One of Szasz's basic arguments is that mental illness is a myth. He was highly critical of the so-called medical model for understanding human struggles and difficulties. He saw the uses of diagnostic systems (such as the DSM) as wrongly implying the presence of actual disease.
How is Szasz research useful?
Diagnosis is not based on scientific research and is used to hospitalise and control people without their consent. Szasz suggests mental hospitals and treatment are more like prisons not medical care, and that there is an ever growing list of diseases that can be diagnosed and deprive people of their freedom.
What was Thomas Szasz theory?
In the best known of his 36 books, The Myth of Mental Illness (1961), Szasz argued that mental health and mental illness are alienated, pseudo-scientific, pseudo-medical terms, and for the next half-century he insisted that illness, in the modern, scientific sense, applies only to bodies, not to minds except as a Oct 4, 2012
How does Dr Szasz explain mental illness?
In The Myth of Mental Illness,1 after arguing that virtually any entity can have a counterfeit version, Szasz articulated his views with characteristic iconoclasm, contending that only physical illnesses are real and that mental diseases are 'counterfeit and metaphorical illnesses' (p. 34).
What did Thomas Szasz argue?
Szasz was a strong critic of institutional psychiatry and his publications were very widely read. He argued that so-called mental illnesses had no underlying physiological basis, but were unwanted and unpleasant behaviors.
What is the biogenic model in psychology?
The biological model of abnormal psychology says that psychological problems are caused by biological issues. There are many strengths of this model, including that it can be scientifically tested, it has a high success rate, and it can help reduce the stigma around mental health issues.
What was Thomas Szasz contribution to psychiatry?
Thomas Szasz, a psychiatrist whose 1961 book “The Myth of Mental Illness” questioned the legitimacy of his field and provided the intellectual grounding for generations of critics, patient advocates and antipsychiatry activists, making enemies of many fellow doctors, died Saturday at his home in Manlius, N.Y.