Round the bend. New Statesman . Millions of people believe that psychiatric illnesses exist. To Szasz this is an evil, pernicious error, and anyone who perpetuates it is a charlatan and a criminal.
Good intentions are no excuse.
In these three books, Szasz continues, extends and deepens his diatribe, which began in 1961 with The Myth of Mental Illness , against what he regards as the abuse of the medical metaphor in our society. When a doctor examines a patient he is looking at him in terms of whether he is well or ill. If, from this medical point of view, there is something the matter with him, it is because he is suffering from a pathological condition. Physically, mentally, morally, socially, spiritually, it means you are ill . But all mental disorders have been psychiatrised.