Excerpts:
"Mental illness, of course, is not literally a 'thing' -- or physical object -- and hence it can 'exist'
only in the same sort of way in which other theoretical concepts exist. Yet,
familiar theories are in the habit of posing, sooner or later -- at least to
those who come to believe in them -- as "objective truths" (or 'facts').
During certain
historical periods, explanatory conceptions such as deities, witches, and
microorganisms appeared not only as theories but as self-evident causes of
a vast number of events. I submit that
today mental illness is widely regarded in a somewhat similar fashion, that is,
as the cause of innumerable diverse happenings."
-- "
The Myth of Mental Illness."
"[Someone accused of mental illness] might state... that he is being persecuted by
the Communists. These would be considered mental symptoms only if the
observer believed that the patient was not... being persecuted. This makes it apparent that the statement that 'X is a mental
symptom' involves rendering a judgment. The judgment entails, moreover, a covert comparison or
matching of the patient's ideas, concepts, or beliefs with those of the
observer and the society in which they live.
[Thus] the notion of mental symptom is therefore inextricably tied to the social
(including ethical) context"
-- "
The Myth of Mental Illness."
"Psychiatry... is more
intimately tied to problems of ethics than is medicine. I use the word
"psychiatry" here to refer to that contemporary discipline which is
concerned with problems in living (and not with diseases of the brain,
which are problems for neurology).
Problems in human relations can be analyzed, interpreted, and given
meaning only within given social and ethical contexts."
-- "
The Myth of Mental Illness."
"The assumption is made that some neurological
defect... will ultimately be found for all the
disorders of thinking and behavior... This position implies that people cannot have
troubles -- expressed in what are now called "mental
illnesses" -- because of differences in personal needs, opinions, social
aspirations, values, and so on. All
problems in living are attributed to physicochemical processes which in due
time will be discovered by medical research."
-- "
The Myth of Mental Illness."
