The Myth of Psychotherapy, Thomas Szasz
The Myth of Psychotherapy, Thomas Szasz
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The Myth of Psychotherapy
Mental Healing as Religion, Rhetoric, and Repression

Author: Thomas Szasz

Narrator: Robin Lawson

Unabridged: 8 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/02/2011


Synopsis

Until recent years, bad and immoral were the terms used to describe people who are now referred to as sick and in need of treatment. Moral and religious perspective has been replaced by medical and therapeutic rhetoric. It is little wonder why the world is plagued by legions of rapists, drug users, murderers, thieves, and child abusers, all of whom are now referred to as having one form or another of addiction and are thus either sick or suffering from mental illness. Accordingly, modern psychotherapists claim that these are in need of specialized therapy or treatment to help them cope with their disease. Moral relativism, bolstered by psychotherapy, has prevailed over the traditional ideas of selfcontrol, individual responsibility, and moral culpability. Thomas Szasz moves to demythologize psychotherapy itself in a most provocative manner.

About Thomas Szasz

Thomas Szasz is professor emeritus of psychiatry at the State University of New York’s Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. His books include Law, Liberty, and Psychiatry; The Manufacture of Madness; Ideology and Insanity; Ceremonial Chemistry; The Myth of Psychotherapy; Pharmacracy, and many more.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Blaise

I have become increasingly disillusioned with traditional "talk therapy". A colleague gave me this book 20 years ago and this week, on vacation, decided to read it. I dismissed the book as nonsense then, without reading it and now regret not having done so. It seems to me that the stories we tell ou......more

Goodreads review by Trevor

Great book, heavy material on psychology and psychotherapy. It was interesting to hear of research done and truths behind mentally problems and how people think. I highly recommend this book if you can handle it.......more

Goodreads review by Megan

Years ago, my therapist recommended this book to me. At first blush, that might seem ironic: why would a therapist recommend a denunciation of her profession? But this is where I think Szasz is most misunderstood: he is not against talk therapy, he is against its framing as a medical treatment, as a......more