, Research Paper

The societal theoretical account of mental unwellness emphasizes the societal environment and the functions people play. Thomas Scheff maintains that people diagnosed as mentally sick are victims of the position quo, guilty of frequently nameless misdemeanors of societal norms ; therefore the label & # 8220 ; mental unwellness & # 8221 ; can be used as an instrument of societal control. I agree with Scheff & # 8217 ; s analysis, and I strongly concur with the position Thomas Szasz takes on the impression of mental unwellness. Szasz argues that much of what we call & # 8220 ; mental unwellness & # 8221 ; is a myth ; it is non an unwellness, but merely & # 8220 ; jobs in populating & # 8221 ; , problems caused by conflicting personal demands, sentiments, societal aspirations, values, and so forth ( Szasz 13 ) . It therefore follows that the widely accepted medical theoretical account of mental unwellness is inherently flawed ; that mental unwellness should, so, surely non be treated much like physical unwellness. Szasz is highly critical of modern-day psychopathology as a subject, reasoning that head-shrinkers are non benign professionals assisting to emancipate persons and better their lives by naming and handling mental unwellnesss, but alternatively act as agents of societal control ; hushing, stigmatising and dehumanising people who disturb the predominating societal order. Every society wagess conformance ; those with more serious jobs in life frequently do a really hapless occupation of conforming, and are punished consequently.

In Ideology and Insanity: Essaies on the Psychiatric Dehumanization of Man, Thomas Szasz writes that

& # 8220 ; on the one manus, by seeking alleviation from the load of his moral duties, adult male mystifies and technicizes his jobs in populating & # 8230 ; on the other manus, the demand for & # 8220 ; aid & # 8221 ; therefore generated is now met by a behavioural engineering ready and willing to free adult male of his moral loads by handling him as a ill patient. This human demand and the professional-technical response to it organize a self-sufficient rhythm, resembling what the atomic physicist calls a breeder reaction ; one time initiated and holding reached a & # 8220 ; critical & # 8221 ; phase, the procedure provenders on itself, transforming more and more human jobs and state of affairss into specialised proficient & # 8220 ; jobs & # 8221 ; to be & # 8220 ; solved & # 8221 ; by alleged mental wellness professionals ( Szasz 3 ) . & # 8221 ;

Szasz, observing that psychopathology has laid claims to increasingly larger countries of personal behavior and societal dealingss, goes on to state that & # 8220 ; the conquest of human being, or of the life procedure, by the mental wellness professionals started with the designation and categorization of alleged mental unwellnesss, and has culminated in our twenty-four hours with the claim that all of life is a & # 8220 ; psychiatric job & # 8221 ; for behavioural scientific discipline to & # 8220 ; work out & # 8221 ; ( Szasz 3, italics mine ) . In his position, today, peculiarly in the flush West, all of the troubles and jobs in life are considered psychiatric diseases, and everyone ( but the pathologists ) is considered mentally sick ( Szasz 4 ) . However, there is really small grounds back uping the popular position that for the most portion & # 8220 ; mental unwellnesss & # 8221 ; are mental diseases ; that is, of a legitimate biological, physiological, neurological or chromosomal nature. Alternatively, as Szasz writes, & # 8220 ; what people now call mental unwellnesss are, for the most portion, communications showing unacceptable thoughts, frequently framed in an unusual parlance ( Szasz 19 ) . & # 8221 ;

Szasz summarizes the kernel of the job in this manner: in modern-day societal use, the determination of mental unwellness is made by set uping a aberrance in behaviour from certain psychosocial, ethical or legal norms. The judgement is made, as in medical specialty, by the patient, the head-shrinker or others. Remedial action is so sought in a therapeutic-or covertly medical-framework, making a state of affairs in which it is claimed that psychosocial, ethical, and legal divergences can be corrected by medical action. But medical intercessions are designed to rectify merely medical jobs, and therefore it is logically absurd, Szasz says, to anticipate that they will assist work out jobs whose really existence have been defined and established on non-medical evidences ( Szasz 17 ) .

