Love the quote, PC. I used it several years ago in a talk to the local medical community on coercive psychiatry.
Dr Szasz has some controversial ideas - e.g. that mental illness is not actually disease as such, but rather a 'problem with living' as he puts it.
He has however left open the possibility that if, with modern imaging techniques, anatomical changes can be linked to what we currently label psychiatric illness, then those illnesses may need to be reclassified as neurological disease.
Put another way, just as meningitis or a glioma can be demonstrated on MRI scans or at autopsy, it is possible that psychiatric illness may be linked to characteristic changes on, say, a PET scan. I think there is some increasing evidence that this may be the case in certain individuals - in which case they have a neurological illness.
We welcome thoughtful disagreement. But we do (ir)regularly moderate comments -- and we *will* delete any with insulting or abusive language. Or if they're just inane. It’s okay to disagree, but pretend you’re having a drink in the living room with the person you’re disagreeing with. This includes me. PS: Have the honesty and courage to use your real name. That gives added weight to any opinion.
Love the quote, PC. I used it several years ago in a talk to the local medical community on coercive psychiatry.
ReplyDeleteDr Szasz has some controversial ideas - e.g. that mental illness is not actually disease as such, but rather a 'problem with living' as he puts it.
He has however left open the possibility that if, with modern imaging techniques, anatomical changes can be linked to what we currently label psychiatric illness, then those illnesses may need to be reclassified as neurological disease.
Put another way, just as meningitis or a glioma can be demonstrated on MRI scans or at autopsy, it is possible that psychiatric illness may be linked to characteristic changes on, say, a PET scan. I think there is some increasing evidence that this may be the case in certain individuals - in which case they have a neurological illness.
My own comment goes like the following:
ReplyDelete“If a psychic talks to the dead, that's called 'delusion'. If the dead talk to a psychic, that's called 'fraud'. "