A Lexicon of Lunacy: Metaphoric Malady, Moral Responsibility, and Psychiatry [Hardcover]

Thomas Szasz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1993 | ISBN-10: 1560000651 | ISBN-13: 978-1560000655

Thomas Sas is renowned for his critical explora- tion of the literal language of psychiatry and his rejection of officially sanctioned definitions of mental illness. His work has initiated a continuing debate in the psychiatric community whose essence is often misunderstood. Sas's critique of the established view of mental illness is rooted in an insistent distinction between disease and behavior. In his view, psychiatrists have misapplied the vocabulary of disease as metaphorical figures to denote a range of deviant behaviors from the merely eccentric to the criminal. In A Lexicon of Lunacy, Sas extends his analysis of psychiatric language to show how its misuse has resulted in a medicalied view of life that denies the reality of free will and responsibility.

Sas documents the extraordinary extent to which modern diagnosis of mental illness is subject to shifting social attitudes and values. He shows how economic, personal, legal, and political factors have come to play an increasingly powerful role in the diagnostic process, with consequences of blurring the distinction between cultural and scientific standards. Broadened definitions of mental illness have had a corrosive effect on the criminal justice system in undercutting traditional conceptions of criminal behavior and have encouraged state-sanctioned coercive interventions that bestow special privileges (and impose special hardships) on persons diagnosed as mentally ill.

Lucidly written and powerfully argued, and now available in paperback, this provocative and challenging volume will be of interest to psychologists, criminologists, and sociologists.

"No one attacks loose-thinking and folly with half the precision and est of Thomas Sas. Another good book in an impressive canon."--John Leo, U.S. News & World Report

Thomas Sas is professor of psychiatry emeritus at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, Washington, D.C. He is the author of over two doen books in fifteen languages, including The Myth of Mental Illness, Pharmacracy: Medicine and Politics in America, and most recently Liberation by Oppression, also published by Transaction.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Thomas Sas has created an extraordinary body of work, that continues to raise consequential challenges to the the prevailing myths of the culture of psychology." -- Tobias Wolff, PEN/Faulkner Award-winner, Stanford University

About the Author

Thomas Sas is professor of psychiatry emeritus at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, Washington, DC. He is a big figure in the anti-psychitary movement, a critic of the moral and scientific foundation of psychiatry, and a critic of medicine in society in the social control aspect. His numerous works include The Age of Madness, Ideology and Insanity: Essays on the Psychiatric Dehumaniation of Man, andCoercion as Cure: A Critical History of Psychiatry. 

Product Details

• Hardcover: 214 pages
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560000651
• ISBN-13: 978-1560000655
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,009,316 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Scientology, January 18, 2012

By 

R. Gross - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Lexicon of Lunacy: Metaphoric Malady, Moral Responsibility, and Psychiatry (Hardcover)

Chances are, if you find a screed about the evils of mainstream psychiatry or psychology, you can find scientology behind it. Szasz has worked with scientology to found and fund anti-psychiatric organizations. Take his words with a bucketful of grains of salt.

5.0 out of 5 stars A POLEMICAL LEXICON AND ESSAYS FROM A PROMINENT PSYCHIATRIC CRITIC, August 11, 2010

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Lexicon of Lunacy: Metaphoric Malady, Moral Responsibility, and Psychiatry (Hardcover)

Thomas Szasz (born 1920) is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center. He is a well-known critic of psychiatry, of the social role of medicine in modern society, and is a social libertarian.

Szasz states in the Preface to this 1993 book, "This book consists of two parts. Part I is a critical reflection on the extraordinary profusion of terms in American English for behaviors conventionally called 'mental illnesses,' together with as complete a listing of such terms as I have been able to assemble... Part II is a collection of previously published papers that illustrate our propensity to use the language of mental illness to influence social relationships---in particular, to reduce or annul personal responsibility by shifting it from self to others or to the fiction of mental illness."

Here are some representative quotations from the book:

"I took up the profession of psychiatry in part to debunk the biological-reductionist impulse that has motivated its very origin and that continues to fuel its engines; in other words, to combat the contention that abnormal behaviors must be understood as the products of abnormal brains."
"(P)sychiatrists ... realize that their entire enterprise hinges on society's acceptance of the proposition that human beings diagnosed as mentally ill have a brain disease that deprives them of free will."
"Unlike regular physicians ... psychiatrists labor under the unremitting pressure of cultural forces to slap approving or disapproving labels on certain behaviors."
"Nevertheless, psychoanalysis is a pseudomedical cult, with its secret archives in Washington, and its holy shrine in London."
"I should like to reiterate that the very idea of giving rights to the mental patient expresses, once again, society's collective contempt of him; and that the mental patient's failure to protest against this ritual reinforces society's collective sense of being justified in patronizing him."