How To Become a Schizophrenic: The Case Against Biological Psychiatry [Paperback]

John Modrow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 25, 2003

The author has been diagnosed as schizophrenic, and part of the book is his own story, written in the form of a spellbinding novelette similar to I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. But more than that, the author also utilizes the ideas of Harry Stack Sullivan, Theodore Lidz, Gregory Bateson, R.D. Scott and P.L. Ashworth, W. Ronald D. Fairbairn, Anton Boisen and others—as well as his own experiences—to construct a solid theory which explains how and why he and many other people enter a state of mind called “schizophrenic.” Finally, Modrow tackles the entire medical model with its genetic and biochemical theories, its drugs, and various brain scan studies purporting to prove that schizophrenia is a brain disease, explaining why this is such a popular explanation for emotional distress, but why the theory is very likely false.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Modrow has an intimate knowledge of schizophrenia: in addition to having had a brief schizophrenic episode as a teenager, he has watched several persons—including some of his closest friends—become schizophrenic, and has studied psychiatry for close to forty years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 436 pages
• Publisher: Writers Club Press (February 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595242995
• ISBN-13: 978-0595242993
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #509,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A shame this book is not in print!, August 31, 2003

By 

cesar tort (hijo) (Mexico City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How To Become a Schizophrenic: The Case Against Biological Psychiatry (Paperback)

John Modrow has written the best book describing how parents can drive a son mad.

The pseudo-science of biological psychiatry has deceived us. The medical departments in the universities are telling lies to the medical students (everything that has to do with psychopathology). Mental disorders are not a hardware problem, so to speak, and should not be studied by physicians. Only intuitive psychologists like Alice Miller, and vindictive autobiographers like John Modrow, can understand this software problem of the human psyche.

Self-taught Modrow says the same neuroscientist Elliot Valenstein has said in BLAMING THE BRAIN, and psychiatrist Colin Ross and psychologist Alvin Pam in PSEUDOSCIENCE IN BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. However, Modrow is also a survivor of both parental and psychiatric abuse. He knows what it feels to have undergone a brief psycho breakdown due to the horrendous abuse. In this sense his book is more valuable than THE DIVIDED SELF by Ronald Laing, an antipsychiatrist who tried to study the minds of these victims from the outside.

Unlike Laing et al, Modrow self-analyzes himself. He has insider information on what is madness.

In his book MIND GAMES Robert Baker, an emeritus professor of psychology in Kentucky, says that Modrow is perhaps the highest authority in madness and why some people become (temporarily) mad.

It is an absolute shame that such a book is not in print and that the mental health establishment paid no attention to it. No doubt that the false science of biopsychiatry has cast a spell on civil society!

7 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ups! Sorry! It IS BACK in print!, September 17, 2003

By 

cesar tort (hijo) (Mexico City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How To Become a Schizophrenic: The Case Against Biological Psychiatry (Paperback)

Since HOW TO BECOME A SCHIZOPHRENIC was out of print for five years, and since the author told me by mail he was pessimistic about bringing it back to print, I wrote the previous review under the impression that the book was not available in 2003. Sorry!

I can only add to my previous review that Alice Miller is the leading exponent in the subject of how abusive parents can drive their children mad. Any critique of biopsychiatry should be complemented with what could be called the trauma model of mental disorders. And Miller and Modrow have done a stupendous job on this revolutionary model.

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Genes and Environment always play a role, April 11, 2010

By 

jenfromatlanta - See all my reviews

This review is from: How To Become a Schizophrenic: The Case Against Biological Psychiatry (Paperback)

Almost all psychological conditions are the result of a complicated interaction on genes and environment. The environment includes psychological and social factors.

Although I agree with the author on many issues, I would also like to offer another environmental factor: a strong belief in the trauma-centric view of psychology can in of itself create problems. Being convinced by trauma-centric psychologists who write about biological psychiatry being part of an "establishment" and then advocate hazardous trauma recovery therapies all can lead to iatrogenic problems. We do not know whether a persistent belief in the trauma-causes-everything model undermined social ties and relationships that contributed to a schizophrenia diagnosis.

That being said, I also question the validity of the schizophrenia label, and I am really glad the author has rejected it and is doing well.

However, this is another book about psychology that has evaded peer review and been published straight to the public. There are more reliable sources of information about psychology, such as the PsychInfo database. There are some reliable textbooks that are evidence-based too.