The look & # 8220 ; mental unwellness & # 8221 ; is a metaphor that we have come to misidentify as a fact, and it is for the most portion no

t a utile societal metaphor. Szasz claims that the thought of mental illness maps to befog certain troubles that are soon built-in ( non that they can’t be modified, he says ) in the societal intercourse of worlds ; the thought of “illness” is in fact a camouflage, a mask. Harmonizing to Szasz, alternatively of naming attending to conflicting human demands, aspirations and values, the construct of mental unwellness provides an amoral and impersonal “thing”-an illness-as an account for jobs in life. The lone inquiry asked is “What’s incorrect with the person? ” ( viz. , what’s the diagnosing ) alternatively of the deeper, more cardinal inquiry, “What’s incorrect with society and this individual’s function in it? ” Individual alleviation is the end, instead than any effort at social alteration. This alleviation is given in the signifier of a “quick fix” , normally medicine which may ( but surely non ever ) provide diagnostic alleviation, assisting to command -not cure- the job, chanting down or extinguishing the more acute symptoms of the “disease” ( Awake 7 ) .” This manner of intervention is non wholly bad ; I’ll admit that medical intervention that may offer diagnostic alleviation is better than no intervention at all. But this intercession is merely that ; an intercession. It is non a “cure” for mental “illness.”

The right intercession would be non to medicalize mental jobs, as we have done, but to turn to the societal and normative causes of these jobs. To believe of mental unwellness as & # 8220 ; unwellness & # 8221 ; is to overlook the simple fact that & # 8220 ; human dealingss are inherently fraught with troubles & # 8221 ; , as Szasz acknowledges, & # 8220 ; and to do them even comparatively harmonious requires much forbearance and difficult work ( Szasz 20 ) . & # 8221 ; So what, if anything, can be done? To set it merely, what is it about life in our society that makes so many people depressed or drives them nuts? If 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 people in our state suffer from a & # 8220 ; mental unwellness & # 8221 ; at one clip or another, so something is basically incorrect with the manner we live, the manner we have organized our society. I can non suggest a solution for each societal ailment that causes so many jobs in life, but to get down with we surely could do some cardinal alterations in the manner we think about mental unwellness.

Do people necessitate to be drugged, medicated for jobs in life that are non-medical in nature? They shouldn & # 8217 ; t. Do they necessitate to be imprisoned in infirmaries, isolated and dehumanized as perverts? They shouldn & # 8217 ; t. Modern psychopathology in its present province can & # 8217 ; t truly be portion of the solution, because it is portion of the job, neglecting to turn to the true nature of what it calls & # 8220 ; mental illness. & # 8221 ; A massive inspection and repair and refocus of the psychiatric field in the proper way is extremely improbable, if non perfectly implausible. The focal point should be on listening, speaking and understanding, non labeling, naming and medically & # 8220 ; treating. & # 8221 ; Szasz asks if the end of psychopathology is the promotion of cognition in understanding human behaviour ; or the ordinance of misconduct and therefore the control of human behaviour? ( Szasz 10 ) . Psychiatry & # 8217 ; s end, every bit good every bit ours as a society, must be the former. Alternatively of seeking to theorize as to the malfunctioning in their encephalons, we should seek to place and understand the malfunctioning in their lives, nevertheless difficult that may be. Possibly in seeking to understand and decently handle what is known as mental unwellness, we should give some credibleness and duty back to those who are labeled & # 8220 ; mentally ill, & # 8221 ; looking to them for thoughts, for suggestions, for counsel. Those who have more terrible jobs in life ( every bit good as their households and/or friends ) may cognize more about their quandary than those who do non, and may be able to suggest, indirectly or straight, redresss that may relieve their unfortunate predicament.

/Bibliography

Awake! Magazine. & # 8220 ; Hope for the Mentally Ill. & # 8221 ; September 8, 1986 erectile dysfunction, pgs.3-10. Watchtower Bible & A ; Tract Society of New York, Inc, 1986.

Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted. Turtle Bay Books. New York, NY, 1993.

Szasz, Thomas. Ideology and Insanity: Essaies on the Psychiatric Dehumanization of Man. Syracuse University Press. Syracuse, NY, 1991