Psychiatry

The Science of Lies

De: Thomas Szasz

Narrado por: Tom Weiner

For more than half a century, Thomas Szasz has devoted much of his career to a radical critique of psychiatry. His latest work, Psychiatry: The Science of Lies, is a culmination of his life’s work: to portray the integral role of deception in the history and practice of psychiatry.

Szasz argues that the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness stands in the same relationship to the diagnosis and treatment of bodily illness that the forgery of a painting does to the original masterpiece. Art historians and the legal system seek to distinguish forgeries from originals. Those concerned with medicine, on the other hand - physicians, patients, politicians, health-insurance providers, and legal professionals - take the opposite stance when faced with the challenge of distinguishing everyday problems in living from bodily diseases, systematically authenticating non-diseases as diseases. The boundary between disease and non-disease - genuine and imitation, truth and falsehood - thus becomes arbitrary and uncertain.

There is neither glory nor profit in correctly demarcating what counts as medical illness and medical healing from what does not. Individuals and families wishing to protect themselves from medically and politically authenticated charlatanry are left to their own intellectual and moral resources to make critical decisions about human dilemmas miscategorized as “mental diseases” and about medicalized responses misidentified as “psychiatric treatments.”

Delivering his sophisticated analysis in lucid prose and with a sharp wit, Szasz continues to engage and challenge readers of all backgrounds.

Thomas Szasz is professor emeritus of psychiatry at the State University of New York’s Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York.

©2008 Thomas Szasz (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"[Thomas Szasz] is the preeminent critic of psychiatry in the world." (Richard Vatz, Ph.D., Professor of Rhetoric and Communication, Towson University)

I LEARNED ALOT I DIDNT KNOW AT FIRST.

Over his theory was explained good but did seem to have some bias in it but your sure to learn of what those against psychiatry feel for sure.

Outdated Ideas. Not worth investigating in 2021.

While he would have some good points about 50 years ago, modern research into neurology, brain scanning technological improvements & behavioural therapy results (from newer behavioural therapy systems) now invalidate his most basic presumption. While I agree that we cannot yet call every definition in the DSM / ICD 'scientifically proven', trends in behaviour based off of learned thought (neuronal) patterns ARE a real problem in society & can be seen visually in brain scans. They can also be corrected. And while the DSM / ICD have always had issues with embarrassing mistakes (homosexuality, hysteria, etc), as with any REAL science, when new information was found, definitions, theories, & therapeutic approaches all shifted to contend with these new observations. Psychology as a field surely still has long way to go as far as efficacy goes, but it is self-adjusting enough that terming it a 'science' is no longer a true misnomer.

interesante, pero...

La tesis de este libro es fascinante así como su afirmación final. Sin embargo, la argumentación deja un sinsabor. Me queda faltando un comentario sobre los casos de pacientes mentales realmente incapacitados.

great companion to The Myth of Mental Illness

a great companion read to The Myth of Mental Illness. the metaphor of art forgery to explain diagnostic forgery is great. maybe Szasz what primed to see the flaws in the metaphor of mental illness because he is so good at using effective metaphors.

Not what I expected

The narration was good. It provided a lot of history. It seemed very opinionated.

Brilliant

Makes you think and question the world and the way most see it. A great enjoyable read!

psychiatry spoiled by incompetent narrator

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The content is a well known sumamry of Szasz's ideas and concepts. Mental illness as metaphor and the damage done to libertarian ideals by the controll of the psyhciatric elite. The new religion of the state.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Psychiatry?

His history of the development of mad doctoring.

Would you be willing to try another one of Tom Weiner’s performances?

No - very disappointing. Trying to fit Szasz's own voice in would make more sense. His phrasing lends far more credibility to his ideas. Weiner talks too fast and with almost no sense of the power of the story he is telling - very disappointed.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No - not able to made into a movie

An Honest Psychiatrist

Obviously people who are invested in the lies, financially or emotionally, will have problems with the truth being told. Szasz was, and still is, a rare treasure.

The lier blaming others for lies.

Astonishing the see a book so full of lies just to blame other as liers.
Freud never took psychoanalysis as a natural science.
I am very disappointed with this book that was written by a man who gave so much to psychiatry in his other works

Ignorance

The amount of pure ignorance the author gives in this book is unbelievable. Stating mental illness is all a lie when you can see brain scans of healthy brain function vs depressive, adhd, anxiety brains. You can see the difference in these brain scans. You can see this difference in cognitive functioning. I can’t believe this book was allowed to be published.