In this influential book, Thomas S. Szasz challenges the legitimacy of psychiatry, arguing that the concept of mental illness is logically absurd and has harmful consequences. He contends that psychiatrists absolve individuals of responsibility for their actions by diagnosing unwanted behavior as mental illness. Szasz also critiques Freudian psychology as a pseudoscience and warns against the overreach of psychiatry into modern life. The book includes a new preface on the age of Prozac and Ritalin and the rise of designer drugs, along with two bonus essays in the 50th anniversary edition[2][3][4].
Conversations in Critical Psychiatry brings together interviews with leading figures in psychiatry to discuss topics such as the classification of mental disorders, the use of medication, and the relationship between mind and brain. The book offers a pluralistic view of psychiatric practice, emphasizing the need for diverse perspectives in understanding mental health issues.
In 'Saving Normal,' Allen Frances critiques the current state of psychiatric diagnosis, arguing that the DSM-5 is leading to the medicalization of normal life, resulting in unnecessary diagnoses and treatments. He warns against the conversion of millions of 'normal' people into 'mental patients,' highlighting the harmful effects of over-medication and the influence of 'Big Pharma.' The book is a call to reclaim the full measure of humanity and to practice psychiatry in a more restrained and evidence-based manner.
I want to make a strong claim about psychiatrist and philosopher of psychiatry Awais Aftab, my guest on the podcast today. He is the single best writer out there today for anyone who is interested in intellectually understanding where the field of mental health is right now.
Among the questions to which he has illuminating and often quite profound answers: Is there a crisis of overdiagnosis? What does the anti-psychiatry movement get right and wrong? What does the discipline of psychiatry get right and wrong? Who are the most interesting thinkers in the mental health realm right now? What even is mental illness? Is it time to dispense altogether with the DSM, or does it just need reform? What do and don’t we know about the efficacy, and cultural significance, of the legal drugs so many of us, present company included, are being prescribed.
There are plenty of writers out there who are addressing these and related issues, but I can’t think of anyone who comes close to Aftab in terms of addressing the entire range of them, and doing so in an intellectual serious and aesthetically engaging way. If you want a steady fix of the good shit, in this space, he’s the guy who has it. My guess is that everyone who’s anyone in psychiatry is already reading him, and that a lot of the journalists who seriously cover mental health are reading him as well, or will be soon.
As I say to him in our conversation, I’d been waiting, consciously or not, for someone to fill the space that he has now filled, and it was super exciting to me when I encountered his work. It made my world better, and larger. It’s also just so perfectly connected to the core purpose of this podcast, which is to expose listeners to people and topics they should know if they want to be hip to what’s going on or what will be going on soon. It was great to talk to him.
Aftab is the author of the Psychiatry at the Margins Substack, the recent book from Oxford University Press Conversations in Critical Psychiatry, and a forthcoming book from Harvard University Press titled, provisionally, “Remaking Psychiatry.”
Hope you enjoy.
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