Is Psychoanalysis Unscientific? Essay

When people think of an “illness” they typically don’t automatically think of mental illness. They think about HIV, cancer, or even a cold or flu. However when it comes to mental illness it is a whole different idea. But is mental illness even real? Addressed in the book, The Myth of Mental Illness (1961), a psychiatrist Thomas Szasz argues that the idea of classifying psychological and emotional difficulties as “illnesses” takes away sense of control. Instead of holding people personally and morally responsible for their actions, he states, doctors attempt to “treat” the person, often with medications. Diagnosing mental illness, on the other hand, argue that mental disorders are as real as physical diseases and diagnosing them allows people

What makes us who we are, what drives our personality? Is it driven by deep seeded sexual desires or is it something a bit more mundane, something that while we still have no control over, is easily studied?

The premises of Thomas Szasz’s book are that ‘mental illness’’ are a myth. He argues mental illness should not be classified as psychological problems as they arise from categorical error. He claims the concept of illness

Psychoanalysis is a therapy of psychological theory that aims to treat mental illnesses based on the concepts of Sigmund Freud, who emphasized the importance of free association and dream analysis. The model of psychoanalysis aim is to release repressed emotion and experiences, by making unconscious thoughts, conscious. The fundamental principles of psychoanalysis are practiced by putting an emphasis on the patient to gain insight into the origins of their respective problems like a patient presenting symptoms of anxiety would be encouraged by a licensed professional to explore their past, in hopes of discovering problems that manifested the anxiety. The anxiety created may be a defense mechanism directed towards displacement in their world.

Mental illness and the stigma associated with it illustrate the concept of the sociological imagination. Living with a mental illness is a private trouble, affecting the individual personally, physically, psychologically, socially, and even economically. The trouble is made even more private in the respect that those with anxiety/depression/etcetera often suffer in silence since their affliction is not necessarily visible to others. The stigma associated with mental illness exacerbates the individual, while simultaneously lending itself to the public issues regarding mental illness.

When someone is asserted mentally ill, in the eyes of Szasz, they are providing a way of explaining the everyday problems of living (90, Szasz). Szasz does not believe that mental illness is necessarily really there. Consequently mental illness is more of a mere way of pushing aside ones daily living problems and putting up an excuse of why circumstances are not always harmonious. This concept was difficult to read, but made there be a great deal of thinking about whether this is a true statement. It is clear that Szasz has not personally experienced any form of mental illness himself. If Szasz had experienced personally what most define mental illness as

Laing, who examined the existential aspect of symptom’s characteristic; and Michel Foucault, who explored the social and political factors of the institutionalization of those with mental illness. Mental illness, to these academics, was “a social construction used to label socially intolerable behavior” thereby branding it as individual flaws. Such claims from academic figures such as Szasz, Laing, and Foucault led to an anti-psychiatry movement that was highly critical of the psychiatric authority. Psychiatry and psychology at the time was argued to “enforce power relations rather than [treat] actual clinical conditions” which mirrored Szasz’s ideas on the political agenda behind psychology and

Thomas Szasz believes that what has been labeled mental illness more often than not reflects nonconformity or problems in living, not true illness. He says the diagnosis of mental illness is not medically based, but rather socially, politically, and/or morally based. According to Szasz, psychologists and psychiatrists are only worthy professionals if they view the people they help as clients rather than patients, and help them learn about

What is psychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis is a form of treatment invented by Sigmund Freud that usually focuses on the early years of the patient’s life and his/her relationship with immediate family members. A wise man once said, “There are four questions that every good student of psychology will ask about a personality theory. The first question

Szasz’s most radical belief is undoubtedly his opinion that what many people practicing psychiatric medicine would call a mental illness is in fact not an illness as at all, going as far as to calling them “myths”. Szasz came to this conclusion because aside from certain diseases, including alzheimer 's, that can be clinically proven, all other instances of “mental illness” are subjective. Szasz believed that in order for something to be labeled as a disease there must be a clinical correlation. The nature of disease, to Szasz, referred to a malfunction of the human body, easily identifiable and a disease needs to demonstrate a clear pathology at the cellular or molecular level. The nature of the mental, to Szasz, is concerned with what people do, the actions

The social model of mental illness emphasizes the social environment and the roles people play. Thomas Scheff maintains that people diagnosed as mentally ill are victims of the status quo, guilty of often unnamed violations of social norms; thus the label "mental illness" can be used as an instrument of social control. I agree with Scheff's analysis, and I strongly concur with the view Thomas Szasz takes on the notion of mental illness. Szasz argues that much of what we call "mental illness" is a myth; it is not an illness, but simply "problems in living", troubles caused by conflicting personal needs, opinions, social aspirations, values, and so forth (Szasz 13). It thus follows that the widely

Today, mental illness has been the scapegoat for most crimes today. From mass shootings to bombings, most people have blamed mental illness for the cause of these crimes. Moreover, even some defense attorneys have even had cases in which they claimed their client had a mental illness in order to receive a lesser sentence. However, in order to truly understand mental illness, we must first look at the history of people studying the brain. The history of the study of the brain, psychology, dates back to ancient Greece. By using the scientific reasoning, Hippocrates speculated that human temperament can vary by a person's physical qualities, such as yellow bile or too much blood (Smith). Many philosophers during this time period might have only

In chapter one, Stanovich argues for a psychology supported by scientific research. He begins with The Freud Problem, a general outlook on psychology that primarily consists of Freudian-style psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist best known for developing the theories and techniques of psychoanalysis. He is seen as the father of psychology. Freud based his approach to psychology on his own developed theories. Freud responded to the public 's misconception about psychology in a general way. He took notes about the several fields that existed in psychology. There is over fifty different divisions in psychology with psychoanalysis

This paper looks at the movie; A Dangerous Method directed by David Cronenberge is based on true life events that happened on the eve of the World War 1. This movie brings out the theories, techniques, and the central characters in the early history of psychoanalysis. It brings out the effectiveness of psychoanalysis method and shows the risks and dangers encountered when entering the unconscious mind. This movie takes a look at these through the life of Carl Jung who was one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis. It also takes a glimpse into the turbulent relationship between a doctor, his mentor, and his patient. The paper will begin by giving a short

At the age of 40 in 1896, Sigmund Freud introduced the world to a new term- psychoanalysis (Gay 1). Psychoanalysis is a method of treating patients with different nervous problems by involving them in dialogues which provide the physician with insight into the individual’s psyche. These dialogues provided the basis for Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, which “attempts to explain personality, motivation, and psychological disorders by focusing on the influence of early childhood experiences, on unconscious motives and conflicts, and on the methods people use to cope with their sexual and aggressive urges” (Weiten 363). Part of this theory involves the structure of the mind. This is a concept that touches