Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement

He made his public name with The Myth of Mental Illness, but this book tells how the racket of mental-illness-finding worked and works.You may well forever see things in a way free of the conventional, damaging categories.Szasz was the pioneer psychiatric abolitionist. Rothbard called him, "aone-man band".Champion of the dignity ofindividuals, however eccentric or foolish they are. Scourge of all tyrannies, however lipsticked.

Although today's world of mental healthcare is very different than that of the mid 20th century, this book is still applicable today. We put people in categories of "sane" and "insane," much like "good" and "bad." Szasz's book encourages readers to take a second look at this paradigm and see the issue as a more nuanced one. He weaves a great deal of history in his arguments, especially that of the witch crazes of medieval and early modern Europe.

The book came in good condition and fast shipping. I bought this book for my psychological Library. - Sky

The book outlines the scam of Psychiatry. In summary being define a mental illness or state and design a drug to"solve" it. But the book has the details. Highly recommend..

Dr.Szasz provides alternative views of mental illness that stimulate curiosity and the desire to look deeper into conventional theories. I highly recommend the book to psychology students and mental health professionals.

One particular chapter -- "The Product Conversion" -- does a brilliant job of demolishing the theory that homosexuality is a mental illness. It dissects every argument made to this effect, and shows that homosexuality is nothing more than a variant of human sexuality, in much the same way that being left-handed is nothing more than a variant of laterality. Szasz does a brilliant job of showing the hypocrisy of the medico-legal establishment in terms of that establishment (1) declaring that homosexuality is a mental illness (this is no longer the official position of the American Psychological or American Psychiatric Associations) while (2) declaring that homosexuality is a crime. It cannot be both, as Szasz points out in his analysis -- while criminals can be mentally ill, homosexual status as opposed to conduct cannot be both criminal **and** a mental illness. The book is worth purchasing for this chapter alone, and I recommend it to any person interested in beating back efforts to remedicalize and recrimenalize the status of gay people. This chapter also reveals the manner in which religious ideology masquerades as psychiatric doctrine, ruthlessly exposing the epistemological error made by those who cling to outdated and cruel theories in this regard.Philip Chandler

The book arrived moldy and stained

Szasz is a genius. "Institutional vs. Contractual" psychiatry.