antipsychiatry

School of thought derived from the ideas of US psychoanalyst Thomas Szasz (1920– ), R D Laing, and others, who have argued strenuously against the usefulness both of the concept of mental illness and of psychiatric treatment in general.

Szasz has argued, for example, that in most cases of incapacity due to psychological causes it is inappropriate to talk about illness. Not only can psychiatrists differ widely in their diagnoses, but it is also often difficult to determine whether someone is actually mentally ill. Furthermore, labelling someone as mentally ill can have unfortunate consequences owing to the prejudice that persists in society. Adherents of antipsychiatry see society as the cause of mental illness, application of the label ‘mentally ill’ as an attempt to cover up this fact, and treatment of the so-called mentally ill as a postponement of society's obligation to deal with the root of the problem.