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Topic: The Myth of Mental Illness

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	Classics in the History of Psychology -- Szasz (1960)
		Since the notion of mental illness is extremely widely used nowadays, inquiry into the ways in which this term is employed would seem to be especially indicated.
		The notion of mental illness derives it main sup- port from such phenomena as syphilis of the brain or delirious conditions-intoxications, for instance -- in which persons are known to manifest various peculiarities or disorders of thinking and behavior.
		It is to suggest that the phenomena now called mental illnesses be looked at afresh and more simple, that they be removed from the category of illness, and that they be regarded as the expressions of man's struggle with the problem of how he should live.
	psychclassics.yorku.ca /Szasz/myth.htm (4231 words)

	Mental illness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Mental illness is distinct from the legal concepts of sanity and insanity.
		Mental health, mental hygiene, behavioral health, and mental wellness are all terms used to describe the state or absence of mental illness.
		Mental illness diagnosis by DSM and ISCDRHP
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Mental_illness (1889 words)

	The Myth of Mental Illness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct is a controversial book by Thomas Szasz.
		In it, Szasz argues that mental illness is a social construct created by doctors, and the term can only be used as a metaphor given that an illness must be an objectively demonstrable biological pathology, whereas psychiatric disorders meet none of these criteria.
		What psychiatrists label mental illness is in fact a deviation from the consensus reality or common morality, Szasz says.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/The_Myth_of_Mental_Illness (171 words)

	the myth of mental illness
		Mental illness, of course, is not literally a "thing" — or physical object — and hence it can "exist" only in the same sort of way in which other theoretical concepts exist.
		The idea that chronic hostility, vengefulness, or divorce are indicative of mental illness would be illustrations of the use of ethical norms (that is, the desirability of love, kindness, and a stable marriage relationship).
		The notion of mental illness thus serves mainly to obscure the everyday fact that life for most people is a continuous struggle, not for biological survival, but for a "place in the sun," "peace of mind," or some other human value.
	www.cyc-net.org /cyc-online/cycol-0904-mentalillness.html (4198 words)

	The Myth of Mental Illness
		The members of the functional school regard mental health disorders as perturbations in the proper, statistically "normal", behaviours and manifestations of "healthy" individuals, or as dysfunctions.
		If mental illnesses are bodily and empirical, they should be invariant both temporally and spatially, across cultures and societies.
		Mental health professionals prefer to talk about an impairment of a "person's perception or understanding of reality".
	samvak.tripod.com /mentalillness.html (2788 words)

	Does Mental Illness Exist?
		When confronted with the lack of evidence for their belief in mental illness as a biological entity, some defenders of the concept of mental illness will assert that mental illness can exist and can be defined as a "disease" without there being a biological abnormality causing it.
		People are thought of as mentally ill only when their thinking, emotions, or behavior is contrary to what is considered acceptable, that is, when others (or the so-called patients themselves) dislike something about them.
		If mental illness were really an illness in the same sense that physical illnesses are illnesses, the idea of deleting homosexuality or anything else from the categories of illness by having a vote would be as absurd as a group of physicians voting to delete cancer or measles from the concept of disease.
	www.antipsychiatry.org /exist.htm (3244 words)

	Mental Illness
		On this criticism, it seems that the reason that mental illness does not exist is the same sort of reason that phlogiston or astral influences do not exist: it is an empirical mistake caused by flawed methodology.
		As we become increasingly able to identify the brain dysfunctions associated with mental disorders, it may well be that the distinction between neurological disorders and mental illnesses starts to fade, as might the professional distinction between neurologists and psychiatrists.
		Three mental illnesses that have received attention from philosophers and psychiatric theorists on the issue of responsibility are schizophrenia, psychopathy, and alcoholism.
	plato.stanford.edu /entries/mental-illness (7451 words)

	SEROQUEL: Schizophrenia: For Caregivers: Basics of Mental Illness: Myths About Mental Illness
		Mental health professionals nationwide were asked questions to determine the most common myths about mental illness.
		Myth #2: People with a severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, are usually dangerous and violent.
		Myth #4: Depression results from a personality weakness or character flaw, so people who are depressed could just snap out of it if they tried hard enough.
	www.seroquel.com /cons_sch/care/basics_mental_illness/disorders.asp (1053 words)

	Mental Health Myths
		Misconceptions about mental illness are pervasive, and the lack of understanding can have serious consequences for millions of people who have a psychiatric illness, according to the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD).
		Myth #2: People with a severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, are usually dangerous and violent.
		Myth #4: Depression results from a personality weakness or character flaw, and people who are depressed could just snap out of it if they tried hard enough.
	www.mhagstl.org /myths.htm (929 words)

	Mental Illness
		About two thirds of Americans who have a mental illness live in the community, either with their family or in various types of community living settings.
		Mental illness is a term used for a group of disorders causing serious disturbances in thinking, feeling, and relating, which result in a substantially diminished capacity for coping with ordinary demands of life.
		Mental illness is not caused by bad parenting and is not evidence of weakness of character.
	www.ppjr.org /medethic/mental.htm (1222 words)

