point out that diseases happen to people, not bodies, and review the evidence that brain diseases underlie major psychiatric disorders. These arguments have no effect on Szasz, although they are probably the chief reason that his position seems so out of date. Szasz also seems out of step with contemporary practice. He states that "the typical mental patient . . . is hospitalized and treated without his consent" (which has not been true since years before Szasz's residency) and that there has been little progress in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness (an assertion that would receive little support). For me, the underlying issue is Szasz's view of psychiatric patients as competent, autonomous adults who are different and who must be protected from a society that wants to infringe on their rights and uses that difference as a justification. It is an important perspective, and one that touches on fundamental values of our society, but tragically, it is less relevant to the seriously mentally ill than to almost anyone else. An alternative view -- that people with mental illness are childlike, helpless, and in need of our care and protection -- has little appeal to him. He even seems to question the view's premise; he speaks of the child's relationship to his parents as one based on domination and submission and argues that psychiatry rests on "a coercive pediatric model characterized by relations of domination and subjection." If one starts with the view that parenting is domination and pediatrics is coercive, the conclusion is that psychiatry is evil. In this book Szasz is called "the most influential ideologist of the `new' antipsychiatry of the 1960s and 1970s" and "a powerful intellectual ally of the civil liberties movement." He forced a sometimes reluctant profession to attend to the moral and ethical dimensions of its work, and though he is largely wrong, his arguments have been immensely valuable. Robert Michels, M.D.Copyright © 2005 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.
Review "One cannot help but be drawn into it." -- JAMA Vol. 293 No. 2, January 12, 2005Schaler brings together psychologists, psychiatrists, and others who critique Szasz followed by Szasz's replies to each. -- Law & Social Inquiry, Book Notes, Vol. 30, No. 2Stimulating and informative. -- CHOICE, April 2005
From the Publisher The Under Fire(TM) Series General Editor: Jeffrey A. Schaler
VOLUME 1 Szasz Under Fire: The Psychiatric Abolitionist Faces His Critics
IN PREPARATION: Howard Gardner Under Fire Peter Singer Under Fire
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30 of 35 people found the following review helpful. High Level Dialogue By E James LIEBERMAN A dozen thoughtful writers chosen by editor Jeffrey Schaler address Thomas Szasz, M.D. (author of "The Myth of Mental Illness" and many other books). Szasz then responds to these critics (and has the last word). It is like a series of book reviews with the author answering. An excellent idea, well-executed, on a controversial and important thinker. Full disclosure: I am one of the critics.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. SZASZ RESPONDS DIRECTLY TO A WIDE VARIETY OF HIS CRITICS By Steven H Propp Psychologist and editor Jeffrey Schaler wrote in the Introduction to this 2004 book, "'Szasz Under Fire' is the first in a series of ... books which will confront controversial writers with their intellectual critics. Szasz is particularly suited to this project because of his unusually polarizing influence. Szasz's writings have provoked both extraordinary praise and extraordinary denunciation. Critics have been invited both on their knowledgeability and their strong disagreement with Szasz." (Pg. xxii)Schaler further notes, "Though Szasz has been called an 'anti-psychiatrist,' he rejects the label... Szasz is against coercion, not 'psychiatry between consenting adults.' ... The state has no business inside a person's head, according to Szasz... Szasz has also been a practicing psychotherapist. When practicing psychotherapy, Szasz claims that he is not doing what 'mental health professionals' usually claim to be doing. As Szasz prefers to describe it, he is having conversations with people about their problems." (Pg. xiv)One commentator admits, "Dr. Szasz is perfectly justified ... in drawing attention to the fact that psychiatry does differ from all other branches of medicine... in the sense that most of the disorders it recognises are still defined by their syndromes; and that at a time when psychiatrists are claiming to recognize an ever widening range of mental disorders, this leaves them vulnerable to accusations of unjustified medicalization of deviant behavior and the vicissitudes of everyday life.'" (Pg. 33)Szasz replies ot one critic, "My motives for engaging in a systematic criticism of psychiatry were primarily moral and political, and secondarily epistemological and medical. I wanted to show that psychiatry's two paradigmatic procedures---conventionally called 'mental hospitalization' and the 'insanity defense'---are moral wrongs as well as violations of the political principles of the free society based on the rule of law." (Pg. 159) To another critic, he says, "The Therapeutic Staet is not ruled by psychiatrists. It is ruled by politicians imbued with the faith of medicine (therapy), much as the Theological Statem, examplified by Saudi Arabia, is ruled by politicians imbued with the faith of religion (Islam). In the United States, the Therapeutic State is ruled by a coalition composed of politicians... and their wives... the American Medical Association, the state medical associations, and the various health lobbies; the public health establishment... and the mental health lobby." (Pg. 173-174)He responds to Stanton Peele [author of books such as Diseasing of America: How We Allowed Recovery Zealots and the Treatment Industry to Convince Us We Are Out of Control, etc.], "Peele sees the addict as a helpless victim. I see him as a capable moral agent, sometimes doing and enjoying what he wants to do and annoying others in the process; sometimes victimizing himself or others by his behavior... I ask, if people SUFFER from addiction and mental illness, why don't they seek treatment for these drug alleged diseases? Addicts spend money, sometimes a lot of money, on drugs. Why don't they spend the money on drug addiction treatment?" (Pg. 196-197)This book is "must reading" for anyone interested in Szasz, the psychiatric survivors' movement, the Mad Pride movement, or similar areas.
18 of 26 people found the following review helpful. Szasz is the new Galileo By A Reader Think back about 400 years and imagine a hypothetical situation. Re-image historical events so that several representatives from the Catholic Church publicly and affably question Galileo Galilei despite their dismay at the impact of his views. In turn, Galileo then treats his critics with the same or at least parallel affability. Now consider modern day psychology rather than the start of modern solar mechanics, and there you have it--this book.Approximately 5 out of 6 Szasz critics whose writings appear in this book are affable.In its twelve chapters, there are a couple outliers.
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