BibTeX
@MISC{Szasz61themyth,
author = {Thomas S. Szasz},
title = {The Myth of Mental Illness},
year = {1961}
}
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Abstract
MY aim in this essay is to raise the ques-tion "Is there such a thing as mentalillness? " and to argue that there is not. Since the notion of mental illness is extremely widely used nowadays, inquiry into the ways in which this term is employed would seem to be es-pecially indicated. 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 cer-tain 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