	The Myth of Mental Illness (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04)
		The members of the functional school regard mental health disorders as perturbations in the proper, statistically "normal", behaviours and manifestations of "healthy" individuals, or as dysfunctions.
		Certain mental health afflictions are either correlated with a statistically abnormal biochemical activity in the brain - or are ameliorated with medication.
		If mental illnesses are bodily and empirical, they should be invariant both temporally and spatially, across cultures and societies.
	www.knowledge-finder.com /psychology/myth-mental-illness.html (2141 words)

	Myth of Mental Illness by Thomas Szasz, 0060911514, Lowest Book Price Finder
		Worse still, the idea of mental illness conflates medicine with law and morality and as Szasz argues this is a dangerous tendency.
		Szasz's makes some valid points about the problems with the diagnoses of mental illness and about the psychiatric profession in general, but his views on the underlying nature of mental illness (a "mythological explanation of human wickedness") are just false.
		"The Myth of Mental Illness" is not Szasz's magnum opus.
	www.bookfinder4u.co.uk /book_detail/0060911514 (705 words)

	Science, Philosophy and the Myth of Mental Illness
		Prior to his deductive procedure for uncovering the truth, the traditional means for structuring experience was the myth, a term deriving from the Greek mythos, meaning word in the sense that it is a definitive statement on the subject.
		A myth, then was an authoritative account of the facts that was not to be questioned, no matter how strange it may seem.
		The research evidence is beginning to demonstrate what spiritual leaders have always known, that the internal mental context controls the behavior, and that often these contexts are maladaptive because of the failure of the individual and those around him to habitually codify goodness as a causal factor.
	www.cognitivebehavior.com /theory/science_p.html (4465 words)

	Bob Montgomery argues Australian governments have not been spending enough on mentally ill people. - On Line Opinion - ...
		Because mental health issues arise in all areas of life, psychologists in all of these other areas can find themselves drawn into clinical work, but it is not their main focus.
		Despite persistent misrepresentations by the media, mentally ill people are no more dangerous than anyone else, except when their illness is active, meaning they have stopped adhering to their treatment plan, often because the necessary support wasn’t available.
		It will require a government of sincere commitment to fund mental illness prevention and mental health promotion programs, because they will necessarily focus on children and the beneficial results will not be seen for some years.
	www.onlineopinion.com.au /view.asp?article=110 (1883 words)

	The Myth of Mental Illness by Thomas Szasz - Scientism, Scientific Mythology
		Within a year of the first publication of this book the Commissioner of the NY State Dept. of Mental Health demanded Szasz be dismissed from his university position for failing to "believe" in mental illness.
		In this book he discusses in detail the history of medicine, the metaphorical nature of the use of terms like "ill" and "sick" in relation to a "mind", and how the ideology of psychiatry is false and leads to oppression of the public.
		Szasz shows the concept of "mental illness" to be as flimsy as were the past similar stigmatizing concepts of "witchcraft" and "heresy".
	www.ftrbooks.net /psych/szasz/myth_mental_illness.htm (417 words)

	Mental Illness Myths (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04)
		If you are grappling with mental illness yourself or in your family, but you avoid talking about it or seeking services...
		The truth is that many people avoid the topic of mental illness and are reluctant to get treatment for their illness.
		One in every five families is affected in their lifetime by a severe mental illness, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and major depression.
	myweb.wvnet.edu /~gsa00109/articles/MIMyths.htm (613 words)

	Dialogic Analysis of Thomas Szasz’s “The Myth of Mental Illness,” First published in 1960 in American Psychologist
		We speak of mental symptoms, on the other hand, when we refer to a patient's communications about himself, others, and the world about him.
		These would be considered mental symptoms only if the observer believed that the patient was not Napoleon or that he was not being persecuted[sic] by the Communists.
		The term "mental illness" is widely used to describe something which is very different than a disease of the brain.
	www.wisc.edu /english/nystrand/szasz_files/slide0005.html (396 words)

	Ephilosopher :: General Philosophy Forum :: The myth of mental illness (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04)
		Yes, it is true that mental illness can be defined according to social and cultural norms- however, this is not the only reason why mental disorders are so called.
		The idea, contrastingly, that mental illness is not a matter of undesirable symptomology, per se; but, rather, of societal intolerance of such symptomology is a bit narrow.
		As a demonstration of the fact that mental illness is a term that is designed to deceive one into thinking that it is a function of the individual, consider how it is that we view the drugs used to 'treat' these 'conditions' as having 'side-effects' that are also attributable to the individual.
	www.ephilosopher.com /phpBB_14-action-viewtopic-topic-1750.html (2183 words)

	Epitomizing The Myth of Mental Illness
		We are gathered today at the end of the "Decade of the Brain," a massive propaganda war on the most basic distinctions between mind and brain, mental illness and physical disease.
		Just this week a panel of government mental health experts was convened to determine how a Cuban father and son should be re-united while other experts argued over whether John Hinckley is really cured or just in remission from the invisible illness that drove him to shoot President Reagan.
		Irrational terror is the secret to the power behind the myth of mental illness and it is to the everlasting credit of Dr. Thomas Szasz that he has set so many free from enslavement to a vast system of false ideas.
	www.idiom.com /~drjohn/maxfink.html (1935 words)

