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Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences Reprint Edition

by Thomas Szasz (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 35 ratings
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Is insanity a myth? Does it exist merely to keep psychiatrists in business? In Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences, Dr. Szasz challenges the way both science and society define insanity; in the process, he helps us better understand this often misunderstood condition. Dr. Szasz presents a carefully crafted account of the insanity concept and shows how it relates to and differs from three closely allied ideas—bodily illness, social deviance, and the sick role.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0815604602
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0815604600
  3. Edition
    Reprint
  4. Publisher
    Syracuse University Press
  5. Publication date
    April 1, 1997
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6 x 0.97 x 9 inches
  8. Print length
    432 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Dr. Szasz is a brilliant debator, and the unpopularity of his position only serves to hone his formidable writing talent. He can turn a topic as somber as insanity and its social context into a book that is extraordinarily entertaining. He is as likely to quote Shakespeare or Molière as Freud and Jung, and when it suits him he quotes Ann Landers and Dear Abby, too. His irreverence and moral outrage fairly sizzle on the page. ― The New York Times Book Review

Book Description

Challenges the way both science and society define insanity.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Syracuse University Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 1, 1997
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0815604602
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0815604600
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.97 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 35 ratings

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Thomas Stephen Szasz

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4.6 out of 5 stars
35 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Rusty035
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Comprehensive Overview of Insanity
    Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2013
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This is an outstanding book. You dont have to be famiiar with Szasz's libertarian ideas- he critically examines the vexed idea of insanity in forensic detail, taking it apart piece by piece. It's a lengthy book, and takes some time to absorb, but readers who persist are richly rewarded. If you like Szasz's ideas, you will love this text.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • C.K.Dexter
    5.0 out of 5 stars This is the most profound writings I have read so ...
    Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2014
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This is the most profound writings I have read so far. Next come the writings of author Thomas Sheridan. I have given this book a five star rating.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Raymond Michael Borland
    5.0 out of 5 stars A++++++++
    Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2013
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I recommend this ..... very interesting studies by a brave man who challenges mainstream pharmaceutical companies and the psychiatric industry. Too many disease now being made up and treated.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • pliny
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2018
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    great writer
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  • New Age of Barbarism
    5.0 out of 5 stars Psychiatric Enslavement: Madmen or Mad Doctors?
    Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2004
    Format: Paperback
    In _Ideology and Insanity_ Thomas Szasz, professor of psychiatry and libertarian activist, presents a view of the dark side of the psychiatric establishment. Szasz is known for being one of the originators of the anti-psychiatry point of view in the 1960s (along with such others as R. D. Laing) and is a noted libertarian in the school of such individuals as Karl Popper, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich Hayek. In this book, Szasz makes the rather odd, indeed astonishing claim, that mental illness is entirely a myth and rests on a misunderstanding of the nature of illness. Rather than viewing certain individuals as mentally ill and thus diagnosing them with particular mental disorders, Szasz argues that it is best instead to view these individuals as possessing problems in living. Szasz contends that the diagnostic labels used to categorize mental illness are in fact nothing more than stigmatizing slurs (despite the contention by psychiatrists to the contrary, or that "mental illness is an illness like any other"). Psychiatry has a long, bloody, and inglorious history, beginning perhaps with medieval manuals on witch-hunting (e.g. the notorious _Malleus Maleficarum_) often used to eliminate dissidents and heretics, and including Nazi experimentation, the authoritarian theories of Sigmund Freud, and communist totalitarian psychiatry. Indeed, Szasz tells the story of a certain poet who was found mentally imbalanced by a psychiatrist in the Soviet Union because "poetry did not constitute useful work" and thus held captive against his will in an asylum. Too often psychiatry has resorted to fascist brutality and cruelty, including coercion, outright fraud, lying, forced medication, forced incarceration in a mental hospital, forced electroshock and insulin treatments, forced confinement, and even dangerous psychosurgeries such as lobotomy. Szasz notes that much of the problem rests with the undefined role of the psychiatrist (or psychologist). Thus, the psychiatrist (or psychologist) is faced with a continual conflict of interests, is he primarily interested in the patient (as a doctor would be) or is he interested in protection of society from dissidence and persecution of deviancy. Too often the psychiatrist sees himself as an authoritarian figure, capable of bestowing a given label upon an individual for any reason at all (needing only to justify this with reference to the completely open ended categories of the _DSM_), and legally able to confine an individual