Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences
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 YorkCopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.