The Myth of Mental Illness

The author believes that what is nowadays accepted as mental illness is whatever psychiatrists say it is - and that psychiatry has, with increasing zeal, defined more and more kinds of behavior as mental illness. What is termed mental illness is in fact behavior disapproved of by the speaker.

First sentence: Since the modern concept of hysteria was cut from the cloth of malingering, and since the physician most responsible for establishing "hysteria" as a medically legitimate illness was Charcot, I shall start with an examination of his work; and I shall then trace the development of the concept of hysteria to the present time.

Year

1984

Language

English

Series

Perennial library

Publisher

Harper & Row

Editions

9

Pages

297

ISBN

9780060803308

Data source: Wikidata