against his will and recommend "treatments" which often amount to no more than tortures. Szasz examines the role of the psychiatrist in the government, in law, in the public schools, and at universities, and shows how each of these roles fundamentally rests on fraud and dishonesty. Psychiatrists (and psychologists) frequently violate so-called confidentiality in the best interests of an institution they serve (or an insurance company) for example so as to protect that institution from certain individuals declared insane. Szasz notes that much of what the psychiatrist does consists of an attempt to shift powers from the legal and judicial systems as well as societal and social responsiblities to a group of technocratic doctor/bureaucrats. It is this authoritarian/scientistic/collectivistic orientation of the psychiatrist that Szasz finds so alarming. While I believe Szasz would say that psychiatrists (and psychologists) can and do generally help people, he notes that their entire profession fundamentally rests upon an attribution error, fraud, and a conflict of interests. This is not to disparage the many good and caring individuals who enter these professions in an effort to help others. The arguments of Szasz are radical, in that even "illnesses" such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia which are now almost entirely believed to be biologically based, are argued by him to be based on mere convention. Frequently, by assigning these labels to individuals they are conveniently scapegoated, their rights denied them, and then they are thrown to the dogs of society and left to fend for themselves. This is a true travesty of justice and a great shame to our society. Szasz proposes an entirely individualist ethic which orients the psychiatrist towards the patient and which views man as autonomous and endowed with free will. I disagree with certain points of this ethic, in that I do not believe in a right to abortion or suicide etc., however I do note that psychiatry is frequently used merely to categorize those who are not like us. Szasz's orientation is secular and humanistic as well as atheist; however, he oddly mentions God quite a few times within his book. Also, I note that he makes little distinction between outright behaviors (which a psychiatrist may deem deviant) and reports of inner states (thoughts, moods, and feelings) which seem to play little role in his book. Indeed, most individuals who consult psychiatrists consult them voluntarily to help deal with thoughts or feelings which pose troublesome for them. Even individuals which are labelled schizophrenic by the psychiatric establishment (usually who are entirely harmless) may be able to identify their troubling thoughts and feelings. Perhaps schizophrenia merely consists in an alternative mode of perceiving the world. It is the authoritarian psychiatrist who declares the schizophrenic to be guilty of a "thought crime" and argues that his perception of reality has no validity. Szasz does not deny the existence of delusions, hallucinations, or illusions, but he merely questions their usefulness as determiners of "mental illness". Thus, all three occur commonly in life, even in the lives of so-called "normal" people. While there is much in this book that is controversial, it is sure to provide a great deal of concern for the individual living in the modern world as it increasingly comes to resemble that of 1984.
    35 people found this helpful
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  • Louis Berger
    4.0 out of 5 stars Correct, but not true
    Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2004
    Format: Paperback
    My title refers to Heidegger's characterization of many received views--typically, they are OK in a restricted context, but miss the boat in a broader sense. I like Szasz (even have had my own work compared favorably to his once--in a letter to Editor, Am J. of Psychotherapy, in response to a paper of mine on the false memory syndrome), but, like others have in the past, see him as going overboard in some ways. Just because the notion of mental illness is so flawed and indefensible, as are the various neurobiological explanations and interventions, that doesn't have to mean that, say, "schizophrenia", or criminal behavior, are just actions of bad faith, maliciousness, evil, etc. One does not have to see these "entities" either as "mental illnesses" or offer some simple, commonsense, nonclinical alternative. There is such a thing as early human development (including foetal development), and if a person's evolution is deeply flawed (as is so frequently the case in our society) then the inner and outer behaviors will be pathological as well.(The nature/nurture dichotomy is inane, not viable--the two factors are inextricably intertwined from the start in utero.) That is one of the seminal contributions of Freud, buttressed by 100 years of world-wide clinical exploration and experience. To understand "psychopathology" adequately, one needs to look into the problems more deeply than Szasz manages to do; notions re psychopathology and psychotherapy involve basic notions such as the nature of self, mind, thought, intent, perception, language, inner/outer boundaries, etc. These paradoxial and elusive notions can't be simplistically explained or dismissed. I've tried to address these matters over decades in numerous publications.
    20 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Rhianna Guild
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2017
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Great price, good delivery time, accurate product.
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  • praxeologue
    4.0 out of 5 stars Over reach
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    A very prescient book but overly long with conclusions that I think over reach. We tend pathologise bad behaviour where there is no evidence of any physical problem, eg brain lesions, so strictly we should not use the language of illness. Such bad behaviour should be treated by the legal system as any one breaking the law would be but he is rather quiet on the hard cases of raving loonies who maybe have no evidence (that we can yet identify) of brain lesions etc. but is he seriously suggesting we should treat such people exactly the same way as we treat criminals? Seems to me that to make a point he has gone too far. Because we cannot identify the cause of something does not mean there is no cause.
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