Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences - Softcover

Szasz, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0815604602 ISBN 13: 9780815604600

Publisher: Syracuse University Press, 1997

Synopsis

From one of the most renowned and controversial thinkers in behavioral science, here is a critical examination of the way both science and society define insanity. Attacking the universally accepted psychiatric doctrines that blur the distinction between literal and metaphoric diseases, Szasz argues that insanity is not an objectively definable or identifiable condition and presents a more fully-rounded account of the insanity concept, showing how it relates to and differs from three closely allied ideas--social deviance, bodily illness and the sick role. Reveals why it is truly impossible to understand psychiatric problems without first distinguishing an abnormal biological condition--like diabetes--from the sick role. Destined to become a classic, this is an important addition to the author's already impressive body of work.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In this book, Dr. Szasz challenges the way both science and society define insanity; in the process, he helps us better understand this often misunderstood condition.

From Library Journal

Szasz is the well-known anti-psychiatric psychiatrist who first attacked the "myth of mental illness" 25 years ago. Several books since, including the present one, seem redundantly to echo his attack. Always a clear and accessible writer, the author has some trenchant criticisms of psychobiology, of a society perhaps too ready to excuse criminality as psychopathology, of a field filled with jargon (is "self-actualization" anything more than "living life to its fullest"?). Unfortunately, such refreshing insights are buried in the overall excess of a polemic dismissing virtually all inner mental life and conflict in favor of a vague, apparently concretistic viewpoint. The book is certainly acessible to the lay public but not much of an addition to the author's previous work. Paul Hymowitz, Psychiatry Dept., Cornell Medical Ctr., New York
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0815604602
• ISBN 13: 9780815604600
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432