The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement - Softcover

Szasz, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061319848 ISBN 13: 9780061319846

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1983

Synopsis

Every age, labels others to a particular fate, such as the witch consigned to the fire. The priest has now been replaced by the psychiatrist and this text examines the role of medicine as a more insidious tyrant than religion, as it claims to be beneficial to both the patient and the commonwealth.

About this title

About the Author

Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) was professor of psychiatry emeritus at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, Washington, DC. He was a prominent figure in the anti-psychiatry movement and a critic of the moral and scientific foundation of psychiatry.

From the Back Cover

In this seminal work, Dr. Szasz examines the similarities between the Inquisition and institutional psychiatry. His purpose is to show 'that the belief in mental illness and the social actions to which it leads have the same moral implications and political consequences as had the belief in witchcraft and the social actions to which it led.'

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1983
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0061319848
• ISBN 13: 9780061319846
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 310