The Myth Of Mental Illness

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

Humans who are being over diagnosed with disorders, causes the spending of too much money on drugs and medication that could be harmful and is not needed for them to take. The objective of this book is to let people become aware of what is going on around the world. The audience that this book aims towards is the public. The main objective of Dr. Frances is to alert the public, health care professionals and clinicians about the misinformed diagnosis of people and the misdirected treatment and medications that are prescribed to people who are “normal.” Everyday pains and suffering are being diagnosed as mental illnesses and disorders. Psychiatry has specified people with false labels. The first of many arguments is that people are very worried that when a new disorder is brought up, that they have this disorder or illness. Another argument in this book is the misdiagnosis between mental disorder and normality. Many people who experience completely normal grief could be mislabeled as having a psychiatric problem. The next argument is to separate the people who have diseases from normality. Allen Frances blames the internet and social networking for the over diagnosis of mental disorder. This book is also about the high percentage of people who are now diagnosed with a mental illness,

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

Mental illness becomes a bigger issue with a long lasting cultural stereotyped due to the manner in which it has long been labelled (Miles, 1988). Although mental illness is very much connected to instabilities in one’s mental health state, as previously mentioned, a person can be mentally healthy but still suffer from a mental illness. What is understood by mental illness is that it

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.

Sense or nonsense, many different views can come from reading the Szasz article on mental illness. According to Szasz mental illness is “merely a convenient myth” (91, Szasz). In the article Szasz compares what it looks to have physical illness compared to mental illness, as well as the concept of what mental illness really consists of. By comparing physical and mental illnesses Szasz makes it evident to the readers that there are clearly more symptoms visible to the eye with physical illnesses, then there are with mental illnesses. Szasz explains that he does not believe in such concepts as mental illness, but he agrees that some factors of mental illness are evident in people’s everyday life. Szasz has some valid points and arguments in his article but overall, there is more to mental illness then just was Szasz sees.

Mental disorders have long been the Achilles heel of the medical world. With each case having some degree of uniqueness, physicians are often unable to fully treat these types of conditions with just a generalized medication or textbook treatment option. There are many competing theories as to how one falls ill to a mental disorder. Some claim that it occurs solely through chemical imbalances within a person’s brain, while others see it as a more wholistic problem that is the result of an endless possibility of differing factors. Through the characterization found within “Superstar” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” and the data shown in studies done by the Medical University of Lublin, it becomes evident that seemingly internal disorders, such as anorexia and hysteria, are caused, in reality, by the need for social control that develops in response to purely external factors such as daunting expectations or stressful lifestyle.

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

Through the course of time, mental illnesses have always been in existence due to varying factors and causes. However, as time has passed, the perceptions and available treatments for mental illnesses have also changed as new technology was developed. By looking at the treatments and perceptions of mental illnesses in the early 20th century, we can learn how to properly treat and diagnose not only mental disorders but also other conditions as well as show us the importance of review boards and controlled clinical trials.

In Conclusion, they began by examining two of the major approaches to psychopathology research and theory: the medical model and the biopsychosocial model. The latter has clear advantages over the former: a more sophisticated and comprehensive understanding of psychological disorder is possible. Such a biopsychosocial is really a call for interdisciplinary cooperation in the study of psychopathology, a cooperation that has not historically been a reality. Nevertheless, as they have seen, there are some criticisms that can be leveled at both the medical and biopsychosocial models. If they do indeed embody assumptions of weakness and deficits, then there may be undesirable implications for how we conceptualize and treat people with (so called?) psychological disorders.

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

“Schizophrenia, a complex and often disabling mental illness, is among the most serious of brain diseases” (Veague 1).To some

Today, mental issues like ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, and depression are better understood thanks to past experience and seen as a minor neurosis. Unfortunately some treatments depersonalize these individuals leaving them empty and plain. There are clear examples of negative connotations attributed to medications. In his autobiography, the

Some people believe in fate, luck, and religion, whereas others believe in only things that are tangible. The “you have to see it to believe it” mentality is a major aspect as to why people have a hard time understanding mental illness, and why in turn patients with mental illness have a hard time getting the help they need. In comparing the texts, Night Rhythms and The Yellow Wallpaper, these distinct differences between physical and mental illness are highlighted. The idea of not believing in what is not tangible is shown in the beginning of Night Rhythms, in the description of the woman’s husband. It says, “He scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures (p. )”. This is significant because mental illness cannot always be felt, seen, or put down in figures. Society is more understanding and sympathetic of physical illness than mental illness.