The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct
- Thomas Szasz
Discussion
Interesting, do you know how this compares to Foucault? Will check this out!
Definitely along the same vein, but I'd say Szasz focuses more on the complete denial of Mental Illness and calls for greater individual autonomy and personal responsibility in such cases, whereas Foucault focuses more on the various constructs of mental illness, not outright denying their validity.
Szasz also points out how pseudo-scientific the concept of mental illness is. It misattributes the cause of feelings and behavior to mere brain chemical balances and hand-wavy genetics without being able to objectively demonstrate any of this.
Instead, the true cause of what are often called mental illnesses is the trauma individuals experience (generally at young age). And the lessons that get internalized from these traumas.