by: Farber, Seth, foreword by Szasz, Thomas
Publication Date: 1993/06
Publisher:
Format: Trade Paper
ISBN: 0812692004
Our Price: $18.95

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Synopsis
The author presents the stories of seven people who sought psychiatric help. "Each had been told the prognosis was very bad and that lifelong medication would be needed. Farber's presentation alternates between any one patient's account and statements by the mental health staff involved. . . . Farber {aims to} show that external factors were routinely ignored and that patients were not treated in a therapeutic manner, found no hospitality in institutions, and received no help in overcoming their problems. . . . He argues against both the psychoanalytic and the biochemical imbalance models of mental illness, maintaining that the 'so-called epidemic of mental illness is a self-fulfilling prophecy created by institutional mental health.'" (Booklist) Index.

A. Bernstein - Choice  
One cannot read too many good books about the state of the psychiatric arts. This is another of such 'must read' books for those who suffer from and those who treat so-called mental illness. . . . The book aims to elucidate and undermine the premises that lie at the very heart of the malignant system of institutionalized ideas in medicine, society, and law that have encrusted the concept of mental illness. The book can and should be read by everybody concerned either personally or professionally with the dignity and welfare of human beings.
 
Todd Lencz - National Review  
In this relentless book, Seth Farber argues that psychiatrists are no less than totalitarian jailers, social enforcers charged with the duty of incarcerating nonconformists. . . . With his critique of the mental-health system, he might have served as a gadfly, defending individual liberty and questioning society's unswerving faith in 'science.' He does this, but can't stop himself from going too far. Farber is a revolutionary, it turns out, and rejects a more balanced, comprehensive assessment. . . . In his eagerness to condemn, he misses the opportunity to engage in a more rigorous debate, for example on the failure of deinstitutionalization.
 
Table of Contents

	Foreword
	Preface
	Introduction	1
Pt. I	Lunatics, Lovers, and Poets
Pt. II	Heretics, Apostates, and Infidels
9	Critics of the Concept of Mental Illness	117
10	Rejecting 'Mental Illness': An Interview with James Mancuso	137
11	Psychiatry and Social Control: An Interview with Ron Leifer	141
12	Getting Off Psychiatric Drugs: An Interview with Ron Leifer	160
Pt. III	In Revolt Against the System
13	To Break the Silence: George Ebert Speaks	187
14	From Victim to Revolutionary: An Interview with Leonard Frank	190
	Appendix 1: Required Reading for Revolters	241
	Appendix 2: Why Deinstitutionalization Failed	245
	Appendix 3: The Network Against Coercive Psychiatry	257
	Index