Anti-Psychiatry
Start date:
Commentary
Anti-psychiatry movement (1960 - 1975). The anti-psychiatry movement developed from criticisms of the medical model of mental illness, best exemplified by Thomas Szasz's 'Myth of Mental Illness' (first published in 1961). According to Szasz, a medical approach to mental illness is untenable because the symptoms treated by the psychiatrist involve a subjective judgement that what a patient says is not believable. Szasz began his assault in psychiatry by stating that:\nI submit that the traditional definition of psychiatry, which is still in vogue, places it alongside such things as alchemy and astrology, and commits it to the category of pseudo-science (Szasz, 1987, p. 17). One of the outcomes of Szasz's version of anti-psychiatry is that those traditionally defined as 'mad' should be made to take responsibility for their actions and, hence, should be seen as 'bad', not mad. A different approach is taken by another figurehead of the anti-psychiatry movement, R.D. Laing (1964). According to Laing, schizophrenia is effectively a label rather than a mental illness. The goal of treatment should not be to address the patient's symptoms, but rather to accept their experience as valid, and potentially meaningful. The goal of treatment is thus to guide the patient through their experiences, so that the experience is beneficial and the outcome is enlightenment, rather than medical intervention. However, there is little evidence that experiencing schizophrenia makes one a 'better person', and the outcomes of Laing's treatment were not often enlightenment for the patient. Nevertheless, the focus of the anti-psychiatry movement on the power of labelling has influenced how mental illness is represented to both patients and society.