The Myth Of Mental Illness
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What if the very foundation of modern psychiatry is built on a lie? First published in 1961, Thomas S. Szasz's landmark work, The Myth of Mental Illness, mounts a devastating critique of the psychiatric establishment, arguing that mental illness is not a genuine medical condition but rather a social and political construct used to control and stigmatize individuals whose behavior deviates from societal norms. Szasz, a trained psychiatrist himself, systematically dismantles the biomedical model of psychiatry, contending that so-called mental diseases lack the defining characteristic of all true illness — a verifiable physical lesion — and that diagnoses such as schizophrenia and hysteria are, in essence, judgments of conduct masquerading as objective science. A work of profound intellectual courage, The Myth of Mental Illness reshaped debates across philosophy, law, ethics, and medicine, and remains a cornerstone text for the anti-psychiatry movement and critical psychology alike. Szasz writes with a sharp, polemical clarity that is as unsettling as it is persuasive, marshalling evidence from history, philosophy, and clinical practice to challenge the reader's most fundamental assumptions about sanity, freedom, and the power of institutions. Decades after its initial publication, the questions it raises — Who defines madness? Who benefits from the diagnosis? — remain as urgent and unanswered as ever.
Author: Thomas S. Szasz
Format: Paperback
Genre: Psychology
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What if the very foundation of modern psychiatry is built on a lie? First published in 1961, Thomas S. Szasz's landmark work, The Myth of Mental Illness, mounts a devastating critique of the psychiatric establishment, arguing that mental illness is not a genuine medical condition but rather a social and political construct used to control and stigmatize individuals whose behavior deviates from societal norms. Szasz, a trained psychiatrist himself, systematically dismantles the biomedical model of psychiatry, contending that so-called mental diseases lack the defining characteristic of all true illness — a verifiable physical lesion — and that diagnoses such as schizophrenia and hysteria are, in essence, judgments of conduct masquerading as objective science. A work of profound intellectual courage, The Myth of Mental Illness reshaped debates across philosophy, law, ethics, and medicine, and remains a cornerstone text for the anti-psychiatry movement and critical psychology alike. Szasz writes with a sharp, polemical clarity that is as unsettling as it is persuasive, marshalling evidence from history, philosophy, and clinical practice to challenge the reader's most fundamental assumptions about sanity, freedom, and the power of institutions. Decades after its initial publication, the questions it raises — Who defines madness? Who benefits from the diagnosis? — remain as urgent and unanswered as ever.