The Myth of Mental Illness

Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct

By: Thomas S. Szasz MD

Narrated by: Tom Parks

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.

©1974 Thomas S. Szasz, MD (P)2020 Tantor

A Series of Hunches, a Myth for a Myth

How can a current professor of psychiatry have a book like this in his past? Because the book is not what it says, instead being a thinly veiled critique of religious dogma which does not criticize psychiatry nearly as much as it talks about how much we should really do so. One would think that Szasz’s personal disillusionment with the practice would play a part in this book in the form of anecdotal evidence, since the very hypothesis he sets out as self-evident in the introduction already rules out much use of the scientific method. Not so. Any opportunity to show where practice bested theory is ignored and, as a result, the section on game theory is severely lacking toward its promise to show a new model of human behavior - there are no non-hypothetical examples in it at all, providing no empirical proof, no silver bullet which might have shed actual light on what we’re supposed to do about this thing we call mental illness. Szasz seems so distracted by his other, hidden ambitions that, in his victory speech found in one of the book’s appendices, he fails to even comment on the irony of being given the silent treatment by his own community for this work, ironic because it is so obviously a “move” in one of the games he so painstakingly describes. It seems even Szasz himself cannot benefit from this book

Ironically the M.D. proves all too well that we reward psychiatrists far too easily for their perceived ideological victories in the form of selling their snake oil to us. This book, his most classic brand of that oil, is more historical than scientific, and as a historical theory it contains no rigor nor shame about its lack thereof. A meager piece of entertainment for the atheistic libertarian. Go read some R.D. Laing instead

(The reader was phenomenal)

What is mental illness?

This book dives into the heart of why we currently have so many issues regarding mental healthcare and what constitutes mental illness. At the heart of mental illness is philosophy, not medicine, and Dr. Szasz does an excellent job of picking apart the philosophy and psychology of what mental illness is made of. Even though this book was written in the 1970s, I can assure you that the core of this material lies the current problems that we have with modern psychiatry. Whether you interpret mental health as concrete and medical or elusive and spiritual, this book will give you perspective.

Good format for initial exposure to the material.

This work by Thomas S. Szasz has been the target of controversy since it's publication for good reason. The message is likely to aggravate individuals whose lives have been made bearable through the use of pharmaceuticals to cope with anxiety, depression, and a number of other issues. In at least equal measure, it is likely to incense those who manufacture and prescribe these pharmaceuticals. The anecdotes shared in the work make the arguments approachable. In particular, I found the analyses made by Szasz of his patients' tactics of manipulation, deception, and self-deception to be quite relevant. His argument in this section of the book is essentially this: you cannot attribute to mental illness that which can be explained by simple human motivation, subconscious or otherwise. Of particular relevance at this point in history are the final chapters of the book, in which Szasz arranges a masterful takedown of the modern relationship between government and the pharmaceutical industry, decades before the crisis currently at hand. Szasz points to the medicalization of basic human methods of deception (along with the embrace of those eager to categorize as illnesses those behaviors which were previously described as sin) as transformative to public policy, and through the eyes of this observer, helped facilitate the destabilization of western ethics.

Important book, annoying reading

It’s great to have the Szasz book available. It introduced the great and courageous thinker to the world. The reader, on the other hand, incessantly pronounces a hard “A” before words beginning with consonants. Doesn’t Tantor have literate editors?

read this book..

classic book. read more books by psychiatrist Thomas Szasz if you want to understand why nonconsensual psychiatry should be illegal.

a world lost in translation

reading this during the covid hysteria was particularly fascinating. the popular metaphor of "mental illness" is easy to default to but it is very limited and comes with negative externalities. the 'illness' much more dangerous than the virus is the metaphorical illness of the mind where so many who are overcome by their fears have outsourced their vital risk assessment responsibilities to those who lead them further astray. but a problem with calling them all "ill" is their brains are functioning normally, it has simply become the norm to abdicate the responsibility to think for yourself. memes fill their empty heads and they follow orders without discernment. they don't even see the disconnections and gaps of logic to their actions because of the lost of translation between their new programming and any remnant rationality. the only "cure" may be managing to remind them how to think again instead of just regurgitate vacuous propaganda.

Fascinating

I am a mental health professional and this book brought up some fascinating points about the nature of my work and the systems at play in this field. I cannot say I entirely agree with Szasz but my dissent is more related to further questions I had about disorders that transcend cultural, class, societal, environmental, racial, political, psychiatric or other relevant boundaries that seem to manifest as biological and evidentially established maladies that do impact daily living for people. I found it fascinating too that many systems in disagreement with some of Szasz's theses, are systems that have much societal, monetary, and political investment for the field of mental health to SEEM medical in nature and that is a slippery slope of bias that Szasz justifiably cautions his readers against. These are certainly issues to consider carefully as a society that values independence.

Classic Read it Now!

Modern psychology really needs to find Szasz... He is a voice of reason echoing into the present insanity.

Loved this book!

It was a great book! It got me thinking beyond the status quo and beyond the books I normally read. The narrator was excellent as well. A must read for anyone interested in psychiatry and psychology to get a totally different view and perhaps question some of the theories we have all grown to rely on.

Awesome Book

This book matured really well over the years. Deeply thought provoking. An essential read for not only psychologists, but also lawyers.