Bentall's article reminded me of some of the old Szaszian literature which in turn reminded me of one of my favorite little papers of all time, "A Szaszian View of Death, or the Myth of Death" by Vatz & Weinberg (1977). I found it reprinted on a public forum at http://www.szasz.com/vatzremarks.html. It starts like this...................
A Szaszian View of Death, or the Myth of Death We have been impressed by the humanistic writings of Thomas Szasz about the myth of mental illness (Szasz: 1961). It occurs to us that Szasz provides a paradigm for understanding other behavioral phenomena. A particularly poignant example is the behavior called "death." What is "death"? In fact there is no objective reality to what we call "death." "Death" is simply the name we give to people whose behavior (typically lying down and doing nothing) we neither understand nor approve. By labeling it "death," we pretend that we understand it and enfranchise a panoply of actions to be taken ostensibly in the interest of the "dead" but, in fact, as we shall show, serving primarily to derogate and persecute those we call "dead." We give no sustained care to "dead" people. We take away their vote (except in Cook County, Illinois). We deprive them of food. "Death" therefore, is but a self-fulfilling prophecy. For the rest of this delightful little 2 page article, see http://www.szasz.com/vatzremarks.html. Ed --------------------------------------------------------------------- Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Peoples Building, Room 44 Department of Psychology Fall Semester Office hours: Mondays noon-2 and 3-4; Tuesdays & Thursdays 12:30-2p.m. West Chester University of Pennsylvania West Chester, PA 19383 http://home.comcast.net/~epollak --------------------------------------------------------------------- Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist & bluegrass fiddler ...... in approximate order of importance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Diagnoses are psychiatry's star signs. Let's listen more and drug people less | Richard Bentall | From: "Christopher D. Green" <chri...@yorku.ca> Date: Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:27:28 -0400 X-Message-Number: 2 Richard Bentall of U. Bangor psychology says, "there is compelling evidence that the biological approach [to psychiatry] has been a lamentable failure." Perhaps something for students to read and discuss? http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/31/psychiatry-psychosis-schizophrenia-drug-treatments Chris --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
