The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct“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 every 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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 6
... Game-Playing Model of Human Behavior 13. Hysteria as a Game 14. Impersonation and Illness 15. The Ethics of Psychiatry Conclusions.
... game - playing and symbolic action strategically chosen as responses to varying social situations ......... . In his rhetorical attack on the medical paradigm of psychiatry , Szasz was not only arguing for an alternative paradigm , but ...
... games ; why they like to play them ; what circumstances favor their continuing to play old games or learning new ones ; and so forth . * Actual behavior is of course the datum from which the nature and rules of the game are inferred ...
... playing of language games that the interests of linguistics , philosophy , semiotic , and psychiatry meet . Each of these disciplines addresses itself to a different aspect of the language game : linguistics to its formal structure ...
... game - playing . In other words , hysteria is ( 1 ) a form of nonverbal communication , making use of a special set of signs ; ( 2 ) a system of rule - following behavior , making use of the rules of illness , helplessness , and ...
Contents
Breuer and Freuds Studies on Hysteria | |
SEMIOTICAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR | |
RULEFOLLOWING ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR | |
GAMEMODEL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR | |
Conclusions | |
Defining Disease | |
References | |
Bibliography | |
Name Index | |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR | |
Other editions - View all
The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct Thomas S. Szasz No preview available - 2010 |