	CAMH: News media perpetuate the myth about mental illness and violence (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04)
		The stigma associated with mental illness is recognized as one of the most insidious and difficult barriers to treatment.
		In its report to the Ontario government, the Toronto-Peel Mental Health Implementation Task Force noted that as long as people with mental illness continue to suffer discrimination, many will fear that seeking help could destroy their workplace or community status.
		It seems that attacking people with mental illness and portraying them as dangerous and somehow less than human is one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice.
	www.camh.net /publications/newmediamyth_crcusummer2004.html (1116 words)

	Dialogic Analysis of Thomas Szasz’s “The Myth of Mental Illness,” First published in 1960 in American Psychologist
		My aim in this essay is to raise the question "Is there such a thing as mental illness?" and to argue that there is not.
		Mental illness, of course, is not literally a "thing"–or physical object–and hence it can "exist" only in the same sort of way in which other theoretical concepts exist.
		I submit that today mental illness is widely regarded in a somewhat similar fashion, that is, as the cause of innumerable diverse happenings.
	www.wisc.edu /english/nystrand/szasz_files/slide0001.html (288 words)

	untitled
		But mind you, the first private mental hospitals were not related to medicine.
		He is then taken to psychiatrists to be examined to determined whether he is mentally fit to be tried.
		This war on depression is a part of the new religion of "if you are mentally healthy, everything is wonderful and you can't possibly be depressed, you can't have any conflicts and so on.
	www.irrenoffensive.de /szaszsymposium/myth.htm (2578 words)

	Szasz and The Myth of Mental Illness, Online Continuing Education Course offered by Zur Institute for Psychologists, ...
		Thomas S. asz is legendary for his critique of the concept of mental illness, immorality of involuntary commitment, depravity of suicide prevention, dangers of “therapeutic state” and “tyranny of pharmacracy” and the fallacy of psychiatric expertise and psychiatric diagnosis.
		Since publishing “The Myth of Mental Illness” in 1961, professor of psychiatry Thomas Szasz has been the scourge of the psychiatric establishment.
		In dozens of books and articles he has argued passionately and knowledgably against compulsory commitment of the mentally ill, against the insanity defense in criminal trials, against the "diseasing" of voluntary human practices such as addiction and homosexual behavior, against the drugging of schoolchildren with Ritalin and for the right to suicide.
	www.drozur.com /szaszcourse.html (689 words)

	Mental Illness: What A Difference A Friend Makes
		This site is here for people living with mental illness—and their friends.
		You'll find tools to help in the recovery process, and you can also learn about the different kinds of mental illnesses, read real-life stories about support and recovery, and interact with the video to see how friends can make all the difference.
		Myth: I can't do anything for a person with mental illness.
	whatadifference.org (146 words)

	totse.com \| The Myth of Mental Illness
		The "sick" individual – ill at ease with himself (ego-dystonic) or making others unhappy (deviant) – is "mended" when rendered functional again by the prevailing standards of his social and cultural frame of reference.
		Certain mental health afflictions are either correlated with a statistically abnormal biochemical activity in the brain – or are ameliorated with medication.
		As long as the pseudo-medical definitions of mental health disorders continue to rely exclusively on signs and symptoms – i.e.
	www.totse.com /en/ego/self_improvement/themythofmenta172206.html (1773 words)

	PopMatters \| Columns \| Sam Vaknin \| Artificial Intelligence \| The Myth of Mental Illness
		The members of the functional school regard mental health disorders as perturbations in the proper, statistically "normal", behaviors and manifestations of "healthy" individuals, or as dysfunctions.
		Certain mental health afflictions are either correlated with a statistically abnormal biochemical activity in the brain or are ameliorated with medication.
		As long as the pseudo-medical definitions of mental health disorders continue to rely exclusively on signs and symptoms, i.e., mostly on observed or reported behaviors, they remain vulnerable to such discord and devoid of much-sought universality and rigor.
	www.popmatters.com /columns/vaknin/030724.shtml (1887 words)

	The myth of mental illness- Mental Health
		As a result I am part of the worldwide movement of psychiatric survivors, their families and friends, psychiatrists and psychologists, and mental and medical health professionals who are part of the antipsychiatry movement.
		The term "Mental Illness," unfortunately does bring alot of stigma with it, but I think it is an accurate term when a person is suffering from disorders of the mind and/or emotions.
		Carl Jung did not believe in mental illness, but felt that it was a natural part of our psyches and did not see it as something terrible.
	www.soberrecovery.com /forums/showthread.php?t=26308 (1233 words)

	War of two religious worldviews - Commentary - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04)
		Cruise believes problems in living are not caused by "mental illnesses" cured by psychiatric drugs, Miss Shields believes the opposite.
		For in fact psychiatrists have yet to conclusively prove any mental illness is caused by a chemical imbalance of any kind.
		Joining with psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, author of "The Myth of Mental Illness," Scientology founded the Citizens Commission on Human Rights to help Americans who feel their civil rights have been violated by the mental health movement.
	www.washtimes.com /commentary/20050706-094908-8654r.htm (561 words)

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