Therapeutic State: Psychiatry in the Mirror of Current Events (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This is a unique collection of topical essays about what the author calls "one of the grandest illusions of our age, mental illness, and the quixotic crusade against it". Pivoting his analysis on news-making events, Szasz exposes the fallacies of our present penchant for interpreting the behaviour of 'sane' persons as goal-directed and therefore sensible, and the behaviour of 'insane' persons as caused by a 'mental illness' and therefore senseless. In a series of diverse short pieces, originally published in newspapers and magazines, the author shows us that individual liberty and responsibility are indivisible, and that we cannot protect ourselves against coercive psychiatry's threats to liberty so long as we persist in using psychiatric ideas and interventions to evade responsibility.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (March 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879752424
• ISBN-13: 978-0879752422
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,961,975 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars comin' from a good place, December 18, 2000

By	Jon Tsou "feyerabend44" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

Szasz does not disappoint. I did not give this book 5 stars because Szasz merely reiterates what he says in all of his books. Nonetheless, as always, Szasz geniuinely expresses his concerns about psychiatry and reveals his great compassion as a psychiatrist.