The problem with the Szasz/Spillane argument is not that mental illness isn't socially constructed — it is — but that it makes claims for "medical" illnesses that don't hold up, since they are socially constructed too. It is one thing to find a process in nature that is associated with what we name as an illness, another to say that process "is" the illness. It is important to understand that all definitions of illness are normative, that all sickness is deviancy.

The problem is that all medicine is dominated by a reductionist approach to disease — based in a narrow biological fundamentalism that ignores other factors in complex processes of causation, perpetuation and recovery. Instead of recognising the biological basis for illness — mental and physical — for the banal fact it is (humans are biological beings, after all, so even “problems of living” have a biological basis), medicine tries to use certain biological markers as proof that certain illnesses are "real". Szasz/Spillane merely perpetuate this philosophical error, allowing medicine to keep its crude positivist justifications unchallenged.

By falsely separating physical and mental illness, Szasz and Spillane are simply trying to effect a redefinition of current social constructions, not solving the issue of social construction itself. Thus, Spillane claims that forcible treatment only occurs in mental illness when in fact many medical illnesses are treated forcibly (or worse, with apparent but not real consent) by a paternalistic medical system, especially when patients lose capacity to give informed consent (itself never fully realized, even in those with otherwise “full” capacity).

For all the strengths of the Szasz/Spillane (libertarian) position in terms of pointing to the hypocrisies, silliness and repressive tendencies of psychiatry, it actually dislocates illness from its social context, and therefore also from social struggles over definitions and interventions in health care more generally.

Disclaimer: I'm a public hospital psychiatrist. For more on my position, see my review of Richard Bentall’s “Doctoring The Mind” here: http://web.overland.org.au/2010/11/beyond-antipsychiatry-the-politics-of-mental-illness/

Mental Illness, the next burgeoning industry bandwagon.

The major logical error with this reasoning is that it assumes that what is not physically defined does not exist. Were the author alive a few centuries ago, he could have denied the existence of many diseases on this basis.

Until the function of the human brain is fully understood, there is nothing to support such an opinion: And the widespread observation of mental illness pervading human history would suggest that there is a physical dysfunction as its basis. To think otherwise would imply either very little contact with people suffering unmanaged mental illness or delusional thinking.

you pretty much nailed it robert

but that cant stop of panel
of god-headed phyciatrists from locking you away..
or ordering that you take mind disordering drug regemes

the system goes rotten from the head down
the physical brain isnt nessisarilly..that disorded mind

""Psychiatry is..therefore,
that branch of medicine where diagnoses of 'illnesses'
are made in the absence of objective evidence:""

to wit physical damage to the 'brain'
thus.....""they are based,
not on what people have,..but on what they do and say.""'

or unable of describing
like not knowing the time/date
or who is pm...[its so easy..[too easy]
to lock away our old peoople..by asking dumb questions]!

""And if they act in ways that annoy,
upset or offend others,..*they may find themselves diagnosed as mentally ill and treated medically against their will.>>''

and their assets adminesterd by proffiteering trusteee's

""People change their behaviour with or without the intervention of psychiatrists or psychologists.""

change the peer group
or educate [civilise]..the man
his sepperation angsiaties must demisisn the true problem
[social miss fit-ism...gained from move/vidio gaming reality tranpherance]..yes i made that up

so what ya going to do
put me under 'section..XXvi?

""Such intervention is nowadays called 'treatment'
when, in some cases, it should be called 'torture'.""

look at the refugees...how are they 'coping'
under imprisonment regemes..run for private proffit?

""When these interventions produce acceptable changes in behaviour, they are called 'cures'.""

yet only one is under order to 'change'
the other thinks they are god[at hundreds of dollars an hour]

""The cure of mental illness,it is argued,
produces a state of mental health which is universally regarded as desirable.""'

so thus we get oppressive regemes
act like 'normal people do
or else..!

""But if..{PHYSICAL}..mental illness is a myth,
mental health is too.}}

for who is to deem this
or that..as being 'normal'

is simply having faith in god
a sign..[symptom of insanity?]

thus we victimise those only trtying to bring a thing
they believe to be true...[yet by the lable of madness
many dont even read their often lengthy proofs

[realise..THEY believe..it happend

how much more wrong..to make them convinced it never happend
better to redirect into a coping mechanism..

that says [shows]
normal coping skills[better egsamples]..from those who been there
but then normalised..them selves[you cant mandate free thought or freedom to act]

""Since the middle-1990s the term 'mental health literacy' has been used to describe people who endorse an illness ideology and so agree with biological psychiatrists who bemoan the public's alleged ignorance.""

absolute authority
corrupts absolutly

""Many attempts to reduce prejudice
against the 'mentally ill' have been based on the attempt to make the public think like biological psychiatrists.""

your a sicko
did you take your drugs today?

""This approach is based on the assumption*
that if you are ill..
your behaviour is beyond your control
and you cannot be held responsible for it.""

which works out cionveniantly
for those who run their lush money making system

[it wernt your fault..''herr ubermeister''
come to the mansion..we can restore you to your proper standing]

just that we now run your life for you
cause your clearly sick*

when can we accept that we each
built our own mind..from our life experiences
that some of these experiences are still primitive hangovers
that dont work anymore...

stop the name calling
and see we are all products of living..
and re-living..our life experiences

bad input
gave bad output
so stop putting the spin in

love your life
its the only one worth living

anyhow cheers rob

you
:..used genericly

A lot of mental illness in modern society is of so-called a nature only. Many experts are hood-winked by people who simply don't like discipline or don't get given what they want.
It is a very fine line indeed between that scenario & real mental illness. We must focus on the problem of exploitation of mental illness as much as on the problem of the illness.
I know of people in safe positions on $150,000.- plus/year being awarded three months stress leave yet some poor worker on less than a third of that, stressing out about the imminence of losing his job doesn't even get looked at.
All that at the whim of some incompetent mental health worker & a couldn't care less Doctor.