The Myth of Psychotherapy: Mental Healing as Religion, Rhetoric, and Repression

Thomas brings a point of view that is ....hummmm....shall we say, in your face possibilities of a orchestrated dumb down of the masses. I am in Mental Health an I wonder deep down, If humanity was left alone would it be better off? I think so and his point of view is refreshing. Accept and allow folks to be who they are and are not. By their own choices they will shift/evolve or they will have a short life span. I am in total favor of free will and he gives excellent insight as to why that is vital to our well being.

Freud is a fraud. Thomas Szasz's book is a remarkable read. He clearly shows that psychotherapy is a fraud and progressive belief is a religion.We have free will we need only exercise it and be free.

Slow to get started but then becomes entertaining.Author knows a lot and makes some interesting statements.However, the book gets repetitive at times.The book focuses especially on Freud and Jung.Would have been nice if had talked more about Carl Rogers and David Burns.

Innovative thinker, philosopher. He exposes the myth of the whole field and the importance of experiencing our feelings, not subduing them with mind-numbing, dangerous drugs.

Thomas Szasz has become a better writer since he wrote "The Myth of Mental Illness" in 1961. It is clearer in this book that he is just smearing psychotherapy than in the former book, where his smears are better hidden amongst erudite references to twentieth-century philosophy and other confusing stuff. That's why this book, although better written, isn't as brilliant as the former, in my opinion. Psychotherapy has posed an enormous threat to people who don't want their ego-compensations exposed. The power of the backlash against the discoveries of Freud should not be underestimated, and this would account for the enormous market for the works of Thomas Szasz, which are just pure anti-psych propaganda.