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Against Therapy Paperback – June, 1993

by
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (Author)
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Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 21 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 340 pages
  • Publisher: Common Courage Press; Revised edition (June 1993)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1567510221
  • ISBN-13: 978-1567510225
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,405,080 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsGreat insights, great criticism, important questions
By Vera Britto on December 17, 2000
Format: Paperback
Against Therapy is an elaborate critique of the concept and practice of "therapy." The greatest praise, in my view, goes to the fact that Masson has in this book, along with others that he's written, denounced several very serious issues with therapeutic practices, specially the harm and abuse that are carried out against defenseless human beings in many cases to a lethal point or one that condemns a human being to a life of sanctioned torture. Using very poignant historical examples, Masson clearly shows how terrible but sanctioned diagnoses and therapeutic practices have been used to torture people into submissive roles society ascribes to them, or to make their mental health seriously deteriorate as a result of their so-called "treatment." His examples are especially focused on how a patriarchal society uses a variety of violent techniques to punish, torture, and/or make women submissive. While all his examples and points are well taken, he elaborates more on the male/female power war to the exclusion of others.
Another point of praise, is that Masson has also given a big focus to the issue of sexual abuse of children and its gross denial in society. But while he does give examples of children that were grossly mistreated, he does not elaborate on how similar structural forms of oppression that women have faced from a patriarchal society are present in society's structure regarding adults v. children. He also highlights much more male abuse of female children and ignores other forms of sexual abuse, a format that does a disservice to other victims by continuing the silence about it. We know today that the number of male children abused is immense and has been continuously overlooked.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsRethinking therapy
By Joan Mazza on February 3, 2000
Format: Paperback
As a psychotherapist and seminar leader, I welcome a book thatcalls the whole profession into question. While I believe there ismore room for discussion of the specifics, I think Masson's book raises some serious quesions about the practices and ethical considerations of the psychotherapy environment. It was instrumental in my movement toward group work and away from individual work with clients. AGAINST THERAPY should be required reading for all students in the helping professions.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA needed point of view
By Joan Mazza on February 14, 2000
Format: Paperback
from the author of DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF: A PERSONAL APPROACH TO DREAM INTERPRETATION; WHO'S CRAZY, ANYWAY?; and DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE.
Masson has written an important book that should be studied as part of the education of every mental health professional. The power imbalance in the therapeutic encounter makes it imperative that if you are going to see a psychotherapist, the focus must be on restoring confidence and self-understanding and not being told by what you should be. For professionals, the temptations of such power often leads to unethical behavior. Yes, AGAINST THERAPY is an angry book-- and rightfully so.
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5.0 out of 5 starsTHE BEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN ABOUT 'PSYCHOTHERAPY'
By jaguar on November 4, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
This is, bar none, the best book ever written about so-called 'psychotherapy' ('talk therapy'). And the fact that it was written by a trained and fully accredited psychoanalyst means it cannot be easily dismissed by those who profit from and victimize the vulnerable people who believe they 'need psychological help'. It gains additional force by the privileged access the author had to the very foundation and source of all 'psychotherapy', that is, to every jot Sigmund Freud ever wrote on the subject. But the critique is not restricted to Freudian analysis but applies to any form of 'talk therapy' offered today (or in the future) because it demolishes the very foundation of any and all 'psychotherapy'. It's about time that psychiatry and 'psychotherapy' are stripped of the imprimatur of science-based medicine and dropped into the dustbin of history, as a failed experiment that should be discarded, abolished, and regarded with all the contempt it so decidedly deserves.
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5.0 out of 5 starsAn excellent critique that is still relevant today
By e. verrillo on February 17, 2010
Format: Paperback
When an author puts forth the claim that all psychotherapy should be abandoned on the grounds that the entire field is inherently corrupt, one is tempted to dismiss him as a crackpot. But Dr. Masson is no crackpot. He is the former director of the Sigmund Freud Archives and a psychotherapist himself. Given those qualifications Dr. Masson's ideas are worthy of consideration--however radical they may appear.

By the time you finish this book, with its well researched history of psychotherapy, you will be convinced. The abuses of patients at the hands of psychotherapists and psychoanalysts over the past century and a half are so horrifying as to make some chapters almost impossible to read. But Masson's object is not to shock us with the details of the sexual, emotional and physical abuse that psychiatric patients have suffered, but to demonstrate that the entire field rests upon a false assumption which basically guarantees that patients will be mistreated. The assumption is that therapists know what sanity is. They do not--for the simple reason that nobody does.

The only thing that therapists can know is how their society defines sanity. (Even that is a stretch. Unlike anthropologists, psychologists are not trained to analyze social norms and mores.) As has been amply demonstrated, the notion of sanity changes substantially from one era to the next. A woman in the 19th century could be incarcerated for life in a mental asylum for "incurable pride" or for "moral insanity", terms which we find quaint nowadays, but, as they were taken seriously at the time, destroyed countless lives. And if we find these terms quaint, just imagine how such culturally specific concepts as "neurosis" will be viewed in the future.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsAbsolutely Phenomenal!

This work illustrates the point that psychiatry is a pseudoscience and a dangerous misogynist cult nothing more.

Published 4 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsBit too much extremes, but otherwise vital

Some of the content is a bit far out and too removed from everyday therapy in the modern age. And the chapters are not particularly coherent. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Keifer
5.0 out of 5 starsOne of the best books I've read

I was in therapy for 15 years and did not get better. There are several reasons for that, but Jeffrey's book has been hugely validating for me. Read more

Published 10 months ago by smuckers
5.0 out of 5 starsA Breakthrough Text, Only One of Its Kind

A Truly Seminal Work that set Jeffrey apart from the rest of psychologically trained writers, opening the door to the
Truth behind those closed doors of psychotherapy. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Samantha
5.0 out of 5 starsBeware: Tough Book. But It's Important. However, Don't Let It Make You...

Devastating book. Very well-researched--thorough and highly readable. Its biggest flaw is that Masson tears down all psychotherapy, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis without pointing... Read more

Published 20 months ago by Robin Beckwith
5.0 out of 5 starsI enjoyed reading this book

I enjoyed reading this book. I was harmed by therapy and in my efforts to ensure that no other women were harmed the way that I was, I faced a lot of hardship in trying to report... Read more

Published 20 months ago by hesitantsunshine
5.0 out of 5 starsBrilliant

I love Masson and I wish he'd return to writing about psychoanalysis. I don't necessarily agree with everything he says but it's always well written and incisive.

Published on February 11, 2014 by Bill Bones
5.0 out of 5 starsCommon sense rejection of psychobabble

"But Mira, you don't believe in anything," is an accusation oft hurled at me, as though I am guilty of psycho-atheism, a grave sin in our highly medicalized society. Read more

Published on July 10, 2011 by Mira de Vries
4.0 out of 5 starsShould be required reading

I'm a therapist. I got into the field in part because, as a child, I was on the receiving end of a number of crappy and arrogant therapists. Read more

Published on November 7, 2010 by Lynn Allen
5.0 out of 5 starsHated his opinions; loved his book

Authors like Szasz and Foucault and Scully have singled out mental illness from other medical conditions for non-treatment before. Read more

Published on October 10, 2010 by D. P. Birkett

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