it was first an essay then a book by the late dr.thomas szasz. the idea is that mental illness is...well...a myth. not illness, not disease. people aren't really insane. i dunno...

what do y'all think? the book is a classic. it was on the trash heap for couple decades, but now antipsychiatry is slowly coming back, so szasz is back on the table.

Szasz would let those of us on disability starve to death...parasites in a capitalist society. Ouch. Then again, he rightly points out that psychiatry is used by the state to keep people in line, especially low status people. I've been poor, and now I'm supported by my somewhat affluent parents. He makes some valid points. The psychiatry I saw as a poor person is nothing like the psychiatry I see with "well-to-do" people behind me. The psychiatry any of us see as voluntary outpatients is different from what someone on involuntary treatment sees, is different from what someone in prison sees...or is it? What if its just different facets of the same force?

I dunno. I'm thankful for disability, that's for sure. I think Szasz doesn't look enough at social aspects of mental illness, like how modern, capitalist societies complain about people on disability, but then help keep us unemployed and "sick." What's that about?

So...yeah. what do y'all think? Is mental illness a myth, real but not real the way the shrinks sell it, or is it exactly what your work-a-day shrink presents it as?